Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Something to watch for. I see these parents shopping for their family, and they have entire shopping carts full of water in plastic bottles. I can only say I hope they know those don't have to go in the garbage.
That's interesting but the most important number which is how how much energy they are putting into the machine and how much they are getting out was not mentioned.
Yeh, that's the perennial question. Like a calorie derived from processing corn takes ten calories to make it. The more they make, the bigger the energy hole. Just for a relevant comparison.
It's just like anything else and this is the basics of peak oil, if you need to expend 1000BTU's to get 1000BTU's it's pointless.
The fuel being derived from this machine needs to have more energy than required to drive it. They show using this in third world country, where are you going to plug it into? A generator? That said it would certainly seem plausible to use the plastic itself as both a fuel and the feedstock.
It's just like anything else and this is the basics of peak oil, if you need to expend 1000BTU's to get 1000BTU's it's pointless.
The fuel being derived from this machine needs to have more energy than required to drive it. They show using this in third world country, where are you going to plug it into? A generator? That said it would certainly seem plausible to use the plastic itself as both a fuel and the feedstock.
The magic formula is when microbes do the work for you. Like when algae digest stuff, secrete oil,and then it can be processed out. Any mechanized "solution" assumes energy input, and I've not heard any that are efficient. Remember, all that fossil fuel was once microbial life. No machine created oil, gas, or coal.
The magic formula is when microbes do the work for you.
Since coal and NG aren't going anywhere in the near future as a practical solution the magic formula may be carbon capture and using that as feedstock for the algae. Any CO2 emissions from the algae fuel are neutral, your total emissions only include what came from the coal/ng prior to capture.
It's just like anything else and this is the basics of peak oil, if you need to expend 1000BTU's to get 1000BTU's it's pointless.
Well, not necessarily pointless. A net-zero-sum isn't bad for converting a waste product and power in one form into a portable or backwards compatible power in another form. It just depends on where the BTUs are coming from. Using coal to get the BTUs to make oil this way is a bad investment; but using solar or biomass to make oil this way wouldn't be a bad investment since we don't yet have affordable "off-the-shelf" vehicles and equipment that work on solar or biomass fuels.
Even a mildly lossy power conversion process isn't pointless if the power form you have isn't the power form you need to work with the application and appliances you have.
Since coal and NG aren't going anywhere in the near future as a practical solution the magic formula may be carbon capture and using that as feedstock for the algae. Any CO2 emissions from the algae fuel are neutral, your total emissions only include what came from the coal/ng prior to capture.
You're right. They aren't going anywhere. Not if we don't dig them up and spoil the environment in the process. Have you seen the mines in Wyoming? Carbon capture does NOTHING to solve the problem of what is happening there to get the profit. And I think people are giving themselves way too much credit in predicting what will and won't be used for energy more than maybe 5 years in the future. That's like predicting the economy in the US a couple months before Pearl Harbor. Its pure guesswork, and people never come clean after they are shown how dead wrong their clairvoyance was.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
