Impressed US Navy converts Seawater to fuel... no one notices...

[Ormorof]

Not really been widely reported but this could be a bit of a bonanza if it can be mass produced (if the big guys like Shell & co dont muscle it underground of course )

http://www.ibtimes.com/goodbye-oil-...echnology-turn-seawater-fuel-allowing-1568455

 

[Bodhi]

Hmmm $3-6 a gallon. So the same price as petrol then?

And is this going to be similar to other "green" fuels, like Biofuels, which cause half the world to starve?

 

[Ormorof]

same as petrol in texas maybe, thats ~€0.70 per liter

and if its based on sucking seawater why would the world need to starve?

 

[Raven]

Its only bio oils made from plant matter that causes starvation because people aren't growing the less profitable corn and wheat. They are however saving the planet from Climate Change™ by driving up the cost of food and making even more money for the rich.

Though oil will at some point run out, it being a finite resource and all so we should be looking at viable alternatives.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Outside some "huge" changes to the worlds seawater system(bet "scientists" will come up with some), can't see anything wrong with it. Got plenty to go around, but at the same time i doubt this'll become commercial tech before, say 2035.

 

[Ch3tan]

Imagine the reduction in transport costs if big cargo ships were self powered? Not going to happen for a long time, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[BloodOmen]

inb4

 

[Poag]

Outside some "huge" changes to the worlds seawater system(bet "scientists" will come up with some), can't see anything wrong with it. Got plenty to go around, but at the same time i doubt this'll become commercial tech before, say 2035.

To be honest the affect on the worlds oceans would take hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of years to have a noticeable effect.
XKCD went into this with an article about using a portal to drain the oceans.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/53/

Assuming that the fuel consumption of water-fuel and oil-fuel are the same, if every ship on the planet instantly converted, you'd still only drain 1cm every 1000 or more years.

If every car converted it would still be 100s of years per 1cm. By which time we'll have graduated from fuels and be using internal fusion engine, magnetic induction in roads or some such so it pretty much moot.

 

[Gwadien]

Considering the size of the biggest ships, surely they could get Lexus to make them some hybrid engines and use water turbines?

(I don't know why I picked Lexus out)

 

[Poag]

There was an article i read sometime ago, about covering the decks of VLCCs or ULCCs with solar panels heating water. The then steam to drive a conventional turbine. For the life of me I can't remember why they said it wouldn't work, even if it wouldn't remove the needed oil-fuel supply, it would certainly reduce it. just whether its worth it or now....


I remember this as i was checking my parents solar water heater at the weekend and the roof was reading 146.1'C....

 

[old.Tohtori]

Yeah @Poag that's true, but still, inevitable hippie onslaught and all that

 

[DaGaffer]

I'm no chemist, but this seems a bit odd to me:

”For the first time we've been able to develop a technology to get CO2 and hydrogen from seawater simultaneously. That's a big breakthrough," said Dr. Heather Willauer, a research chemist who has spent nearly a decade on the project, adding that the fuel "doesn't look or smell very different."

Hydrogen from seawater I get; CO2? What? Why? How?

 

[Raven]

Because seawater isn't pure H2O - it has all sorts of organic crap in it.

Rough google
http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/research/sea_water_co2_2.html

 

[Cadelin]

Hydrogen from seawater I get; CO2? What? Why? How?

Water is an amazing solvent. There is all sorts of stuff in sea water but usually at very low levels (for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Seawater). Extracting it is cheaply is always the hard part.

What the article misses out, is that once they have extracted the Hydrogen and C02, they need to put in energy to convert this into useable hydrocarbons. At the moment only submarines and aircraft carriers have nuclear reactors on board and they are expensive to maintain. Having a 'factory ship', with a nuclear reactor on board would mean that they can create fuel anywhere in the world without having to have long supply lines.

 

[Wij]

Sounds suss to me tbh :/

 

[DaGaffer]

If you can extract hydrogen from seawater (economically), what's the reason for extracting carbon dioxide? Why not just burn the hydrogen?

 

[Job]

The drained water will get back into the eco system when you burn the fuel.

 

[Chilly]

If you can extract hydrogen from seawater (economically), what's the reason for extracting carbon dioxide? Why not just burn the hydrogen?

Cos hydrogen is a fucking pain in the arse to store and transport. Hydrocarbon fuels are amazingly good in terms of energy density and safety and so on.

 

[DaGaffer]

Water is an amazing solvent. There is all sorts of stuff in sea water but usually at very low levels (for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Seawater). Extracting it is cheaply is always the hard part.

What the article misses out, is that once they have extracted the Hydrogen and C02, they need to put in energy to convert this into useable hydrocarbons. At the moment only submarines and aircraft carriers have nuclear reactors on board and they are expensive to maintain. Having a 'factory ship', with a nuclear reactor on board would mean that they can create fuel anywhere in the world without having to have long supply lines.

Yeah just read up on it some more. Its a useful technology inasmuch is it saves the US Navy money because it can save an operational fleet money in oilers etc. Its not a viable alternative for industries that have to make a profit (for reference the potential $3-6 per gallon quoted is +5% to +110% the current cost of jet fuel). I suppose the economics of it could change in the future, its a kind of "seawater fracking", and fracking wasn't an economic proposition ten years ago...