OT of an OT: Ethanol

[Fyron]

This thread was more interesting when it was about ethanol. Oh well.

[Atrocities]

I think the topic of ethanol was about ran dry. But your right, it was more interesting than it is now.

[Renegade 13]

Imperator Fyron said:
This thread was more interesting when it was about ethanol. Oh well.

Problem is, ethanol has already been thrashed to death. Neat idea, might work on a small scale to reduce overseas oil exports, not feasible as a large-scale oil replacement. Bring on hydrogen!

[Phoenix-D]

Renegade 13 said:
Problem is, ethanol has already been thrashed to death. Neat idea, might work on a small scale to reduce overseas oil exports, not feasible as a large-scale oil replacement. Bring on hydrogen!

Hydrogen isn't an energy source. You have to produce it, either by cracking water or other slightly more complicated methods. Either way you need power to do it, which leads right around to the same problem..

[Atrocities]

Rest assured there are a lot of people, most of whom who are far more intelligent than any of us, working on the problem of alternative fuel sources. I will put my faith in their hands, as they stand the best chance at cracking this problem.

[Hunpecked]

Here's a report of a pre-processing step that supposedly makes production of ethanol from corn more economical:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-nps032006.php

[geoschmo]

Phoenix-D said:
Hydrogen isn't an energy source. You have to produce it, either by cracking water or other slightly more complicated methods. Either way you need power to do it, which leads right around to the same problem..

This is true, but it's true for any sort of liquid fuel. Even the energy in oil came from the sun originally through the plants and the animals that ate the plants.

We aren't talking about creating energy here, just converting it from one form to another. Nuclear, solar, wind, and all the others are possible solutions for our electric needs long term when the supply of oil is gone, but unless we can come up with a practical means to store the electricity and recharge that storage quickly electricity will have limited uses as a vehicle fuel.

All forms of conversion have losses. The question is coming up with the most efficent means of conversion possible.

[Thermodyne]

I guess I’ll play the smart ***.

What about when you fuse hydrogen into helium? That gives you energy. And fuel is just stored energy, so wouldn’t hydrogen be fuel? I guess deuterium would be high test and cost more too

[Renegade 13]

Thermodyne said:
What about when you fuse hydrogen into helium? That gives you energy. And fuel is just stored energy, so wouldn’t hydrogen be fuel? I guess deuterium would be high test and cost more too

Ah why don't we just jump straight from fossil fuels to fusion! Deuterium-Tritium fusion should produce a lot of energy. Just never mind the really bad induced radioactivity of the fusion plant materials from the high neutron flux!

[Thermodyne]

Renegade 13 said:

Just never mind the really bad induced radioactivity of the fusion plant materials from the high neutron flux!

That’s why we plan to put them all in Canada