Very different process, called chemosynthesis, and microbes have been doing it for a couple of billion years at least.  It uses the energy from inorganic chemical reactions to fix carbon.  It still has to split water to get hydrogen, but we don't have to expend electricity that we went to a lot of trouble to capture.  mcneely

---- Roy Nicholl <RNicholl@NBNET.NB.CA> wrote:
> There is comparable research being carried out by ARPA-e at MIT and other locations using non-photosynthetic microorganisms (extremophiles) to turn CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels such as diesel.
>
> On 09-Jul-2015, at 18:46, John Rodgers wrote:
>
> > Google for German Solar Diesel. There are numerous links to articles about
> > this! Even AUDI as gotten in to the act.
> >
> > John
> > On Jul 9, 2015 4:16 PM, "John Rodgers" <jrodgers113@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Recently, the Germans have developed a solar system to convert water and
> >> CO2 to 80 liters of diesel fuel per day. If you have a diesel van this
> >> could be a real boon. Thats approximately 20 gallons of diesel fuel per
> >> day! Given the additional mileage you get with a diesel the could be a
> >> wallet saver. You could run around a week on one days solar production,
> >> building a daily reserve of 20 gallons a day. By weeks end there would be
> >> enough for a serious trip and other things. Anyone looked into this?
> >>
> >> John
> >>

--
David McNeely