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I hate to be the rain on parade guy, but... you are talking about chemical engineering that will involve working with gases like hydrogen, carbon monoxide and m
by semi-extrinsic 7y ago
I hate to be the rain on parade guy, but... you are talking about chemical engineering that will involve working with gases like hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane at a large scale. You're simply not going to be allowed to even purchase the raw materials you need in the quantities you need unless you are running a proper chemical company, complete with all the certifications and HSE work. The investment cost is huge, and requires a lot of specialized engineering plus the purchase of a suitable industrial estate that is large and has a wide safety zone against all surrounding neighbours.
If you're serious about this, I'd recommend reading Max Gergel's book "Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide", and then imagine what you would need to go through in order to start an operation 10x to 100x bigger than Gergel's in todays regulatory regime.
- ericvanular 7y agoIt's understandable that you'd need some oversight to acquire the materials. I wonder if it would be feasible to band together as a unified front to encourage an organization who is able to make this happen push towards reality
- cjbenedikt 7y agoI beg to differ. Based on IPs from Columbia Uni, NYC, we are a startup working on technology to produce green hydrogen from sea water and renewable energy. We received a NYSERDA validation grant and are on our way to pilot in the Port of Rotterdam in 2020. We are currently looking into the possibility to crowdfund some of our work.
- ericvanular 7y agoLove the sound of this. If you'd like to build your audience, we would be happy to follow your journey at Collective.Energy
- semi-extrinsic 7y agoCool stuff! Is it different from electrolysis? The way I see it, you're somewhat in a different ballgame since you're not buying explosive/toxic gases from anyone else. You're producing an explosive gas from seawater. Still, I imagine you need some pretty big safety zones if you're operating at scale, no?
- ericvanular 7y agoHey semi-extrinsic, cjbenedikt posted more about this on the platform. If you'd like, you can engage them there and drive the conversation forward!
- abraae 7y agoHa, yeah, I wasn't meaning to crowdsource a petrochemical company in my back yard. Not my forte, not that of anyone I know. I'd like to see environmentally aware consumers voluntarily subsidising a synthetic fuel company that would compete with the fossil fuel companies. If enough people would chip in, perhaps it could be possible to put pressure on the margins of the fossil fuel companies and drive them out of business.
- ericvanular 7y agoYou might be able to rally some support and feedback for this idea on Collective.Energy!