Is domestic fuel production feasible?

Swedish scientist Bengt Steen of Chalmers University pretends to produce a renewable fuel, by letting hydrogen react with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The hydrogen is to be produced from solar power, wind power or hydro power. Moreover, the technology is to be small-scale, housed in a container no larger than a refrigerator. An ambitious idea, but is it economically feasible?
Well, at least Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra) has some trust in the idea. Mistra will provide 4 MSek (approx. USD700000) of funding for the project.

Steen says that the small scale is "more" sustainable than current energy technology. But is small-scale fuel generation really sustainable? Or is the beauty of the concept more related to the somewhat utopist idea of everyone being energy independent?

This project still is at a very early stage, so it’s hard to comment on the financial aspects of this project. But small scale applications are often inefficient compared to larger scale ones. Further on, from a material point of view it is in many cases a waste of resources to produce a large number of small units for home users, than to assemble central plants. This is the case of many small-scale energy applications, such as anaerobic digestion, solar power and wind power.

Small scale may sound beautiful, but will it be sufficiently cost-efficient? Steen has an interesting challenge. Still, even if consumers would make a net profit from domestic production, this concept could still find a market in Sweden. Interest in domestic energy supply is high, as shown by a recent study. 68% of the persons asked reply that they are “very interested” in generating their own power (or own shares in wind power plants). Some legal obstacles remain however.

Morphic soon to ship pilot plants

Swedish energy technology company Morphic will soon start to market pilot plants of their hybrid wind power-hydrogen energy systems. Surplus wind power is used to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen can be used in fuel cells when the power demand increases (or for other fuel cell applications). Thus, the system is suitable for places where the conditions don't allow continuous power generation. Further on, the plant is compact enough to be transported on a truck or a jeep - making it useful in remote locations.

The capacity of the plant is not known.

Swedish aviation fuel cleanest in the world

The fuel AVGAS 91/96 UL from Swedish oil company Hjelmco Oil has been selected as the cleanest aviation fuel in the world, by Federal Office of Civil Aviation, Switzerland. "Clean", as in "low emissions", that is. There are other contenders, mostly based on natural gas. If similar technologies could be applied on coal, the economy could get even better.

Another question regarding the sustainability of aviation, is how to make use of renewable energy. Ethanol as an aviation fuel shows some promise. And where natural gas can be used, so can upgraded biogas. (A matter of time in Sweden?)
Hydrogen is not a sustainable alternative however, considering the current state of production technology. Far too much power is needed to produce sufficient quantities of fuel for long range flying.

Update 05/09:
Please check the comments regarding key difference between the fuels discussed in this post

Fuel cells operating on biogas

This is very interesting, in several ways.

It is one of the worlds first fuel cell systems where the biogas is used directly in the cell - without using a fuel reformer. The fuel cells are of the high-temperature type, and a provided by Acumentrics of the United States.
It is an interesting addition for small-scale, remote biogas systems. Even more interesting would be if the the system would be easily scalable, for industrial applications.

It is no coincidence that this takes place in Sweden, country of perhaps the world's most advanced biogas applications. This is partially a result of a quite advanced waste and wastewater management industry (which is a result of decades of strict legislation), government "climate change" project subsidies and and integration of the waste & energy sectors.

It is also interesting because it is installed in Hammarby Sjöstad, a part of Stockholm designed according to the Sustainable City concept. The area counts with several innovative and holistic solutions regarding waste management, energy, water and transport, such as energy from solar panels and a nearby wastewater & waste biogas plant, a car pool and a waste separation system. Although yet to prove itself as a real export success, the concept has drawn interest from countries around the world.