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It will make sense for nearly all transportation that can’t be directly electrified. The problem with batteries is that it is a massive resource hog, and one th
by _hypx 3y ago
It will make sense for nearly all transportation that can’t be directly electrified. The problem with batteries is that it is a massive resource hog, and one that is fundamentally unsustainable. It will have be abandoned. The only alternatives are ideas like synfuels or ammonia, but those require green hydrogen production anyways.
- _aavaa_ 3y agoThey are not the only alternative. Ammonia (a toxic gas) as a fuel is an insane idea and will lead to needless deaths. Efuels are incredibly inefficient. Hard to justify paying 10x the price. Ammonia or synfuels are not the only alternative. The elephant in the room, the one fuel that is being used today is biofuel.
- _hypx 3y agoBiofuels are not green. It is purely greenwashing since the production of biofuels is very carbon intensive. It is also very environmentally destructive since it takes a lot of farmland to produce.
- _aavaa_ 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol
- _hypx 3y agoWhen they actually start producing that in any significant quantities, wake up me.
- _aavaa_ 3y agoThey will produce it as soon as it's economically viable to do so. Until then, (government subsidised) corn it is. Which some will call simply farming.
- _hypx 3y agoImagine thinking corn ethanol is even remotely a good idea…
- SoftTalker 3y agoIt probably sounds like a great idea if you are a senator or congressman from a midwestern state.
- _aavaa_ 3y agoI'd appreciate if you at least tried to keep a non-condescending tone. I was merely stating why cellulosic ethanol is not the major source of biofuel; because corn is heavily subsidized and produces a cheaper product, hence nobody wants to buy the more expensive product. That's not a technical problem, it's an economic one. And the subsidies where to change we would see less from corn and more from other sources.
- _hypx 3y agoGovernment subsidized corn ethanol is an environmental disaster. If you hear it being brought up, you automatically assume the person is either confused or working for the corn lobby. Cellulosic ethanol is an idea brought up as a solution to the problems of corn ethanol. Ironically, by the George W. Bush administration. Unfortunately, nothing has materialized in any meaningful quantity. And FYI, they’d be subsidizing it heavily if any meaningful quantity of cellulosic ethanol could be produced. So bringing up that part doesn’t mean much. But cellulosic ethanol production never happened and so far there is no reason to believe it is possible.
- _aavaa_ 3y ago> And FYI, they’d be subsidizing it heavily if any meaningful quantity of cellulosic ethanol could be produced. I'm not so sure. That would introduce competition for the corn ethanol, and there's a fairly large constituency (those having their corn production subsidised) that would oppose this kind of measure.
- _hypx 3y agoBTW: Biofuels are ludicrously inefficient. Something like 1% of the solar energy actually ends up being usable at the end of the process. That’s not include all the other inputs like fertilizers or pesticides and the like. It is pretty resource intensive in reality. Which is why serious environmentalists reject them entirely.