Wow, I must literally live down the street from them. I should pay them a visit at some point and shake someone's hand; it's unusual for a great breakthrough like this to happen. It's even better to learn that this happened in your own local area.
British Scientists Make Gasoline From Air
- Thread starter JonB
- Start date
[tinfoilhat]
I wonder if this is going to be one of those technologies that gets bought out by the energy companies and then vanishes into some sort of technological black hole, never to be seen again. Like so many others. [/tinfoilhat]
CAPTCHA: Pyrrhic Victory
Yes, captcha. It may well have been.
I wonder if this is going to be one of those technologies that gets bought out by the energy companies and then vanishes into some sort of technological black hole, never to be seen again. Like so many others. [/tinfoilhat]
CAPTCHA: Pyrrhic Victory
Yes, captcha. It may well have been.
As others have said, I can't see how this would be anything more than an amusing piece of news since they have to use energy, more enrgy than they get from the gasoline, to make it out of air.
So they can transform energy made with, for ecample, solar panels into gasoline? Whoopty doo.
If you'd find a way to make solard energy or other renewable energy sources more efficient, now that'd be a news piece.
So they can transform energy made with, for ecample, solar panels into gasoline? Whoopty doo.
If you'd find a way to make solard energy or other renewable energy sources more efficient, now that'd be a news piece.
Not a warp drive, but still pretty damn awesome:Witty Name Here said:
http://www.uah.edu/news/research/2501-slapshot-to-deep-space#.UIHdvYYkrKo
OT: Won't the combustion process still produce CO2 anyway? CO2 is always produced from a combustion reaction. But I guess if the process takes up as much CO2 as is produced, it's perfectly clean.
Fuck you, oil companies!
I tend to agree that big oil companies aren't going to let this one succeed. It's like most other alternative energy plans, unless these things come about with a multi-billion dollar alliance behind them to force the deal, they aren't going to go anywhere. The guys who did this are too small in scope to survive.
What's going to happen is the existing companies will buy the patent and sit on it, ensuring nobody else can legally use it while not using it themselves, OR they will simply make it impractical for them to get any kind of infrastructure going. Saying they want to get a plant going is nice, but when you consider the zoning permissions, and even buying the land itself, strong enough opposition and political bribe money can kill it outright.
What's going to happen is the existing companies will buy the patent and sit on it, ensuring nobody else can legally use it while not using it themselves, OR they will simply make it impractical for them to get any kind of infrastructure going. Saying they want to get a plant going is nice, but when you consider the zoning permissions, and even buying the land itself, strong enough opposition and political bribe money can kill it outright.
Quite the opposite in fact. They will counter this innovation by saying "Our livelihood is threatened, we must increase prices now!"DVS BSTrD said:
How are world economies not throwing large sums of cash at this to speed up the process? oh right we're all held by the balls by big oil companies.
It's a good solution for "how do we keep people from developing better technology and moving forward as a species while saving money and resources?"LTK_70 said:
This won't happen. It'll work with renewable energy to fuel the process of... creating fuel, but why not just increase the amount of renewable energy that gets produced and use that? Oil will always be needed but gasoline won't if engines just run off of other power sources.
Hehe, you reminded me of this:Ryans Solution said:
Also this is pretty awesome, but if they've only managed to produce a few gallons in two months then it's obviously a very costly and energy intensive process, to the extent that just running cars off electricity would be better holistically for the environment. Still, it's a huge discovery, and it's these sorts of advances that open the door for who knows what sort of awesome innovations.
