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Three important questions remain unanswered: 1) How expensive is the equipment to produce this synthetic gasoline? 2) How pollutant is the process? 3) What i
by BoppreH 16y ago
Three important questions remain unanswered:
1) How expensive is the equipment to produce this synthetic gasoline?
2) How pollutant is the process?
3) What is the energy yield compared to the oil-based gasoline?
- pqs 16y agoAlso, how much energy we need to create this new gasoline. Do we need to burn petrol to obtaine energy to make it? At the end, the article compares this gasoline with electricity, meaning that electric cars don't polute when consuming energy, but this energy must be created before somewhere, using oil, coal or uranium. So, what do we need in raw materials and in energy to create a liter of this new gasoline?
- DennisP 16y agoUse breeder reactors and we'll have all the energy we need. Breeders with integral fuel cycles have little proliferation risk, fairly short-lived nuclear waste in small quantities, and extremely good passive safety. They can be fueled by the waste from light-water plants, and there's enough of that sitting around to last us a couple centuries. We had one working in the 90s and Clinton shut it down. (Source: Prescription for the Planet by Tom Blees)
- noonespecial 16y agoI definitely got the feeling its another of those pie-in-the-sky research projects we hear about and wonder a decade later what ever became of them. Sure the gas could cost a dollar-fifty but its $500/oz right now and it assumes limitless free hydrogen to encapsulate in our nano-thingees. But hey it could happen right? Forgive me my cynical skepticism, but call me when its at the gas pump.
- Swannie 16y agoHmm, I'm not so cynical. The research has been done by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. These guys are just down the road from Oxford University. The facility it one of the top research facilities in the UK. That gives these claims some weight. Whilst the price is probably "back of envelope", I'm pretty sure the science is sound.
- quanticle 16y agoThe principle might be sound, but I'm skeptical about the yield. Lots of chemical processes work at small scales but fail when they're implemented at full refinery/chemical plant scale. This is doubly true for nanotechnology. They've demonstrated that the process works at small scales. Whether it'll scale sufficiently to work in a refinery is anyone's guess.
- dmlorenzetti 16y agoA conventional further objection to using hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles is its low (relative to gasoline) energy content per gallon. According to Richard Muller's "Physics for Future Presidents," even in liquid form hydrogen has about 1/3 the energy per volume. Muller also notes that storing liquid hydrogen requires a much stronger, heavier tank than for gasoline. Maybe these "micro-beads" can contain liquid hydrogen, given the researchers' claim they can use their fuel in an unmodified car. In that case, look for 1/3 the range. If instead their microbeads contain compressed hydrogen gas, Muller estimates a car could go in the neighborhood of 10-50 miles between fill-ups.
- vhackish 16y agoAlso I'm curious what it is made from - the atoms have to come from somewhere, right?