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shootin' the shit / Re: UK General Election 2024
« Last post by Oldmanmatt on Today at 09:47:01 pm »Googling said energy densities were
ammonia: 18.6 MJ/kg
methanol: 15.8 MJ/L
My guess is that they will be successful in selling methanol engines (that and only that is what the engineers need to do). They will run on methanol made from maize or whatever that has full cycle CO2 emissions as bad as just using diesel. They will claim their boats are zero C. Meanwhile 99.99% of shipping has no conceivable way of sourcing methanol fuel but it will be said that is their fault.
Consider a back-of-the-envelope for how much food crop would be required to replace global diesel consumption (even ignoring the full cycle CO2 emissions which is what actually matters). https://www.withouthotair.com/cD/page_284.shtml :-
"The power per unit area of bioethanol from corn is astonishingly low.
Just for fun, let’s report the numbers first in archaic units. 1 acre produces
122 bushels of corn per year, which makes 122 × 2.6 US gallons of
ethanol, which at 84 000 BTU per gallon means a power per unit area of just
0.02 W/m2E – and we haven’t taken into account any of the energy losses in
processing!"
Dude! Clearly I’ve been glossing over and I hate bandying about numbers that I can’t verify.
I do know that Bio fuels are not considered to be the answer and you’ve given a couple of examples why, but you could have mentioned, there really wouldn’t be much left for eating, something which humans seem quite attached to. Who knew?
Production of H by electrolysis, catalytic conversion to Methanol, is, as far as I can tell, where the hope lays.
Which is why the debate is so tied up with “initial” power generation, renewables and (shudder) Nuclear.
Fortunately, NUCLEAR tm marketing has been handled, adeptly, by those well known PR firms Good’ol Soviet Incompetence & Co and Let’s builder reactors in one of the worlds most active tectonic regions & Partners.
Anyway, short paper with a basic outline:
https://matthey.com/documents/161599/440829/Reprint+-+Green+methanol+%28c2020%29.pdf/f9f3ace6-e6c0-0892-7864-78608b59102a?t=1653488567511#:~:text=There%20are%20various%20methods%20for,with%20CO%E2%82%82%20to%20make%20methanol.
Finally: reiterate “interim”, “10 years” and “you will have to”.
Then, since we have digressed hugely from the thread topic, if we’re going to continue, we should take this outside.
I suppose we could each spend a couple years preparing a thesis on the topic, then resume, but anything more now is well into speculation territory.
Parting: Do not imagine for one moment that I think you are dumber than me or that I am smarter/more knowledgeable. There is a reason I chose to write in the way I have and I am very worried. I am not the least surprised that Labour are not over-egging a “we will save the world” manifesto.
