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Title: Oven rust: key to unlimited energy from sun, water and CO2
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URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet ... mited-fuel-power-anything.html
Published: Apr 15, 2011
Author: Daniel Bates
Post Date: 2011-04-15 05:43:34 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 125
Comments: 6
* Discovery raises the prospect of a very cheap power source created from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide Rust from ovens could be the key to making unlimited amounts of cheap fuel that could power anything, scientists have discovered. A team used ceria, which forms when ovens are heated, to strip oxygen from water and carbon dioxide and leave them with the basics of a liquid fuel. They said that potentially this fuel could be turned into cells which could power machines or converted into a natural gas for a generator. The discovery raises the prospect of a very cheap power source being created from just sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, some of the most plentiful elements on Earth. Vital resource? Rust from ovens could be the key to making unlimited amounts of cheap fuel that could power anything, scientists claim Vital resource? Rust from ovens could be the key to making unlimited amounts of cheap fuel that could power anything, scientists claim The process had been realised before but the new discovery is the first time that it could be affordable enough to have a mass application. The researchers from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said the most exciting part of the discovery was its versatility. ‘We are not dictating to the user what the energy infrastructure should be,’ said Sossina Haile, a professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering. ‘We are making solar energy easy to use by putting it into a form that our industry is used to seeing and making it available on demand.’ More... * Reading our minds: Scientists create computer controlled by the power of thought * Could man soon be able to breathe underwater? Scientists eye possibility of merging human and algae DNA The researchers used ceria, which is the oxidised form of cerium and forms in self-cleaning ovens, to make their discovery. The first phase involved heating the ceria to 3,000F (1,650C) using concentrated sunlight so that it naturally released oxygen from its surface. When the temperature was lowered the researchers observed that it sucked oxygen in - as if it were ‘inhaling or exhaling’ depending on the temperature. When the researchers added water and carbon dioxide and lowered the temperature, the ceria stripped the oxygen away, leaving hydrogen in place of the water and carbon monoxide in place of the carbon dioxide. Hydrogen, or H2, and carbon monoxide, CO, together can be used to make fuels. Professor Haile, said: ‘You could use the H2 and CO to make methane (natural gas) for a gas-fired electricity generator. ‘Or, because the fuels we produce are so pure, they could be easily used to run fuel cells, which generate power very efficiently.’ She explained that because cerium is 100,000 more plentiful than platinum, which had been used in previous similar experiments, it made the process much more affordable. She added that more tests need to be done to make it more efficient. ‘As a second step, it will be important to develop materials with even better characteristics than ceria,’ she told Physorg.com. ‘Ideally, one wants a material with a smaller temperature swing required as this will also increase efficiency. ‘In addition, if both the high and low temperatures can be lowered, the overall system lifetime will be improved. Better materials could result in a better process.’ Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/scien...ything.html#ixzz1JaBo1Gps
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#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Hydrogen, or H2, and carbon monoxide, CO, together can be used to make fuels. Their is an easier way. It's called an HHO drycell... People put up new youtube videos about their work in this field everyday. I myself have played with HHO..wetcells only though... I need some more parts to finish my drycell.
I think the floodgates are beginning to open. The late Charles Fort who wrote such books as "The Book of The Damned", "Wild Talents", and "Lo" once commented about the inevitability of an idea or technology whose time has come. His analogy was in regard to the advent of the Locomotive or "Train". It is basically that "when it is train time it is train time and not before". That is once an idea reaches a certain critical threshold it becomes impossible to hold back. The corollary is that before an idea's time has come it will be virtually impossible to get it accepted e.g., Br. Gregor Mendel's pioneering work on genetic inheritability of traits. For about 100 years after his initial work it lay on the shelf derided and gathering dust, and then the world caught up to him and it became common knowledge - one of those "everybody knows" things. In the last couple of weeks we have seen the introduction of the first cold fusion device, a new motor design which is several times more efficient that a traditional internal combustion engine, and now this. I'm sure that there are other ideas floating around out there. The Rothschilds/Banksters/US Fedgov Spook World have been suppressing new energy production systems since the 1930's and now it seems that they are popping up too fast for them to hammer them all back into the block. I am sure there are likely even more efficient means but this is a beginning.
Necessity is the mother of invention there certainly seems to be more movement in the alternate energy department. but maybe its not because the time is somehow ripe for them, but because they are needed desperatly. personally, I think it is hard to argue that we are not seeing a peak oil scenariop now. lots of todays problems can be explained, if you assume that we live at a time when cheap oil and energy is running out. as it has been discussed in limits to grow, for example. given that, the need for a different way to power our civilisation is clear. maybe human Ingenuity can save the day. if there won't be a easy to scale alternative to cheap oil, the future looks grim indeed. that might explain the push for research in what may have been regarded as whacky scince before.
I must respectfully disagree. "Peak Oil" is an invented meme to sell an agenda of artificially created shortage. Oil is not dead dinosaurs and it is available in great abundance. Not that I am advocate for petrochemicals as I do believe that there are alternative energy sources popping up which will hopefully obsolete that technology in the same way Coal Fired Steam Engines and Ships have gone the way of the Do-do. However, oil is an abiotic creation of internal geochemical processes within the planet and there is no shortage beyond that which is contrived to jack up prices and keep people under control. Abundant energy is a game breaker and so the Plutocrats who are busily stitching up their control of the planet do not want the individual independence from central authority that it would bring. That there is no shortage is easily seen when one notes that the Iraqi reserves are now estimated to be larger than the Saudi reserves and based on leaked information the reserves at Gull Island Alaska, which were capped and kept out of production, are as great, or greater, than the Saudi reserves. As well the amount in the Gulf is probably equal or greater, and that is before we talk about the fields off of the Florida Coast. No, the Russians have pretty well proven the Abiotic Oil theory out by drilling deep wells and invariably finding oil - although in some cases as deep as 40,000 feet. Oil is not a problem. The problem from the point of view of the Oiligarchy is how to keep the price from collapsing to 5 or 10 dollars a barrel.
I thought you might. No, "peak" is when the rate of exploitation of a given natural reserve is at it's maximum. While there very well may be more oil to get, there seems to be no way to increase throughput. Look here: You will see that roughly 2.4 trillion dollars were invested into crude oil production, both in 1995-2004 and 2005-2010. This investment resulted in a increase 12mbpd before, but now it's just the amount needed to stay flat. That is the problem. It's not that oil is somehow gone, but that you end up increasing input with dimmishing returns. It stops being cheap. As for the aboitic creation of oil, personally I don't buy it. But this is irrelevant to this disscussion. Even if we assume that oil is a renewable ressource, the rate of consumption is higher than the rate of reproduction, it will behave as a finite ressource. Think of it like whale fishing or fishing in general. Of course, there will be always more fish to catch. But if you end up with a fleet of fishermen sailing the oceans and you increase output and exports, you will be hard pressed to find enough to sustain your bussiness model. Of course, all you do is to wait for the ressource to be renewed. But how would you do that with oil? Just not drive for a few decades? As for the Saudi Reserves, they are probably over-stated. I do know that SA didn't make up for the loss of exports in Lybia. SA seems to be running at max production, their major fields are showing signs of decline and they are building up new rigs. As for your other fields, you better tap them now, so you can keep up production when one of the current oil exporters becomes a net oil importer. You need to develop them now, or you will see servere supply shortages. This new reserves seem to be increasingly difficult to harvest. Oil in 40,000 feet? You need to invest way more for the same return. It stops being cheap. Another recent trend seems to be shale oil. Same here, way more investments, way harder to extract. More energy and money needs to be invested, price rises. The question is how high the price can get befor we see the economy taking a big hit. Can the US work with gas at $4 a galon? $5? $10? Sure, there will be oil, but who will be able to afford it? Edit: My source for the picture can be found here: Our finite world
The problem though is the unstated premise your argument works from i.e., that oil producers wish to maximize production. I would contend that the situation is otherwise i.e., that the major oil companies are in the Oil Shortage business not simply the oil production business. As far back as the twenties and thirties what the major producers found was that oil was ridiculously abundant. While some deposits were more easily reached than others just about anywhere you poked in a drill you would eventually strike oil if you kept drilling deep enough. The Russians got very good at it and as I mentioned previously have drilled as deep as 40,000 feet, but they kept striking oil - in places where the dead dinosaur theory said there should be no oil whatsoever. So, the problem from the monopolist's (Oilogopolist's) point of view is how to keep prices and profits up. The self serving solution they came up with was to get and maintain control of the supply so that it could be throttled down so that the market was not flooded with cheap oil. Oil, Petroleum, has been found on every continent on the planet and generally in good abundance. However, by controlling and capping production levels at below a free market demand the illusion of scarcity has been promulgated and incidentally the price level maintained. "Depleted" oil fields in Texas are now, when checked, found to be refilling. That oil is coming from somewhere. That somewhere is deep within the planet where geochemical processes are producing petroleum. Hydrocarbons have even been found present on some of the Planetoid/Moons in the outer Solar System. So far as I am aware they never supported a population of either dinosaurs or fern forests. Oil is kept restricted because it suits the plans of the Plutocracy. During the Bush Junta there were several independent companies in Texas all set to build brand spanking new refineries but the Bush Junta, despite publicly decrying the Gasoline shortage, would not issue the permits despite the potential plants already having gotten state approval. No, "Peak Oil" is a multinational scam to control the oil production levels artificially and not as a result of a failure in technology nor the ability to pump enough oil to more than meet market demand. Were it not for the control element where it is used to control individual energy dependence and to drill into people's wallets for dollars I would not give a damn. However, while the original motivation may well have been mere money the goal now appears to be political controls. That I object to.
When the researchers added water and carbon dioxide and lowered the temperature, the ceria stripped the oxygen away, leaving hydrogen in place of the water and carbon monoxide in place of the carbon dioxide.
#2. To: Tatarewicz, Critter, farmfriend, christine, TwentyTwelve, Jethro Tull, James Deffenbach, Lod, wudidiz, HighLairEon, Kamala, Deacon Benjamin, all, *Devil Fire - Nuclear Alert* (#0)
#3. To: Original_Intent (#2)
#4. To: SkyRat (#3)
personally, I think it is hard to argue that we are not seeing a peak oil scenariop now. lots of todays problems can be explained, if you assume that we live at a time when cheap oil and energy is running out.
#5. To: Original_Intent (#4)
(Edited)
#6. To: SkyRat (#5)
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