Posted on 10/19/2016 7:39:21 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
OAK RIDGE, Tenn.,—In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol. Their finding, which involves nanofabrication and catalysis science, was serendipitous. Video follows.
“We discovered somewhat by accident that this material worked,” said ORNL’s Adam Rondinone, lead author of the team’s study published in ChemistrySelect. “We were trying to study the first step of a proposed reaction when we realized that the catalyst was doing the entire reaction on its own.”
The team used a catalyst made of carbon, copper and nitrogen and applied voltage to trigger a complicated chemical reaction that essentially reverses the combustion process. With the help of the nanotechnology-based catalyst which contains multiple reaction sites, the solution of carbon dioxide dissolved in water turned into ethanol with a yield of 63 percent. Typically, this type of electrochemical reaction results in a mix of several different products in small amounts. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
My personal thought is that if they can’t make that process cheaper than cracking oil into gas without some effing government subsidy like for ethanol, then they should STFU.
Just fill your tank with water and drop a pill in.
Voila!!!
Still technology meets the 21st century....the moonshiners are gonna have some competition.
Actually I could easily see how some alcohol beverage companies may want to leverage this to reduce process costs and better control alcohol content. Then it would just be a matter of how to appropriately ‘flavor’ it.
My personal thought is that they can take that ethanol and shove it up their rectum.
I am in the middle of tearing down every one of my small engines (weed wackers, leaf blowers, chain saws) to replace the fuel lines DUE TO ETHANOL.
Some of the informed commentators at WUWT.com have read the article and done the calculations to show that this is far from a viable anything. The nanocatalyst stuff is intriguing but in a far more basic way.
This joins a number of similar technologies going back six or seven years that I know of. Success would be making money at it.
All of these discoveries point out the low relative cost of oil, and that there should be no restraints on oil production because there are plenty of viable alternatives should oil TRULY become too expensive.
A lot of detail is left out:
I would think that it violates some law of physics to convert carbon dioxide and water back into a hydrocarbon, and use less energy than was yielded by the original combustion.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be difficult to build a perpetual motion machine.
My guess is that the process is fairly slow, and doesn’t produce great volumes of ethanol. If the voltage requirement isn’t too high, it might be viable to do this using a two-layer solar panel: the top layer is the photo cells producing the voltage, feeding a layer just underneath of the carbon-copper catalyst (maximize surface area) that runs more or less continually producing a small but steady stream of ethanol. Get a field of these going and you might have something.
It's not just a good idea... IT'S THE LAW!
To change a low-energy-state substance, like Carbon Dioxide, into a fuel, like Ethanol, energy must be expended. This process can be made more efficient through the use of catalysts, but you can't get something for nothing.
The energy will have to come from somewhere. It will probably come from the electric grid, which means it will come from coal or other fossil fuels.
So, if you draw the big box around the whole life cycle, you use electricity, which produces Carbon Dioxide, to change Carbon Dioxide to Ethanol. This Ethanol can then be burned to produce energy, which will release all of the Carbon Dioxide back into the environment.
So, the only question is, is the amount of energy released by the burning of the Ethanol greater or less than the amount of energy used to change the Carbon Dioxide into Ethanol. Unfortunately, it is an absolute physical reality that the amount of energy released must be less than the amount of energy consumed. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
So, in order to minimize the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the environment, if you're into that sort of thing, is to do nothing. This process cannot do anything but make the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the environment go up.
Haha! Kindred spirits... :0)
I cannot even begin to describe all the low life descriptions of its proponents are and the complete downside of ALL of it.
Nothing good or worthwhile comes from ethanol when there are other sources of fuel available.
This could solve energy needs in perpetuity. Or at least alcohol needs.
They need to find a way to use ethanol other than burning it. Ethanol is much dirtier than gasoline per BTU, hence per mile driven.
They need to find a way to use ethanol other than burning it. Ethanol is much dirtier than gasoline per BTU, hence per mile driven.
Hey DOE, I have a process for turning ethanol’s base material into methane. Any interest?
Now can I get a hat with a solar panel and this catalyst so that I can turn my own breath into alcohol and dump my old beer can hat?
The whole crux of the matter is that Oak Ridge is a government laboratory that is operated by a private company.
They, like all the other leech companies sucking off the government have to come up with new and exciting promising theories, processes and gambits to hoodwink politicians something worthwhile can be done. All horseshit that will prove to be just a big a boon as the efficacy of ethanol
And any user of ethanol in their car, lawn mower, yard tools, etc. knows what a crock of sh!t it is.
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