Jones Beene wrote:
--- Edmund Storms wrote:
Actually, using CO2 from burning coal to make
biofuel is not carbon neutral unless the resulting
biomass is never burned.
Well it does substitute for OPEC oil, if that is the
bottom line - but if you want to get extremely
precise, then you must admit that if biofuel, made
from CO2-fed algae in round one, is then burned in the
second round in the same kind of situation where the
exhaust is also recycled to make more biofuel, ad
infinitum, then long-term neutrality could attach.
Yes, but you proposed burning coal to provide the CO2. If the CO2 is
simply taken out of the air with no additional coal burned, then you
have the situation you correctly noted as your first scenario.
One could envision a smalled capacity grid-plant
situated on a flooded desert, out there in the wilds
of New Mexico, where the CO2 is looped over-and-over
with algae, for carbon neutrality, or close to it,
over time
Yes, this would work.
- but - returning to the issue of practical solutions,
even if we get only one generation of neutrality -
then that is superior to the present state of
affairs, no?
I look upon the process initially as a learning experience. The first
effort will be too inefficient to remove CO2 from the air. Consequently,
the higher concentration of CO2 from burning coal would be used.
Initially, the process would not be carbon neutral. Hopefully, the
process would get sufficiently efficient to take the CO2 directly from
the air. However, I doubt this will be more efficient than burning coal
to make electricity and growing biofuel from the CO2 to make fuel for
cars. This, I agree, would reduce CO2 because less oil would be burned.
Instead, we would burn coal, but with the added energy provided by the
sun. In the real world, I doubt growing algae can compete with sugar as
a source of fuel. Meanwhile, the politicians will push corn in order to
gain the votes, until people realize they are being screwed by higher
food costs. By then LENR will be operating.
We need to eliminate carbon as a longer term goal
ABSOLUTELY true, no argument there, but we also need
practical stopgap measure that can "buy time" (perhaps
time for your LENR breakthrough ;-) ...
So far, nature is cooperating. You never can tell when she will stop.
Ed
...and at the same time eliminate the sword of OPEC
hanging over our collective necks.
Jones
