Will Oak Ridge "Save" The Planet With Science?

Carbon dioxide converted to drinking alcohol. Sounds like a win-win!

The ethanol can also be used in gasoline without further processing. Also useful if not quite as much fun.

How would this "save the planet"?

shhhhhhhhhhh. don't mention that methane is 23 times as potent at trapping heat before it eventually escapes to space. it messes up the fear tactics of the narrative they push so hard on the nonscientific general public

Stopping cows from farting would more useful then?

Yes and no!

Tell us how you go!

It would take more energy to collect cow farts than would be released by burning the entire cow. I say we hold a BBQ! Lyn is bringing the beer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUKolh8Q9hA

The fart car.

Fartvergnugen!!!

No doubt, thought up by a German. How nasty that must be!

...but if the ethanol is a storage medium, then it is destined to be used, returning the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere....The only thing I see to reduce greenhouse gases is nuclear energy....The new generation seems to lack the will to survive relying on organic vegan diets and crystal meditation instead....good luck with that....

What a racket....

Moon Beam Brown, in Califorincate, has a series of Carbon Capture taxes , etc, but, as was reported today, does not address the issue of Wine and Beer fermentation, which releases CO2 as a part of the process. He wants us to regulate cow farts and belching, but allows all of the fermentation processes in the making of wine and beer, to go unchecked. HMMM--Maybe these laws are being made under the influence....??? Maybe his Political Public gather much revenue from this Industry ($48 + Billion/ year, and counting), and cows don't vote....

Cows don't vote, and the dairy farmers and ranchers only get one vote per man, including all their hands. But city folks all get one vote whether they are here legally or not, whether they have a lick of sense or not, whether they got out of high school by graduating or just leaving, etc. Democracy is the only form of government that allows (almost requires) the weakest, most dependent members of society to continually vote themselves raises in the form of government hand-outs. This is what eventually leads to the suicide of all "pure" democracies. It is why we a form of government that is not a pure democracy, but rather, it is a republic based on representative government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and it will not perish from the face of the earth.

John Adams

“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”

Loyalist rhetoric....ask the democratic nations of the world...There are currently 123 democracies in the world of all 192 countries....

"The U.S. State Department regards democracy as a national security interest. Democratic nations are more likely to “secure the peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, protect American citizens, combat international terrorism and crime, uphold human and worker rights, avoid humanitarian crises and refugee flows, improve the global environment, and protect human health."...

http://www.borgenmagazine.com/many-democratic-nations/

I doubt any of them, or our government is a pure democracy. Most are in fact modeled after the British Parliamentary model. Democratic Republics are proven to be stable, peaceful, and fiscally responsible. Pure democracy is the only form of government where the people can and will vote themselves handouts until they bankrupt the country. Epic fail.

For these ears, the music they had was so loud and pulsating that it nearly obscured the speech! I certainly couldn't call it background music...

I wonder if some aspect of that process could be used to assist yeast...

I don't see a discussion of energy cost to make the transformation or the energy yield of the alcohol product. Sounds a bit like perpetual motion.

the spikes are on an atomic scale so it's just basic science theory being proven out VS a commercial model. I'd think a small solar cell could have been used to power dozens of the disks you see being held in the video.the method is the point here rather than the scalability.@65% efficiency I'd certainly continue to pursue the research.

That is fairly impressive at 65% efficiency if true. The fun part is that it represents sequestration (temporarily) of CO2 with energy storage. I suspect the energy density of any such scheme is necessarily somewhat low.

The best being touted by advanced high temperature molten silicon right now at ~1400 °C by using thermophotovoltaic conversion is about that. The big difference between molten silicon and any battery technology is about 40 times the energy density. One cubic meter of this can deliver about 10 MWh! Plans have even been made to put one of these systems in a vehicle as a power source. Amazing stuff.

Theoretical thermodynamic efficiency limit between 1400 and 300 C is what, 65.7%? If we change the numbers to K degrees, 1400K and 300K gives a limit of 78.6%

I have several questions about molten silicon energy storage I have not been able to answer for myself:\

(1) what kind of storage bottle exists for this?

(2) How long does it take to heat up (electric furnace type) from ambient?

(3) How long can it hold the heat?

(4) How the heck does the PV hold up to these extreme temperatures? Is it thermally decoupled other than a narrow wavelength range that is incident on the diodes?

I believe Spain is researching silicon pretty heavily, molten seems to hold promise

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/spanish-researchers-explore-molten-silicon-for-more-efficient-solar-energy/427970/

Molten silicon is a liquid metal. It doesn't need a pressure vessel, but needs very good insulation and likely a blanket gas, such as argon to prevent it from reacting to silicon oxides or nitrides. I was wondering how you get the energy back out to a useful form of mechanical work, as it turns solid when cooled and doesn't pump well.

one thing I like about James is his ability to read for himself. he's pretty good at it.

Yep, I done cypher reel gud. I jes' don't let them masters degrees git in the way uv a reel gud reed.

Seriously, though, do you use the silicon brick to fire a steam plant or something?

At one time I worked with the design group that used sodium metal as coolant in a reactor because it didn't need pressurization and had a really high specific heat, but it was kept liquid through the heat cycle. The only way I can see using silicon is to set up a heat channel and run it as a flash boiler. The down side being the hellacious thermal shock to the heat channel materials. Thermal shock was the machine killer in that sodium cooled reactor.

this might help

https://youtu.be/LMWIgwvbrcM

so on a near daily basis he sun adds heat which maintains the material in a molten state. its ALL solar

Just says it generates electricity via the heat engine and doesn't discuss the salt getting back. I'd assume they leave the salt at high enough temperature to pump after it comes out of the heat engine.

I give up.

the thread is about a new catalyst for converting CO2 to a useful fuel like ethanol

I am so sorry, I hijacked the thread there buddy.

a mere speed bump

Maybe we could use the ethanol to melt the silicon. Although I do remember an article from a couple of years ago for a fuel cell that used methanol and air to generate electricity. Kind of like Bender on Futurama.

ethanol might not burn hot enough, but burning it in a turbine works!

It's based on heat input, light output, then conversion of the light at high efficiency.

Not one moving part, no noise.

And it has nothing to do with nanomaterials turning CO2 to ethanol.

Thanks, Fredski! Mucho appreciado!

To JP: The researchers know how. AFAICT quartz might even hold this as a primary container, but I would be very afraid of it. I suspect carbon might form the furnace itself, with outer insulation materials all the way down past the turtles, and with a sleeve of silicon carbide to keep silicon reacting. Argon blanket comes to mind.

The light output window has to be solid at the temperature, but then there could be a vacuum jacket to prevent thermal coupling with the PV material, and dichroic mirrors to select the proper output of energy to the receiver (PV).

A slight retraction on my initial post. I missed the decimal point on the power density.

It was not 10 MW-hr/m³, rather it was 1 MW-hr/m³. This is in reference to storage of energy from renewables using molten silicon. It is still far and away above energy density of molten salts, and totally above the league represented by electric batteries.

Science is a tool, but like any other tool, it could be used for money leverage. When they all end up in those hands that graves for money with no regards to life, believe me all goes to ruin. Even if people and technology get smarter day by day.

The world is heading towards irreversible chaos.

But, would you believe if we haven't evolved to be this modern man, our world would have been better today? Probably, yes.

Beauty is relative but look how much environmental exploitation has been done with the reason to beautify self and surroundings. Good looks actually seems has no greater benefit. Don't you think?

you need high doses of serious meds, we do not do that here