#infoAnarchy last cranked 2006-10-24 21:05

Catalytic conversion of Alcohol to [ Hydrogen + Oxygen ] in a self-sustaining reaction (neither releases nor absorbing heat, but obtaining the heat needed from the reaction itself)
posted by DonFundoshi at 2006-10-24 10:55

DonFundoshi: ie maybe, how to produce H + O for fuel cells 'on-the-spot' 'as-needed'
DonFundoshi: to enable complete combustion of the fuel without production of atmospheric greenhouse gas
DonFundoshi: or at least, that's what I read from the abstract .. haven't gotten hold of the full article yet (doh)
DonFundoshi: absolves the need to store pressurised liquid Hydrogen for fuel cell or engine, can carry liquid alcohol instead, who's dangers are known, understood, and accepted by the general public
DonFundoshi: the same researchers have developed similar processes it seems for conversion of various organic/fossil fuels into other useful intermediaries
DonFundoshi: now stop whining about the greenhouse effect, and do something .. Oh, you never heard of this? Ask yourself why.
DonFundoshi: news article 2004
DonFundoshi: Another article from Science: A gadget built around an automotive fuel injector transforms easily transported ethanol, or grain alcohol, into hydrogen gas
DonFundoshi: a longish article also from Science
DonFundoshi: the key is, this invention answers the perplexing problem of the 'water => fuel => water' Escherism, "Are we breaking the laws of thermodynamics? I often wonder, in discussions of hydrogen as fuel, how one can provide energy to split water to get hydrogen and oxygen, then react them together as fuel, and expect ever to get a net gain in energy."
DonFundoshi: The answer is, don't use water as the input. Use a hydrocarbon, but make sure it reacts to produce almost 100% broken down C + H + O. Problem solved.
DonFundoshi: the hydrocarbon contains enough energy locked up by the living plant you made it from, to both break itself into H + C + O and for the H + O to release energy again when recombined to produce water
DonFundoshi: you can make alcohol in your back yard from food scraps, or in an industrial plant from .. food scraps .. duh.
DonFundoshi: the sky is not falling, you DO NOT need to invade another country, you DO NOT need to build a nuclear plant. GET BACK TO WORK.
DonFundoshi: tee hee hee
DonFundoshi: the loss in breaking the fuel to H + O might be compensated by the fact that recombining them in a fuel cell would be 3 times as efficient as your internal combustion engine is ... you win some, you lose some
DonFundoshi: "not much larger than a coffee mug, according to Lanny Schmidt"
DonFundoshi: guy should have a nobel prize
DonFundoshi: Brazil: Steal this technology
DonFundoshi: China, Appropriate this technology for the People.
DonFundoshi: "could capture more than 50 percent of the energy that plants store in the form of sugar" .. via alcohol, which stores energy at 80% the density of petrol, to be recombined in a fuel cell that works at 3x the efficiency of infernal combuschum ... %\
DonFundoshi: then compare transmission chain losses ...
DonFundoshi: compensate for momentum re-capture
DonFundoshi: and multiply by the number you first thought of (3).
DonFundoshi: without having the article, I may be wrong, it could produce COx .. but it would still qualify for reducing greenhouse because the source is from plants that you can replant to recapture the COx and then cut down and process again ... and so on
DonFundoshi: anyone .. anyone .. Bueler .. ?
DonFundoshi: you want a fucking emergency? THIS is the emergency
DonFundoshi: answers: drive train efficiency: ~90%
DonFundoshi: regenerative braking recoups: ??? <varies with terrain and driving behaviour .. assume 80% efficiency at recouping power from kinetic to electric .. can be stored short term in capacitor or dynamo again with say 80% efficiency>
DonFundoshi: power density of fuel == (petrol) x 90% x 50% => (petrol) x 45%
DonFundoshi: comparitive drivetrain efficiency: approx (petrol) x 2
DonFundoshi: overall amount of fuel required .. approximately the same amount of alcohol as the amount of petrol you use in an existing infernal combuschump engine. price varies, brazil has shown alcohol can be about 2/3 the price of petrol ..
DonFundoshi: savings from minimal amount of moving parts, and greater durability of the ones that are used: priceless

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