I heard a thingy on the news t'other day that I thought I would pass along. Seems that a company in California is trying to prove that they can take CO2 and make it back into carbon and oxygen, thus solving the dual issues of global warming and the creation of more carbon for fuel -energy, through some form of catalytic process.
Hmmm..
let's see - burning the carbon (creating CO2) releases "X amount" of energy. So converting the CO2 back into carbon and Oxygen would take AT LEAST the same energy inputs in a perfectly 100% efficient system, (which doesn't exist in this world!) and that energy input would come from....?????
Hmmmmm....
OK - who wants to buy shares in that company???
Seems a lot like the "burn hydrogen into water and use the energy to breakdown the water to create more Hydrogen and Oxygen theme!
I guess I had two reactions to the news story - make that THREE reactions:
1) I laughed my hiney off
2) I got a bit angry at the news folks for being so naive as to report it as a serious bit of news, when they should have run it in the humor section, and
3) I got really choked at how gullible folks seem to be if they believe this could occur!
I recall when I was doing my Master's degree that One of my profs made a prediction that someday someone would find a way to split CO2 back into carbon and Oxygen, that it would take enormous amounts of energy to do it, that the energy would come from solar power. As a result the most valuable real estate in the world would turn out to be the Sahara Desert to site the huge solar collectors. His conclusion was that "if you think the Arab world has us by the 'nads NOW......
Hmmm..
let's see - burning the carbon (creating CO2) releases "X amount" of energy. So converting the CO2 back into carbon and Oxygen would take AT LEAST the same energy inputs in a perfectly 100% efficient system, (which doesn't exist in this world!) and that energy input would come from....?????
Hmmmmm....
OK - who wants to buy shares in that company???
Seems a lot like the "burn hydrogen into water and use the energy to breakdown the water to create more Hydrogen and Oxygen theme!
I guess I had two reactions to the news story - make that THREE reactions:
1) I laughed my hiney off
2) I got a bit angry at the news folks for being so naive as to report it as a serious bit of news, when they should have run it in the humor section, and
3) I got really choked at how gullible folks seem to be if they believe this could occur!
I recall when I was doing my Master's degree that One of my profs made a prediction that someday someone would find a way to split CO2 back into carbon and Oxygen, that it would take enormous amounts of energy to do it, that the energy would come from solar power. As a result the most valuable real estate in the world would turn out to be the Sahara Desert to site the huge solar collectors. His conclusion was that "if you think the Arab world has us by the 'nads NOW......