Liquid fuel refining is big in South Africa, but it comes with a formidable carbon footprint. Local engineers are looking at how to turn the waste byproduct of our coal power stations into the source material to make fuel for cars and planes that will shrink the sector’s carbon footprint, writes Leonie Joubert. South Africa has two carbon emission challenges. First, the carbon dioxide from our coal power stations accounts for about half all our greenhouse gas emissions. Secondly, we’ve got one of the most productive coal-to-liquid and gas-to-liquid synthetic fuel (synfuel) sectors in the world. And while this fuel helps keep our transport sector moving and a little less at the mercy of international oil prices, it ratchets up the emissions profile of the continent’s most carbon polluting economy. One way of dealing with the emissions from the power plants, is to catch the carbon before it leaves a plant’s exhaust pipes, pump it into some kind of subterranean landfill, and keep it locked away there indefinitely. The problem with this kind of carbon … Continue reading Turning carbon waste into liquid fuel