[backhoe]

One of the interesting things I ran across in years of reading, was how the British, in their colonial days, always set up an ice plant first, when settling a new area. It makes sense- besides preserving food with ice, cold beverages are a godsend when you are hot.

[taxcontrol]

Interesting. It would be nice to see how this might be useful in a home or off grid market. Natural Gas or Propane for the supply, and then using the cooling to air condition the home.

[dirtboy]

Very interesting article. Pretty slick - burn a gallon of fuel, generate power, get a gallon of water - instead of just bringing in a gallon of fuel and a gallon of water.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Cool!

[supercat]

Chemistry 101 indicates that burning alkanes will produce a mass of water greater than the quantity of alkane burned:

Methane	16	36
Ethane	30	54
Propane	44	72
Butane	58	90

The second column gives the molecular weight of the alkane molecule to be burned; the third column gives the total molecular weight of the water molecules produced (18 each). Each additional carbon in the alkane adds 14 to its molecular weight (including two for the hydrogens that go with it) and yields one extra water molecule (another 18 g/mol).

Since burning a gram of an alkane will yield more than a gram of water, one could save weight by transporting alkanes instead of water (in addition to getting, for "free", the energy the alkane contains). My concern from an economic perspective would be refining. Purifying alkanes to the point that their combustion products could be safely consumed by humans would seem more expensive than purifying them for normal energy-producing uses.