There are no major or minor studies required to do that,
if all those little green idiots would have paid attention
in high school-chem where it was explained like this:
Methanol: CH3-OH can be written as CH2 + H2O
Ethanol: CH3-CH2-OH can be written as 2 CH2 + H2O
CH2 is the chief ingredient of the fuel Octane: H-(CH2)8-H
H2O is water. -- The Molweights: CH2 = 14 -- H2O =18.
So in
100% Methanol we carry 18/32 = 56% water & burn as 44% fuel.
100% Ethanol we carry 18/46 = 40% water & burn as 60 % fuel.
100% Octane we carry 0% water and burn 100 % as fuel.
>
So, all you little green idiots you just don't know badly you are
letting yourself be fucked by the green sharpies who gladly let
you buy 50% water at $ 4/gallon at "gas pump"... ahahahaha...
because you and them believe in the green bible that says:
>
= "It doesn't matter what is true ... it only matters what people
= believe is true. -- Paul Watson, Sea Shepard/ex-Greenpeace, &...
= "A lot of environmental [sci/soc/pol] messages are simply not
= accurate. We use hype." -- Jerry Franklin, Ecologist, UoW, and...
= "If you don't know an answer, a fact, a statistic, then .... make it
= up on the spot ... for the mass-media today ... the truth is irrelevant."
= -- Paul Watson in Earthforce: An Earth Warrior's Guide to Strategy.
= "We make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little
= mention of any doubts we may have [about] being honest."
= -- Stephen Schneider (Stanford prof. who first sought fame as
= a global cooler, but has now hit the big time as a global warmer)
= "It is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presen-
= tations" -- Al Gore, Chairman, Gen. Investment Management Bank
and more here:
<http://groups.google.com/group/sci.environment/msg/c385a6d1f3f7f9dd>
>
But thanks for the laughs, guys!.... ahahaha.... ahahanson
Androcles wrote:
Seems to me that automobile engines waste a lot of energy
pumping nitrogen from nowhere to nowhere, heating it as it
goes, so why not use pure oxygen instead of air?
That way the fuel becomes less important.
>
hanson wrote:
The class 1 enviros and the class 3 enviros will sue you
over that but for different green reasons. But the class 2
enviros will be enthused and even steal that idea from you
as that could move'em into the big league, like the ETOH
did it for ADM. The Enviros will help you promote anything
that can be labeled green, be it a scam or not... ahahaha..
As I see it the following technical bagatelles will have to be
solved first.
>
-- Produce pure O2 at a price/cost that is smaller then the
loss from heating the Nitrogen... ahahaha...
-- Engineer the required engine alterations to accommodate
the use of p-O2, and then fuck the use of fossil or renewable
carbon fuels altogether. Drive with a zero carbon foot print.
>
You have a big time green winner on your hands, dude: You've
got now the ultimate eco friendly propulsion system. Buy into
the ongoing ultra green Hydrogen scam... and you are in like
green Flint... providing, as another green bonus, gallons and
gallons of precious & scarce clean drinking water as you drive.
The more you drive the better. Go for it man! Be Green!
Thanks for the laughs... ahahahaha... ahahahanson
.
Hey buddy!
As you know I'm not so hot on chemistry and my geology could so
with some brushing up, too, but I do have a question here.
We find fossil leaves in coal just as we find fossil shells in chalk (I have
actually
found one of the second but never one of the first, I don't go coal mining
very much). A perfect scallop measuring 4" in breadth and an inch deep,
an amazing find when I was chatting to old bricklayer while idly picking
at the rockface. He's now long dead, although his beautiful Kent Ragstone
wall is still standing, holding back the chalk from crumbling with frost and
rain
eroding the bank and making an unsightly mess.
http://tinyurl.com/2nfwlo
http://www.favonius.com/romans/points_arising.htm
There was nothing of the shell itself, just the shape.
I gave it to the local museum but they did not seem overly impressed,
even if I was, but then we do have a plethora of calcium carbonate:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/290719612_5a27cbaf61.jpg
Anyway, here's my question.
If coal (of which we are NOT running out, there is oodles of it left and
easily accessible, whatever Willie Wonka says) is fossilized timber or peat,
where the hell does oil come from? Is it processed from coal by heat
and pressure from sedimentary rock and/or metamorphic/igneous rock
above it, or is there some other process that takes what is essentially
a biosphere product underground? Is it even a biosphere product?
I'm lost here, I just don't know.
Ok, thanks, that satisfies my curiousity. Keep up the honest day's work,
I've just had a letter from Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency telling
me I'm losing my truck license on medical grounds so that's the last
of the honest day's work for me. Not that I've driven anything in the last
few years but it was fun for a while and better than tapping a keyboard
for a living, even if it didn't pay as well. I miss never getting to drive a
train but we can't have everything.
Here are the reserves still existing;
Oil: 1.2 billion barrels
Gas: 1.2 billion barrels oil equivalanet (heat value)
Coal: 4.8 billion barrels oil equivalent (heat value)
Here are the annual flows
Oil: 28.2 billion barrels
Gas: 17.2 billion barrels oil equivalent
Coal: 19.0 billion barrels oil equivalent
Life span (constant production assumed)
Oil: 45 years
Gas: 72 years
Coal: 252 years
These are oft-quoted. What is not counted are
a) natural reduction in output as we pass the peak output for Earth.
b) increasing rates of consumption
c) limited supply of air to burn all this stuff
d) efficiencies of converting gas and coal to liquid fuels
Demand for energy rises by 4% per year world wide. In less developed
regions this can be as high as 10% per year. China and India, have
maintained increases in demand in the 9% range for a decade. So,
lets crank in a 7% rise over the next 30 years and see what happens -
meanwhile - using a logistic production curve for oil coal and natural
gas based on their initial complement before industry got started - we
can see what the situation is.
Coal is assumed to peak in 2200, Natural gas in 2095, and oil in 2025
- which are high estimates of reserves. Demand is based on 7% per
annum growth - that's the growth rate in supply that would result in
stable prices for energy with a slight downward trend;
PRODUCTION DEMAND
YEAR COAL OIL GAS COAL OIL GAS
2004 19.1 28.4 17.3 19.13 28.40 17.26
2011 20.9 30.1 19.2 20.47 30.39 18.47
2018 22.8 31.3 21.2 21.90 32.52 19.76
2025 24.9 31.9 23.2 23.44 34.79 21.14
2032 27.1 31.9 25.4 25.08 37.23 22.62
2039 29.4 31.3 27.5 26.83 39.83 24.21
2046 31.9 30.1 29.6 28.71 42.62 25.90
2053 34.6 28.4 31.6 30.72 45.60 27.71
2060 37.4 26.3 33.5 32.87 48.80 29.65
2067 40.4 24.0 35.2 35.17 52.21 31.73
2074 43.4 21.6 36.6 37.63 55.87 33.95
2081 46.7 19.1 37.7 40.27 59.78 36.33
2088 50.0 16.7 38.5 43.09 63.96 38.87
2095 53.4 14.5 38.9 46.10 68.44 41.59
Now we can compute the differences between production and demand to
determine if downward or stable prices may be sustained;
DIFFERENCE CONVERSION REVISED
YEAR COAL OIL GAS CTL GTL OIL
2004 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 28.40
2011 0.43 (0.29) 0.69 0.22 0.34 30.66
2018 0.91 (1.21) 1.39 0.45 0.70 32.46
2025 1.43 (2.86) 2.08 0.71 1.04 33.69
2032 1.99 (5.29) 2.73 0.99 1.36 34.29
2039 2.58 (8.53) 3.28 1.29 1.64 34.24
2046 3.21 (12.52) 3.69 1.61 1.84 33.55
2053 3.86 (17.20) 3.89 1.93 1.95 32.28
2060 4.52 (22.47) 3.83 2.26 1.91 30.50
2067 5.18 (28.20) 3.43 2.59 1.71 28.31
2074 5.81 (34.30) 2.63 2.91 1.32 25.79
2081 6.40 (40.66) 1.37 3.20 0.69 23.01
2088 6.92 (47.22) (0.40) 3.46 20.21
2095 7.34 (53.93) (2.73) 3.67 18.18
So, we have surplus coal and natural gas in this scenario. We can
convert natural gas to liquid fuels by converting methane to methanol
through partial oxidation, and then dehydrating methanol to form iso-
octane. This is the mobil gas to liquids process. About half the
energy in the natural gas is available in the form of the liquid
fuel.
We can also convert coal to liquid fuels using the Fischer-Tropsch
process. Here about half the energy again is available in the form of
liquid fuels made in this way. So, we take the excesses available to
us in the form of coal and natural gas, and convert that to liquid
fuels to make up the short fall.
This makes up the difference and allows stable prices through 2060.
Beyond 2060 if we are to maintain stable growth in our economy we need
an alternative. That alternative is likely to be nuclear - the
Generation 4 nuclear reactor is a high temperature reactor that
converts water to hydrogen by thermolytic processes, and uses that
hydrogen directly, or with coal to produce hydro-carbons.
This was proposed as far back as the Johnson Administration, in 1964,
and then again by the Carter Administration - until Three Mile Island,
China Syndrome, and Chernobyl removed nuclear from the table. The
Nixon Administration established the present regime of rogue states
among oil rich countries, and sought to manage the increase to
maintain stable albeit high prices.
This ushered in the age of high priced energy and the dominance of the
Middle East politics over our national policy.
The Generation 4 nuclear program is slated to introduce working
systems around 2040 time frame, and be ready to go by 2060 in a major
way - 100 years after it was first possible - which is pretty damn
lucky for the oil gas and coal companies. I mean, if we introduced
Generation 4 reactors back in the 1960s rather than wait until the
2060s- why they'd be stuck with useless hydrocarbons - that would
undermine the value of both hydrocarbons and synfuels. Of course by
waiting 100 years, the hydrocarbons are sold off at a high price, and
a high price is established for synfuels going in - its win win
between Exxon/Shell and GE/Westinghouse.
OF course the cost to the global community in higher energy prices and
the reduction in capital formation and living standards and so forth
over this century, isn't counted in this analysis.
Here's the plan;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor
Here's where it came from;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor
Here's an overview of fossil fuels;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel
http://daily.stanford.org/article/2001/6/6/geologistDiscussesFossilFuel
Here's a more in-depth analysis
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=aWHtMb2rBT0C&dq=geology+of+fossil+fuels&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=2h3WAw5Hzu&sig=CLgV0OkCUo-5sblLGXzuaDM51Bg#PPP1,M1
Here's an industry blurb - you can go fossil hunting at a coal mine!
http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/fossilfuels.htm
We still to Gas To Liquid, and use Solar Assisted Bergius for Solar
CTL. This takes us through 2030 - and allows us to produce 8% of the
world's energy supply by then. After that, I intend to displace
natural gas and coal with hydrogen by direct substitution - burning
hydrogen wherever these fuels are used. Then using the gas and coal
saved to produce hydrocarbon liquids with solar assisted process.
DIFFERENCE CONVERSION
YEAR COAL OIL GAS Solar CTL GTL Total Difference
2004 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
2011 0.43 (0.29) 0.69 0.86 0.34 1.21 0.92
2018 0.91 (1.21) 1.39 1.81 0.70 2.51 1.30
2025 1.43 (2.86) 2.08 2.85 1.04 3.89 1.04
2032 1.99 (5.29) 2.73 3.97 1.36 5.34 0.05
2039 2.58 (8.53) 3.28 5.17 1.64 6.81 (1.72)
2046 3.21 (12.52) 3.69 6.42 1.84 8.27 (4.26)
2053 3.86 (17.20) 3.89 7.72 1.95 9.67 (7.54)
2060 4.52 (22.47) 3.83 9.04 1.91 10.96 (11.51)
2067 5.18 (28.20) 3.43 10.36 1.71 12.07 (16.13)
2074 5.81 (34.30) 2.63 11.63 1.32 12.94 (21.36)
2081 6.40 (40.66) 1.37 12.81 0.69 13.49 (27.17)
2088 6.92 (47.22) (0.40) 13.85 13.85 (33.37)
2095 7.34 (53.93) (2.73) 14.68 14.68 (39.25)
This provides room for 42 solar-CTL plants by 2030 with 8% of the
market. A quantum leap is possible with technology (bandgap matched
solar pumped lasers on orbit increase output of solar panel arrays by
16x) to begin shipping massive quantities of hydrogen gas and liquids
along with massive quantities of hydrocarbons (about 30% of the total)
to undercut existing suppliers by that time and shift the market
toward hydrogen.
My approach which augments the coal-to-liquids process with hydrogen,
and displaces conventional fossil fuel in thermal generators with
hydrogen - allows continued expansion and a gradual conversion to
hydrogen generally over the next 40 years.
That's it.
Your stuff is bogus. Its not supported by the scientific evidence or
the experience of folks in the field looking for new sources of oil
and gas and coal.
you are proceeding from a misapprehension. You assume I am motivated
by environmental concerns. While these are important, they are not
central to my thesis. My thesis is that low cost oil is at an end.
We have a choice, cut back consumption or find another way. I offer
another way that happens to extend the period of low cost oil, and set
the stage for even lower cost hydrogen beyond the oil age - while
providing an easy transition between the two.
Nothing you say really addresses these facts, since you seem to be
immune to facts, and more addicted to drama having nothing to do with
fact.
Why not go the whole way, and extract CO2 from the atmosphere?
--
Dirk
http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
Remote Viewing classes in London
All we need is a really good battery technology and within a couple of
decades oil would only be needed for aircraft.
Maybe not even then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_airplane
Anthony
Where does the energy to charge the battery come from? Because
right now, a good portion of it comes from fossil fuels.
David A. Smith
Where did lamp oil come from? It used to be whales.
What would the world do when we run out of whales
for oil?
Anthony
Solar PV
Plenty of sand and deserts
"Anthony Matonak" <antho...@nothing.like.socal.rr.com> wrote in
message news:482f5954$0$5181$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
Great story! Doesn't answer the question. A better battery gets
its charge from... what?
Then when we wean ourselves off of oil / coal for energy, can we
do the same for the chemical / industrial processes that
currently are based on fossil fuel? Plastics, cosmetics,
pharmaceuticals...
David A. Smith
"Dirk Bruere at NeoPax" <dirk....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:6997t1F...@mid.individual.net...
> N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc) wrote:
>> "Anthony Matonak" <antho...@nothing.like.socal.rr.com> wrote
>> in message news:482f1626$0$12974$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
>>> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:
>>> ...
>>>> All we need is a really good battery technology
>>>> and within a couple of decades oil would only
>>>> be needed for aircraft.
>>> Maybe not even then.
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_airplane
>>
>> Where does the energy to charge the battery
>> come from? Because right now, a good
>> portion of it comes from fossil fuels.
>
> Solar PV
> Plenty of sand and deserts
Yes, I see it right out my window. Going to be 105 degF in the
next day or so.
So "all we need" are distributed PV farms AND really good battery
technology AND inexpensive means to synchronize distibtuted PV
farms to the global power grid AND a global intent to implement
same NOW?
David A. Smith
PV seems on track for producing electricity at prices at or below
fossil. Battery tech has quite a way to go, but companies like A123 are
making good progress. Global power grid not needed - continental s fine.
At as for now, it will happen as it becomes economical, which (I
estimate) will be in about 4-5 years (although several companies, inc
Nanosolar, claim that they can match fossil fuel now)
Extract CO2 from the air, mix it with H2 and you have all the feedstock
you want.
Anything that can produce electricity, of course. We're already using
fossil fuels, nuclear and hydro. Wind and solar haven't even begun to
be used and no one has yet to even try to tap into the massive potential
of high altitude winds, ocean currents or biomass. Even further out
there are rumors about fusion and orbiting power satellites.
> Then when we wean ourselves off of oil / coal for energy, can we
> do the same for the chemical / industrial processes that
> currently are based on fossil fuel? Plastics, cosmetics,
> pharmaceuticals...
Yes. Several projects have already demonstrated the ability to use
vegetable oils as feedstock for various plastics. I don't see what
is so special about fossil oil (other than it's low cost) compared
to vegetable and animal oils.
More to the point, it may be that many of the things the world currently
uses oil and plastics for are just wasteful and not required. Plastic
grocery bags seem like a good example. Do we really need them? Some
countries have already banned their use and they don't seem to have any
problems because of this. Transportation is another example. Switching
from truck to rail for long distance freight hauling could save a lot
of energy and money. Shipping is another example. Why not use nuclear
reactors for those massive super-tankers and container ships instead
of burning oil? When they're docked they could provide power to the
local shipyard or city.
Anthony
And a lot of fun for Al Quaida
"Anthony Matonak" <antho...@nothing.like.socal.rr.com> wrote in
message news:482fd457$0$3373$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
> N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc) wrote:
...
>>> Where did lamp oil come from? It used to be
>>> whales. What would the world do when we
>>> run out of whales for oil?
>>
>> Great story! Doesn't answer the question. A
>> better battery gets its charge from... what?
>
> Anything that can produce electricity, of course.
> We're already using fossil fuels, nuclear and
> hydro.
... and solar and wind.
> Wind and solar haven't even begun to be used
... as much as they should be ...
> and no one has yet to even try to tap into the
> massive potential of high altitude winds, ocean
> currents or biomass.
Tidal generators and biomass both have projects underway.
I fear what tapping the jet stream or deep ocean currents would
do to climate gloablly. England and Japan would be severely
affected if these currents were altered. Those velocities are
high, because there is almost no drag...
> Even further out there are rumors about
> fusion and orbiting power satellites.
>
>> Then when we wean ourselves off of oil /
>> coal for energy, can we do the same for the
>> chemical / industrial processes that currently are based on
>> fossil fuel? Plastics,
>> cosmetics, pharmaceuticals...
>
> Yes. Several projects have already
> demonstrated the ability to use vegetable oils
> as feedstock for various plastics.
Yay!
Presumably we can harvest our H2 from other feedstocks too?
Economically, I mean. Not via electrolysis...
> I don't see what is so special about fossil
> oil (other than it's low cost) compared to
> vegetable and animal oils.
There are a number of things that are special. Fewer people in
the production chain, small variations in product quality from a
wide area, no significant blights, no sensitivity to drought. To
name a few. Only downside is it seems to form "dictators"... and
make the consumer into a slave.
> More to the point, it may be that many of
> the things the world currently uses oil and
> plastics for are just wasteful and not required.
Life is "wasteful and not required."
> Plastic grocery bags seem like a good
> example. Do we really need them?
Yes. Must we recycle *all* plastics. Yes.
> Some countries have already banned their
> use and they don't seem to have any
> problems because of this.
Their roads are also not paved with gold. In fact, they are just
like us. So it changed nothing, except that they gave on on
recycling films.
> Transportation is another example.
> Switching from truck to rail for long
> distance freight hauling could save a lot
> of energy and money.
About half of that is done that way now. As soon as time becomes
less important than money, the rest can change. Moving freight
eastwards in the US has a bottleneck in the number of lines, and
engines (etc.), available for transport.
> Shipping is another example. Why not
> use nuclear reactors for those massive
> super-tankers
... tankers no longer required in this future being cooked up ...
> and container ships instead of burning oil?
Freight cost goes up. You need highly trained individuals to
operate the reactors. And inspections. And maintenance of the
cooling surfaces. Tankers are sunk, run aground, etc. usually in
ecologically sensitive or populated areas. Same for container
ships. Now you will have even more radioactive materials there.
> When they're docked they could provide
> power to the local shipyard or city.
As long as the shipping company gets paid for use of their
nuclear fuel, you are probably right.
David A. Smith
Here are the salient points about energy in the USA;
The USA uses
6.8 billion barrels of crude oil per year
1.1 billion tons fo coal
0.3 billion tons of natural gas.
Replacing the coal and natural gas with 0.3 billion tons of hydrogen
and with an additional 0.1 billion tons of hyrogen and 0.3 billion
tons of oxygen - we create 7.8 billion barrels of oil from coal and
4.2 billion barrels of oil from natural gas - that when combined with
1.8 billion barrels of crude oil produced conventionally allows the
USA to export 6.0 billion barrels of crude oil from domestic
sources.
This allows us to work with China to supply their needs while
stabilizing our currency, and undermining the nightmares we've created
in the middle east. Meanwhlle, setting the stage for the eventual
emergence of a global hydrogen economy dominated by the United States.
Oil is down to $30 per barrel - and hydrogen is sold for $800 per
tonne - which is equivalent to this oil price. Gasoline is $1.50 per
gallon again.
Basically, we replace the control regime that failed on 9/11 with a
newer more robust control regime to re-establish US global
hegemony.
At the end of world war two we sought to control the retail and
banking functions of the world to maintain a dominant position in the
world. This derives from the fact that a farmer or miner who creates
a dollars worth of product sees that value increased 3 to 5 times at
the hands of a baker, or steel mill, and sees it increase 3 to 5 times
again 9 to 25 times overall - by the retailer who packages and
presents and finances the product to users.
So the US occupied a dominant position in this supply chain. The USA
exported manufacturing and farming and mining overseas, and reserved
banking, finance, and retail to itself. People would grow enough
cotton to make 25 tee-shirts in exchange for 1 tee-shirt, and other
people would make 25 tee shorts for 4 tee-shirts, leaving 20 of the 25
tee shirts to be on the backs of Americans.
We did this for one reason and one reason only. It kept all the money
in the hands of the Americans. So, Americans could spend 5 cents of
every dollar on its military, meanwhile, to challenge the USA, others,
as the former Soviets found out, had to spend 50 cents of every dollar
or more to challenge USA dominance.
This kept the peace during the cold war.
Yet, it created conditions that brought the terror attacks of 9/11.
Al Queda and the Taliban were supported as our proxies in getting the
Soviets out of Afghanistan - and as a consequence were trained in
tactics and military operations - which were later used against us.
So we need to do something different.
We need to use technology to get control of commoditiy prices. We can
do this first with energy. We'll do it later with other products.
Next with communications and food. In this way we can re-establish a
kinder gentler hegemony based on a philosphy of growth rather than
disparity.
Ahahahahahaha... AmeriKKKa is already being squashed like a bug.
AmeriKKKa is both incompetent and powerless. Uncle Sam can't even get the
water running after 5 years of trying, in a nation like Iraq.
AmeriKKKa is the most hated nation on earth, and rightly so. Even
AmeriKKKa's "friends" are telling it to go fuck itself.
No its not.
>
> AmeriKKKa is both incompetent and powerless. Uncle Sam can't even get the
> water running after 5 years of trying, in a nation like Iraq.
Why do you presume the USA wants this? Weren't we the ones that
knocked the water out in the first place?
> AmeriKKKa is the most hated nation on earth,
No we're not.
> and rightly so.
Utter rot.
> Even
> AmeriKKKa's "friends" are telling it to go fuck itself.
No they're not.
If you break the pills in half, and take them with some food - you
might not have these problems.
Now Willie, you being an emotional cyber nobody, I can & do
understand your frustration with the situation, especially when
your own president is as useless as you are in influencing or
changing and much less controlling the situation, because of
opposing forces within his own government.... ahahahaha....
>
So Willie, you sound very patriotic and that is commendable.
You are a good man, Willie, and I wish you good luck... to
remind you from time to time that NOTHING gets solved nor
resolved on the UseNet. This is entertainment!... And if you do
believe differently... cool!... because then you will become,
like VD Scotty, the butt of my jokes and a source for my laughs....
So, keep up with in your endeavors... and I wish you well.
> http://groups.google.com/group/sci.environment/msg/2084d8f1e6393226
> They have told you quite openly how cleverly they manipulate
> the fuel market ever since 1917. Back then they killed the first
> green (solar water heat) wave, by simply providing cheaper
> and more reliable energy: oil.... all the way to another cycle
> when during the Israeli precipitated oil embargo in ~1971/73
> OPEC's Sheik Ahmad Zaki al-Yamani (Saudi's oil minister)
> appeared for weeks on all the TV news- and Talk-show
> circuits in the US and openly declared that anybody who
> thinks that they'll be able to threaten the oil interests is
> kidding himself, ....because the moment anybody is
> becoming a threat to the oil boys they simply do flood the
> market with cheap oil and bankrupt the investors of/in/with
> green "renewable & sustainable" energy gismos.
> As soon as the "alternative energy" competition is killed off
> the oil boys announce that Peak Oil is just around the corner
> & the price at the pump and their profits go up.... ahahahaha...
I think they are going to be screwed this time around.
In S Europe solar PV is already price comparable with domestic mains.
Yeah, you end up with an attachment that looks like a big jet engine
powered by 30 grams of hydrogen per minute that sucks air in at 110
kph and ejects dried air out, and produces 68 liters of water per
minute and a half liter of premium gasoline every minute.
So, we've looked at that. You've got to conentrate the CO2 from
ambient levels, and process a helluva lot of air and that takes
energy.
CO2 constitutes 387 parts per milion in air. So, 1 kg of air contains
387 milligrams of CO2. A cubic meter of air contains about 1.2 kg of
material and 488 milligrams of CO2.
To move all that air, and remove the CO2 takes energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_capture_and_storage
It adds 25% to the energy costs of hydrogen minimum - our system isn't
that efficient.
We do it cryogenically. That way all you gotta do is compress the
air to about 160% ambient pressure, let it cool to ambient
temperature, and release the pressure to reduce temperature to the
required level to solidify the CO2.
You've got to remove a kilojoule per kilogram of air to reduce it by 1
K (or 1 C) So, to go from say 295 K (room temp) to 195 K (temp at
which CO2 solidifies) means you've got to remove 100 kilojoules of
energy per kilogram of air to separate out 387 milligrams of CO2 from
it. Use the cool air to cool incoming air to save energy.
Since you've got to handle lots of air, a continuous axial flow
compressor is well suited for this sort of application. You run it
with a DC motor driven by the solar panels if your panels produce
electricity, or use a hydrogen turbine driven compressor if your
panels produce hydrogen - which is what we did.
The advantage here is that you get lots of water from the air as well,
even in deserts. So, that's a valuable commodity in certain
environments. Even desert air has 10,000ppm of water. So, you
have 25 kg or water for every kg of CO2 produced even in the
desert.
The key to doing all this efficiently is to reheat the cool air with
the warm air coming in, that way recycling the energy and only having
to make up the enthalpies involved in phase changes as a first order
energy use.
If you don't need the water in the desert, you can reheat it and let
that vapor go to reduce energy use.
You use the Sabatier reaction to convert the CO2 to CH4
2 H2O + electricity ---> 2 H2 + O2
CO2 + 2 H2 ---> CH4 + 2 H2O
The water gets recycled, so you don't need to extract more from the
air - though you do need oxygen, to partially oxidize the methane to
form methanol, then dehydrate the methanol to form DME, Butane, and
finally iso-octane.
A combined cycle system that reacted CO2 and hydrogen at high pressure
- and drove the compressor with the waste heat from the Sabatier
reactor - would be interesting.
Our systems took about 1 kWh per kg of CO2 processed in this way -
which meant that 11 kg of CO2 require 11 kWh - when added to the 55
kWh needed to produce a kg of hydrogen brought the total to 66 kWh to
produce 2 kg of methane, which results in 1.7 kg of iso-octane.
That is, it takes 40 kWh of solar electricity from our system - and
considerable added complexity to produce octane from air and
sunlight. This rises to 80 kWh if you want 161 kg of water in
addition to the 1 kg of iso-octane.
80 kWh solar energy
14,000 cubic meters air
161 liters water
1.27 liters premium gasoline
So, in 1 hour of operation a 3,440 sq meter system (8 ft x 4,400 ft
string) produces 1,892 kWh of energy equivalent - which translates to
1,892 kWh of solar energy captured
331,100 cubic meters of air
3,807 liters of water
30 liters premium gasoline
At $0.60 per kilo-liter for the water is worth $2.28 per hour of peak
sunlight
At $0.60 per liter for the gasoline its worth $18.00 per hour of peak
sunlight
A little over $20 per hour of peak sunlight.
A 2 meter diameter axial flow compressor would have to draw air in at
105 kph to maintain production.
Producing straight hydrogen, without the complexity and cost of the
hydrogen turbine driven carbon capture system - yeilds 34.4 kg of
hydrogen per hour. At $2 per kg (by reacting it with coal, etc.) you
get $68.80 per hour
We didn't figure out how much it would cost to do in quantity.
But 4 hours of sunlight in the desert per day, produces 16,000 liters
of fresh water per day and 120 liters of premium gasoline per day.
This is enough for 5 families in the desert (both water and gasoline)
- the panels are the cheapest part of this. The most expensive and
maintenance intensive part is the jet engine looking big ass carbon
capture unit.
One can speculate about future developments...
Given that power to weight ratios of devices are better the smaller
they are (surface area goes as the square of dimension and weight goes
as the cube of dimension) tinier solar powered devices - if they can
be done cheaply hae much to recommend.
So, a highly speculative concept includes armies of intelligent UAV
harvesting the sky using solar power.
Conceptually the way this would work - with very low cost MEMs devices
- likely made using some sort of self replicating folding membrane
technology - (we're about 15 years away from that) - we'd have tiny
pairs of counter-rotating props about the size of a large flying
insect. Somewhat smaller than this
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rc-vtol/4221678142
A solar powered insect that would process the air required and fly
freely while accumulating air and water. Billions of free flying
units would fly above a city, and at night would deposit water and
petrol in subscriber tanks - while resting in hives overnight - to
repeat the performance the next day.
Farms could have delivered water fuel and fertilizer.
Regenerative fuel cells are already being built into electric aircraft
that are solar powered
https://www.llnl.gov/str/Mitlit.html
Yes, the solutions I propose are the highest best use for hydrogen
today. Hydrogen in the future will have other uses different than
today's.
Plant trees. The sun moves the air.
The best way of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere is living plants.
Meanwhile the Brazilians are destroying the Amazon Rain Forest.
Bob Kolker
I was looking for a way to get CO2 from air - there's a thread on
sci.chem - and came to the conclusion I couldn't do it in a cost
effective manner given the space and weight constraints. Same reasoning
as yours.
--
Dirk
http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
But never forget that every action that is taken in the real world
has unintended consequences... by courtesy of Uncle Murphy.
.... ahahahaha... ahahahanson
It's going to be a question of money v money.
The estimated market for domestic PV running matching mains electricity
costs is around 1500GW for the OECD nations by 2010.
--
Dirk
<snip>
You get points for putting V and Billie in their place. But you will
have to cite the source of all this excess production that you elude to.
There is cake, and there is eating it. If you have both, do point it out.
"Robert J. Kolker" <bobk...@comcast.net> wrote
> Plant trees. The sun moves the air.
>
> The best way of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere is living plants.
What. What. What. What. What??????
That's what Al Gore is doing. And as all KKKonsrevatives will tell you.
Gore is PURE EVIL,
<Willie...@gmail.com>
> No its not.
Oil 138 a barrel and rising. And AmeriKKKans are already shooting each
other at gas stations.
Ahahahahahahahahahah...
> AmeriKKKa is both incompetent and powerless. Uncle Sam can't even get the
> water running after 5 years of trying, in a nation like Iraq.
> Why do you presume the USA wants this? Weren't we the ones that
> knocked the water out in the first place?
Well the opposite concern is even more destructive to AmeriKKKan
interests. The opposite being that AmeriKKKa want's to keep Iraqi's
drinking polluted water.
Is that your claim? Shit Sucker?
> AmeriKKKa is the most hated nation on earth,
<Willie...@gmail.com>
> No we're not.
Truly AmeriKKKa is a land of self delusion.
> Even
> AmeriKKKa's "friends" are telling it to go fuck itself.
<Willie...@gmail.com>
> No they're not.
Which is why Saudi Arabia just told Bush to go fuck himself when he
arrived on his knees begging for a higher oil production level from the OPEC
nations.
Go fuck yourself Mookie.