cheap / free energy "conspiracy" is it real?

[photonaholic]

Not sure if anyone has said this already, but one of the main problems of doing that is, if you use hydrogen for fuel for cars, If the cars get into a accident.... BOOM!!! HUGE HYDROGEN BOMB!

Allow me to educate you young padawan....

A hydrogen bomb is powered by nuclear fusion, not likely to happen in a car.

"the hydrogen bomb functions by the fusion, or joining together, of lighter elements into heavier elements. The end product again weighs less than its components, the difference once more appearing as energy. Because extremely high temperatures are required in order to initiate fusion reactions, the hydrogen bomb is also known as a thermonuclear bomb."

There are already cars powered by natural gas and propane, both gasses are just as volatile when air is present.

Double wall puncture resistant tanks are widely used, Think about the railroad tankers full of all sorts of volatile gasses and acids, or whatever, they are quite safe.

So a rolling Hindenburg is not likely to happen at all.

when you make it to the tenth grade ask your science teacher.

 

[charliebruce]

Not sure if anyone has said this already, but one of the main problems of doing that is, if you use hydrogen for fuel for cars, If the cars get into a accident.... BOOM!!! HUGE HYDROGEN BOMB!

Nope - the standards for vehicle gas storage vessels say that they should be practically (and literally!) bulletproof and not suffer any significant structural damage even in a major collision - the largest area at risk of damage is the piping output, and an arrangement of valves can be used to prevent the gas from leaking significantly when pressure drops suddenly (pipe ruptured). Hydrogen bomb in the modern-day context refers to nuclear fusion, which isn't going to happen in these kinds of collisions, either, it would be a hydrogen-oxygen combustion (explosion) if any gas was able to escape.

 

[pullbangdead]

And in all reality, it's not a guarantee that a spark or flame ignites hydrogen gas if it's leaking out of containment. I actually did a project in high school that involved using a spark generator inside balloons inflated with H2 gas and air mixed to explode the balloons, and we actually only had about a 50% success rate on the first attempt. This was an intentional spark across a 1/2-inch gap inside a balloon with a good stoichiometric ratio of H2 to air, and it only went off about 50% of the times that we wanted it to.

When it did go off though, it was a lot of fun.

Really, as un-scary as gasoline is to most people, H2 certainly has a lot more stigma than it deserves. They should both be treated with utmost respect, but an unnatural fear of H2 isn't warranted.

 

[Cyparagon]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned alcohol fuel yet... There's a whole bunch of "waste biomass" lying around in the form of leaves, cornstalks,etc; why not use some yeast and solar stills to make alcohol?

Yeast acts on sugars only. We can modify starches into sugars (high-fructose corn syrup for example), but the VAST majority of biomass is cellulotic in nature. That means the sugar chains are too long to metabolize (except in the case of termites). So we need to find a viable way of changing cellulose into sugar first.

I have a huge compost pile from cleaning the cages.

There is something about rodent pee that causes very rapid fermentation of the waste

What? Fermentation cannot be performed on anything but sugar. If there's sugar in your rodent excrement, there is something very very wrong with them. Perhaps you mean methane emissions?

 

[StridAst]

Yeast acts on sugars only. We can modify starches into sugars (high-fructose corn syrup for example), but the VAST majority of biomass is cellulotic in nature. That means the sugar chains are too long to metabolize (except in the case of termites). So we need to find a viable way of changing cellulose into sugar first.

We're already there... This is old news. switchgrass ethanol production plants are already being built. It's emerging tech, but still viable.

Cellulosic ethanol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[digital_blue]

Fermentation cannot be performed on anything but sugar.

Isn't vinegar is made by fermenting ethanol?

 

[Moptsp]

If only there was a more efficient way of converting mass to energy. Though this might violate laws. Not sure though.

 

[Byrnz93]

If only there was a more efficient way of converting mass to energy. Though this might violate laws. Not sure though.

Easy. Use antimatter
When antimatter and matter collide, they convert all their mass to energy. Although the resulting radiation might be a problem..as well as the fact we have no viable means of mass producing it at the moment

 

[photonaholic]

What? Fermentation cannot be performed on anything but sugar. If there's sugar in your rodent excrement, there is something very very wrong with them. Perhaps you mean methane emissions?

Good call again, Drove me straight to doing some research

The wet gooey stuff in my bucket gives off a stench I ASSUMED was fermentation, it is a breakdown of some kind, and it fizzes / reeks and now I am really curious what the hell is going on in there.