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Forums - General - Petrol produced from air and water

Porcupine_I on 27 October 2012
wfz said:
Great, now we're going to run out of air and water. What will we drink? How will we breathe?!

why would we want to do any of these if we can't drive our cars??



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

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brendude13 on 27 October 2012
the2real4mafol said:
Kynes said:
the2real4mafol said:
we need to just install solar panels on our cars and get energy from that! that would be a far better solution. Petrol's days are limited now


A car completely covered in solar panels produces aproximatelly 1-2 horsepower in a sunny day. Good luck selling them XD

Well get people to improve the technology, otherwise it will always be bad. Compare the first car to a typical car now, there is a massive difference, but with your attitude cars would have stayed at 5mph and people would still be using horses to get to places. One day, solar panels will be good enough for our energy needs, people just need to find ways of making them better and more efficient

Solar panels can't be improved that much more. They really don't produce that much power at all.



the2real4mafol on 27 October 2012
brendude13 said:
the2real4mafol said:
Kynes said:
the2real4mafol said:
we need to just install solar panels on our cars and get energy from that! that would be a far better solution. Petrol's days are limited now


A car completely covered in solar panels produces aproximatelly 1-2 horsepower in a sunny day. Good luck selling them XD

Well get people to improve the technology, otherwise it will always be bad. Compare the first car to a typical car now, there is a massive difference, but with your attitude cars would have stayed at 5mph and people would still be using horses to get to places. One day, solar panels will be good enough for our energy needs, people just need to find ways of making them better and more efficient

Solar panels can't be improved that much more. They really don't produce that much power at all.

I'm sure it's like anything else, that it can be improved if there is alot wrong with it to start with. A bit like how battery technology is supposed to be getting way more efficient in the next few years. 



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Kynes on 28 October 2012
the2real4mafol said:
brendude13 said:
the2real4mafol said:
Kynes said:
the2real4mafol said:
we need to just install solar panels on our cars and get energy from that! that would be a far better solution. Petrol's days are limited now


A car completely covered in solar panels produces aproximatelly 1-2 horsepower in a sunny day. Good luck selling them XD

Well get people to improve the technology, otherwise it will always be bad. Compare the first car to a typical car now, there is a massive difference, but with your attitude cars would have stayed at 5mph and people would still be using horses to get to places. One day, solar panels will be good enough for our energy needs, people just need to find ways of making them better and more efficient

Solar panels can't be improved that much more. They really don't produce that much power at all.

I'm sure it's like anything else, that it can be improved if there is alot wrong with it to start with. A bit like how battery technology is supposed to be getting way more efficient in the next few years. 

Solar panels are nowadays at a 15% efficiency. You can't get over 100% efficiency, you can't produce more energy than the energy the solar panel receives from the sun, and that means in theory a car completely covered in solar panels could get at most ~10 horsepower. Before being so sure, you should read a bit about it, there are physics limits.



Marks on 28 October 2012
spurgeonryan said:
Shit! Do it. Neverending supply.


Yeah but my one question is, does it use fresh water, or just any old ocean water. Because if it's using fresh water, I'd rather have that than more oil. 



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Marks on 28 October 2012
wfz said:
Great, now we're going to run out of air and water. What will we drink? How will we breathe?!


Haha the air part is jokes, but I do actually have concern over the water use. 



MDMAlliance on 28 October 2012

Solution: Go nuclear.



Porcupine_I on 28 October 2012
Marks said:
spurgeonryan said:
Shit! Do it. Neverending supply.


Yeah but my one question is, does it use fresh water, or just any old ocean water. Because if it's using fresh water, I'd rather have that than more oil.


you realize, that is all the same water, right? if we use up one, the other will go away too.



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

Kasz216 on 28 October 2012
Soleron said:

The article is misleading. Energy is not generated from the air, it uses electricity we already have to make petrol from CO2+water. Then the car burns the petrol to make CO2+water again. No net CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and no energy is gained, it's just that petrol is a convenient high-density fuel for transport (electric cars have expensive and low-capacity batteries).

Finally this isn't revolutionary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

What I was going to say... i'd also add... if anything, it increaseses the CO2 in the atmosphere since the electricity likely created CO2 in the first place and the CO2 caused to create the eneregy is going to be greater then what would be pulled from the atmosphere in mostcases...

Plus if anything electricity to petrol convesion has to be less then 100% then you've got lost electricity from the power plant through the cables coming to your gas maker.

 

It's nearly the same reason why Ethanol is a giant waste of time.



Player2 on 28 October 2012
Kasz216 said:
Soleron said:

The article is misleading. Energy is not generated from the air, it uses electricity we already have to make petrol from CO2+water. Then the car burns the petrol to make CO2+water again. No net CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and no energy is gained, it's just that petrol is a convenient high-density fuel for transport (electric cars have expensive and low-capacity batteries).

Finally this isn't revolutionary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

What I was going to say... i'd also add... if anything, it increaseses the CO2 in the atmosphere since the electricity likely created CO2 in the first place and the CO2 caused to create the eneregy is going to be greater then what would be pulled from the atmosphere in mostcases...

Plus if anything electricity to petrol convesion has to be less then 100% then you've got lost electricity from the power plant through the cables coming to your gas maker.

 

It's nearly the same reason why Ethanol is a giant waste of time.

Combine this with the fact that the efficiency of petrol engines is laughable (25-30% and can't be improved too much) and you have the reason why this isn't a good idea.