Steven Vincent Johnson wrote > > I believe liquid N2 is fairly cheap to make, costing around or slightly less than a gallon of milk volume wise. > LOX from coal electricity costs about $140 per ton, so the LN2 by-product is about $200 per ton if you couldn't market the LOX which is being used for cleaner-burning power generation and industrial processes such as steel and glass manufacture glass-making Hydrogen Peroxide synthesis, medical oxygen and so on.
N2 is a commonly used product. It's used in many applications from freezing sperm to making super conductive devices. N2 is a plentiful element. Seventy percent of our atmosphere comprises unbound nitrogen. No energy would be expended cracking N2 from other elements like O2 as we would have to do in order to get H2. > Yes and natural gas (CH4) conversion to H2 ( which is currently costing over $10.00 for 40 lbs) wastes lots of energy and pollutes with CO2. You will be hard put to get CH4 or Coal-Derived Hydrogen for less than $3.00 per gallon of gasoline equivalent. On top of that you can use power-plant waste heat (cogeneration engines) to run the Air Liquefaction Process. > > I would imagine the most difficult stumbling blocks in running N2 based "steam" engines would be to make sure all the moving parts don't freeze up, literally, or that critical parts don't become too cryogenically brittle and shatter under normal stresses. > Not likely, and you probably won't need a gearbox in your Cryocar. > > Brings a whole new meaning to the word: "freezer burn". Ironic when one considers the fact that N2 typically doesn't burn or explode in a dangerous manner as combining oxygen and hydrogen would in our atmosphere. > Right, and it doesn't pollute either. > > and how would this potential resource compare to equivalent alternative fuel source energy carriers. > Better, why else is it being suppressed? Frederick > > Steven Vincent Johnson > www.OrionWorks.com
