Re: OT - Oil Bashing

Neon John wrote:

I enjoy engaging the few enviros who are capable of independent
thought AND can do math. I can quickly show that no form of
"renewable" (their definition, at least) energy will scale to supply
even a fraction of the nation's needs, particularly if transportation
is factored in.


Do you mean to say that the Hybrid and the much touted ethanol won't solve our energy problems? That seems to be the only alternatives the media and politicians talk about. Easy for them to do as they don't understand either one.

The Hybrid is kind of a neat vehicle but for open highway the straight drive, using the same engine and no batteries and electronics, will win all the way. Long ago when living in LA I often commented that if I had a hybrid (I didn't use that name because it didn't exist then) that I could get to work on the freeway with a one HP engine.

Someone put together a hybrid truck in the 60s. An Army 6x with 50HP AC motors in each wheel. They drove the generator using the regular engine tuned for a constant speed. Of course that is basically the same thing the railroads have been doing for years.

No matter what the solution is, transportation is going to change. From what I have seen hydrogen will require four times the volume as gasoline. Either much bigger tanks or refuel more often.



The ultimate renewable source is, of course, nuclear fission in the
breeder configuration. A breeder can convert U or cheap-as-dirt Th
into fuel while making power to boot.

If the loop were closed like the enviro-whackos claim to want with
other impractical energy sources, then every part of the cycle would
be used. Fuel would be generated, the radiation (now a waste product
converted to heat in the shielding) would be used for material
conversion (cross-linking polymers, etc) and the fission products,
particularly the pure beta emitters like Sr-90 would be used for heat,
say, district or neighborhood heating plants supplying hot water for
comfort heat to residents. Concentrated Sr-90 generates enough decay
heat to glow red hot while emitting only a beta particle stopped by
less than an inch of a low-Z material like polyethylene. Waste heat
from power generation would be used for things like greenhouse heating
and low quality process heat.

The Midland plant was to do the last part. It was designed to supply
high temperature steam to the Dow chemical plant across the river. My
company re-designed the radiation monitors that watched the steam for
contamination. Dow backed out during the midst of the anti-nuke
hysteria following TMI and Consumer Power canceled the plant after
they lost their steam customer.

Right now a nuke plant (or any single cycle steam plant) throws away
about 2/3rds of the heat generated, a fundamental thermodynamic
limitation imposed by the temperatures the materials can withstand.
Co-located manufacturing plants that can use much lower grade heat
could take advantage of some of that waste heat. Many processes can
use hot water in the 180 degree range. Supplying that grade of hot
water at thousands of gallons a minute would require nothing more than
changing some setpoints in the nuclear plant.

All that's lacking is the political leadership to say "just do it".

John
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.johngsbbq.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
.

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