snekadid said:
Chaosritter said:
Saltyk said:
This sounds cool. Though, water is already a rather scarce resource, I'm not certain that using it like this is really that feasible when plenty of communities do have concerns with water conservation. My own state was having a bit of a Water War with a few other states over concerns of a reservoir that is located within the state, for just such a reason.
I guess this thing would work with water that's below drinking water quality as well.
There's plenty of water. Drinking water however is a different story.
I doubt you would be able to use overly polluted water as it would probably damage the device, but if someone could finally figure out a cost effective use for salt water we would all be very grateful considering it covers most of this damn rock.
Probably not. The salt in the water will interfere with the catalysts.
I'm just going to point out that there's nothing particularly prohibitive about this technology. The water that they'd be using in this would be a tiny amount, nothing compared to the amount of water used for agriculture or human consumption. And the electricity being used for the device will displace the energy that needs to come from hydrocarbons to create the acetylene gas used in conventional welding torches. It'll probably net out a little cheaper once the technology's matured, as hydrogen gas is a lot more convenient and a lot easier to handle than acetylene, as they said in the video.
I'm more excited in seeing what other applications their research could have. Cheap, high-performance water electrolysis could be really useful in other sectors of the economy *coughtransportationcough*
