A team of British scientists say they have created fuel effectively from thin air at a demonstration plant in Stockton on Teeside in the north-east of England.

Pioneered by a firm called Air Fuel Synthesis, the firm uses renewable energy to make gasoline from carbon dioxide and water. It says the initial plan is to create petrol which can be blended with conventional fuel.

The firm captures carbon dioxide and water, then electrolyses the water to make hydrogen. This hydrogen is then reacted with the CO2 which makes liquid hydrocarbons.

The researchers say independent engineering analysis shows that a one-tonne a day production plant taking carbon from a source such as a brewery, distillery or anaerobic digester can be commercially viable and competitive with “equivalent specialist fossil fuels”.