Anerobic decomposition makes things beyond A carbon and some hydrogen.
You get a few Nitrogen/Hydrogens and more Sulfur/Hydrogens. Both of these gasses when oxidized will make acids that will eat up the equipment.
You can ruin an internal combustion engine in less than a day, and a boiler in a week if you don't have the boiler lined.
Alot of energy is imbedded in our sewage, from the machines in the field that prep and harvest the food we eat, to the trucks that move that food to the pumps that move the water then the sewage to be processed. With good engineering, some of that energy can be reclaimed, but the researchers make it sound like the process is 'simple' when it is not.
Ford's first hybrid, goes on sale in the U.S. this fall. After loosing billions in the last few years Ford is attempting to brand themselves as the "environmentally conscious" company by launching their new Escape.
However, there is much debate over who developed the vehicle technology. Ford claims all original patents but did pay off Toyota for "patent similarities".
Hmmmm. Bloomberg News"
Seems like a bit pollyanna-ish of an idea. Cars that create distributed electricity... well maybe. But I'm skeptical whether it's practical for a utility-wide scale. There's just not that much energy storage in an auto battery. I would like to know how they figured 10,000 MW from 1 million cars. I am skeptical of this number. Perhaps if/when fuel cell vehicles are commonplace, then this idea does make sense as running a fuel cell theoretically results in no pollution. Until then, it is much more efficient to produce grid power using centralized powerplants or renewables. Infernal combustion autos are at best 22% efficient, which is a lot worse than the oldest coal power plant at 33% efficiency.
How is the real cost of energy calculated? Think about it. When people are paying 7-12 cents per kilowatt hour, does the price include this 50 billion dollar clean up? Of course it doesn't.
Take Canada for example... Nuclear energy subsidies from 1953 to 2001 were approximately 16.6 billion. Total loans written off to the fossil fuel industry were another $2.8 billion since 1970. Cleaning up old radioactive waste and decommissioning uranium tailings added another $850 million. This totals$20.25 billion just on nuclear subsidies and clean up costs and fossil fuel forgiven loans. If this $20.25 had been poured into wind energy programs, and R&D to new technologies, it might be powering 4.5 million homes today. And keep in mind that fossil fuel plants would still have the cost of fuel.
Slashdot Mirror
Anerobic decomposition makes things beyond A carbon and some hydrogen. You get a few Nitrogen/Hydrogens and more Sulfur/Hydrogens. Both of these gasses when oxidized will make acids that will eat up the equipment. You can ruin an internal combustion engine in less than a day, and a boiler in a week if you don't have the boiler lined. Alot of energy is imbedded in our sewage, from the machines in the field that prep and harvest the food we eat, to the trucks that move that food to the pumps that move the water then the sewage to be processed. With good engineering, some of that energy can be reclaimed, but the researchers make it sound like the process is 'simple' when it is not.
Ford's first hybrid, goes on sale in the U.S. this fall. After loosing billions in the last few years Ford is attempting to brand themselves as the "environmentally conscious" company by launching their new Escape.
However, there is much debate over who developed the vehicle technology. Ford claims all original patents but did pay off Toyota for "patent similarities". Hmmmm.
Bloomberg News"
Seems like a bit pollyanna-ish of an idea. Cars that create distributed electricity... well maybe. But I'm skeptical whether it's practical for a utility-wide scale. There's just not that much energy storage in an auto battery. I would like to know how they figured 10,000 MW from 1 million cars. I am skeptical of this number. Perhaps if/when fuel cell vehicles are commonplace, then this idea does make sense as running a fuel cell theoretically results in no pollution. Until then, it is much more efficient to produce grid power using centralized powerplants or renewables. Infernal combustion autos are at best 22% efficient, which is a lot worse than the oldest coal power plant at 33% efficiency.
How is the real cost of energy calculated? Think about it. When people are paying 7-12 cents per kilowatt hour, does the price include this 50 billion dollar clean up? Of course it doesn't.
Take Canada for example...
Nuclear energy subsidies from 1953 to 2001 were approximately 16.6 billion. Total loans written off to the fossil fuel industry were another $2.8 billion since 1970. Cleaning up old radioactive waste and decommissioning uranium tailings added another $850 million. This totals$20.25 billion just on nuclear subsidies and clean up costs and fossil fuel forgiven loans. If this $20.25 had been poured into wind energy programs, and R&D to new technologies, it might be powering 4.5 million homes today. And keep in mind that fossil fuel plants would still have the cost of fuel.