Summary of the Unfactory
Next: Unfactory alternatives
Summary
Let summarise the Unfactory concept.
Energy generation is rapidly decentralising. With electricity, water and air as starting point, it is possible to generate syngas. Syngas in turn is used in the Fischer–Tropsch process to create a set of different hydrocarbons ranging from gases to waxes and crude bio-oil. This bio crude is similar to natural crude oil with the difference that it does not have impurities like normal crude. This means that cleaning steps like desulfurization or removal of metals like nickel are not needed.
The refining process of bio crude creates same hydrocarbons as refining natural oil. These are the core feedstocks of today’s chemical processes. Last step needed is to decentralise the chemical processes with flow chemistry.
In follow up posts, we outline what is today made out of oil.
The whole process shown in the diagram below:
Next: Unfactory alternatives