From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri Jun 13 2003 - 21:57:09 MDT
Mitch,
> Yes, but internal combustion engines do not run on windpower. Are you
> thinking that we ought to create fuel through solar energy and windpower to fuel our
> cars? I didn't think so. :-)
Actually there is a solution very close to that. Creating methane in
solar ponds using engineered bacteria, put into the existing pipeline
system, sent to retooled refineries that convert it into propane or
octane, perhaps using some power from spike's windmills. Converting short
chain hydrocarbons into longer chain hydrocarbons I don't believe is
particularly difficult (though I'm not a chemist). The hard part
(currently) is having a sufficient quantity of the short chain
hydrocarbons (which are currently all being pumped out of the ground
rather than manufactured above ground).
You have to use a significant fraction of the rangeland in the U.S.
southwest, but if my numbers are correct the economics seem *very*
favorable, so the conversion from rangeland to solar ponds might take
place very quickly. The price of steak may go up (as there is less
rangeland on which to graze cattle), but I think I come out ahead -- I
fill up my gas tank much more frequently than I eat steak.
Robert
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