Nataraja

http://www.discover.com/may_03/gther...e=featoil.html

Interesting, at the very least. I have a feeling that these guys are set to become very, very rich.

Godot

One hell of a fabulous idea they have there. Sure goes a long way towards sustainability! Though the article is the first time I've seen HCl Desribed as "relatively benign."

(not to derail your thread) In a tangentially related field, I recall reading about a local farmer that is using a potato milk produced in the processing of potatoes into fries to feed his livestock during the drought. Anything that reduces the ecological footprint while remaining econimically viable gets my vote.

Majestyk

Very exciting possibilities.

I've only one concern. The more oil we have access to, the more oil we will burn.

I've actually been looking forward to dwindling oil reserves to force us into developing cleaner renewable energy sources, hydrogen, specifically.

Although it appears to be a great way of dealing with unnatural waste products such, as plastics, I am envisioning the possibility of resource deficient countries converting their indigenous biomass into oil, for the sake of producing oil. Not for the purpose of waste reclamation.

punta

SOYCRUDE IS PEOPLE!!!

Call me an armchair cynic but the whole thing struck me as one of those latenight infomercials where you feel you're being fed a line of bullshit as to how great their product is.

And I echo Majestyk's concern.

SOYCRUDE IS PEOPLE!!!

Nataraja

I'm already planning my first trip to "Beautiful Anarctica." One less reason for people to kill and oppress each other is fiiiiiiine with me. Between high sea levels and a world totally wasted by war, I think I'll take the former, if you don't mind.

Invader Tak

Thank you for pointing out that fascinating article!

I work for a non-profit concerned with sustainability issues. I forwarded it to my co-workers.

I'm just hoping that this isn't a case of "too good to be true."

theyeti

You could just extract hydrogen from the oil. The problem with a so-called hydrogen economy is that it's not renewable; the H2 must either be extracted from fossil fuels or be produced through electrolysis, which requires a lot of electricity from some other energy source. We could use this oil to make hydrogen without having to be concerned about the CO2 it produces.

This new technology, if it's all it's cracked up to be, has great promise for producing relatively clean oil without adding to the atmosphere's carbon pool. With additional pollution controls on cars , and higher fuel efficiency brought about by gas/electric hybrids, air pollution will be managable. Alternatively, we could just use hydrogen or electric cars with energy produced by burning the oil at power plant located away from population centers. Compared to coal, which is where most of our electricity is currently coming from, oil and natural gas are pretty clean.

This will also be a big boost to our economy; what once cost money to get rid of is now profitable. We can produce more goods and services without having to increase labor or materials.

theyeti

Nataraja

Well, the expense of the process seems disproportionant to the yields, at first, but then you take in the fertilizer, natural gas, and sterilized water, and assume that further development could bring the cost of production down, and it looks a little bit better as a practical substitute for dinosaur oil. For that matter, if he manages to develop a way to recycle raw sewage in this way there would be a constant supply of input that people would actually pay money to have taken away.

At this stage, it is not really so incredibly great. This sort of process is by no means unprecedented, so it is a little late to say that it's "too good to be true," unless you are referring to the truly unprecedented efficiency with which it is done (which he explains). Of course, it may well be that the efficiency of the gadget has been exaggerated. It is too early to say with certainty though, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Corwin

One of the great things about this is its efficiency. It recycles heat through the entire unit and uses the same BTU's several times within the process. This makes the whole much more efficient.

Here's a thought..... just occurred to me and I haven't seen enough details to know if it would even work, or if it would be efficient.... oh and I'm extremely short on caffiene so bear with me....

Could you run this thing long enough to extract hydrogen? It seems to work by breaking down hydrocarbon chains. Could you keep running it long enough to end up with, instead of light oil.... graphite, (or carbon black) oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen?

Even if this is possible I don't know what it would do to the overall efficiency.

MortalWombat

Heh, I can just see PETA protestors now. "NO GUTS FOR OIL!"