They fib when they report how much electricity is used "to reduce protons to hydrogen gas." It's the deal breaker, energy-wise. The process consumes more energy than it produces.
That being said, I think all of the chemical steps make sense. Many of them are old -- some invented by the Germans under wartime shortages. The process is energy intensive, but convenient for generating fuels on board say an aircraft carrier with limitless (nuclear) electricity. This could change supply line logistics in favorable ways.
"My men can boil and eat their belts, but my tanks need gas" ~ General George S. Patton
The Germans were doing synthetic fuels back in the day. You can, with enough effort, make fuels. But they were not easy or economical. For an aircraft carrier, so what, the key is logistics and making sure you can generate sufficient amount to feed those jets, not economics (with the economies of those things, jet fuel at $6 a gallon is not a big deal). But this article suggests something far more than that.
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They fib when they report how much electricity is used "to reduce protons to hydrogen gas." It's the deal breaker, energy-wise. The process consumes more energy than it produces.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think all of the chemical steps make sense. Many of them are old -- some invented by the Germans under wartime shortages. The process is energy intensive, but convenient for generating fuels on board say an aircraft carrier with limitless (nuclear) electricity. This could change supply line logistics in favorable ways.
ReplyDelete"My men can boil and eat their belts, but my tanks need gas" ~ General George S. Patton
The Germans were doing synthetic fuels back in the day. You can, with enough effort, make fuels. But they were not easy or economical. For an aircraft carrier, so what, the key is logistics and making sure you can generate sufficient amount to feed those jets, not economics (with the economies of those things, jet fuel at $6 a gallon is not a big deal). But this article suggests something far more than that.
DeleteAs with a lot of things, all the components are there, the right somebody just has to come up with a way of making cheap.
ReplyDeleteBefore the enviro-nuts find a way to hate it.
Snake oil isn't cheap.
ReplyDeleteSnake oil can, with the right hype, generate some pretty good grants.
DeleteThey both could not, would not, or did not want to reproduce their results. No one else could either. Therein lies the problem.
ReplyDelete