Changing anything into Oil

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IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,976
141
106
Good..mabe we could get gas back to 25cents a gallon.:D Lets get on with this and fill er up.........:cool:
 

RyanM

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2001
2,387
0
76
Originally posted by: tw1164
this is amazing, I hope the testing works well

Perhaps I should post this question in highly technical, but here's an odd idea I came up with...

Could you use coal in this process? I mean, here's a hypothetical situation in which this would be useful.

Let's suppose our country gets smart and replaces all coal-power plants with Integral Fast Reactors. We'd have all this coal and no domestic use. BUT, there still is a need for oil, not only for fuel in cars and for heating, but for lubricants, petroleum-based products (of which there are myriad), etc.

So we'd need oil, but not coal. Could this process be used to turn all that useless coal into oil? Assume they could get only 60% efficiency out of this process (60 BTU's worth of oil for every 100 BTU's of electricity used.) Even then, wouldn't that be one way of "generating" oil, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and acting as a method to generate power from coal without producing the emissions which inherently exist with its use.

Does this idea seem feasible, or am I just being confusing? ;D
 

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
81
Originally posted by: MachFive
Originally posted by: tw1164
this is amazing, I hope the testing works well

Perhaps I should post this question in highly technical, but here's an odd idea I came up with...

Could you use coal in this process? I mean, here's a hypothetical situation in which this would be useful.

Let's suppose our country gets smart and replaces all coal-power plants with Integral Fast Reactors. We'd have all this coal and no domestic use. BUT, there still is a need for oil, not only for fuel in cars and for heating, but for lubricants, petroleum-based products (of which there are myriad), etc.

So we'd need oil, but not coal. Could this process be used to turn all that useless coal into oil? Assume they could get only 60% efficiency out of this process (60 BTU's worth of oil for every 100 BTU's of electricity used.) Even then, wouldn't that be one way of "generating" oil, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and acting as a method to generate power from coal without producing the emissions which inherently exist with its use.

Does this idea seem feasible, or am I just being confusing? ;D

Coal
used tires

And many more....
 

RyanM

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2001
2,387
0
76
Originally posted by: charrison
Originally posted by: MachFive
Originally posted by: tw1164
this is amazing, I hope the testing works well

Perhaps I should post this question in highly technical, but here's an odd idea I came up with...

Could you use coal in this process? I mean, here's a hypothetical situation in which this would be useful.

Let's suppose our country gets smart and replaces all coal-power plants with Integral Fast Reactors. We'd have all this coal and no domestic use. BUT, there still is a need for oil, not only for fuel in cars and for heating, but for lubricants, petroleum-based products (of which there are myriad), etc.

So we'd need oil, but not coal. Could this process be used to turn all that useless coal into oil? Assume they could get only 60% efficiency out of this process (60 BTU's worth of oil for every 100 BTU's of electricity used.) Even then, wouldn't that be one way of "generating" oil, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and acting as a method to generate power from coal without producing the emissions which inherently exist with its use.

Does this idea seem feasible, or am I just being confusing? ;D

Coal
used tires

And many more....

Beautiful. That's just what I wanted to know.
 

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
81
Originally posted by: MachFive
Originally posted by: charrison
Originally posted by: MachFive
Originally posted by: tw1164
this is amazing, I hope the testing works well

Perhaps I should post this question in highly technical, but here's an odd idea I came up with...

Could you use coal in this process? I mean, here's a hypothetical situation in which this would be useful.

Let's suppose our country gets smart and replaces all coal-power plants with Integral Fast Reactors. We'd have all this coal and no domestic use. BUT, there still is a need for oil, not only for fuel in cars and for heating, but for lubricants, petroleum-based products (of which there are myriad), etc.

So we'd need oil, but not coal. Could this process be used to turn all that useless coal into oil? Assume they could get only 60% efficiency out of this process (60 BTU's worth of oil for every 100 BTU's of electricity used.) Even then, wouldn't that be one way of "generating" oil, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and acting as a method to generate power from coal without producing the emissions which inherently exist with its use.

Does this idea seem feasible, or am I just being confusing? ;D

Coal
used tires

And many more....

Beautiful. That's just what I wanted to know.

IF this is in fact the real deal, this solves so many problems.

1. Waste disposal
2. Dirty coal power plants
3. oil imports from countries we would rather not do business with.


If there was ever a time to throw goverment money at a project, this could likely be one of them....
 

Odoacer

Senior member
Jun 30, 2001
809
0
0
Wow. I wonder why this hasn't gotten more publicity - it's pretty big by the sounds of it.
 

Emos

Golden Member
Oct 27, 2000
1,989
0
0
IF this is in fact the real deal, this solves so many problems.

1. Waste disposal
2. Dirty coal power plants
3. oil imports from countries we would rather not do business with.


If there was ever a time to throw goverment money at a project, this could likely be one of them....

Even the issue of CO2 emissions was addressed in this article. In a nutshell, only the carbon which exists on the surface of the planet (in the form of biomass, plastics,trash,ect) would be used and recycled, in essence creating tempory "carbon sinks" which would be used over and over. All the carbon that is currently in the ground (coal,oil) would remain there or be used sparingly. I'm still not 100% sold on the greenhouse theory but this would be a good way to combat the problem if it's true.
 

RyanM

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2001
2,387
0
76
As far as I can ascertain, it's because it's a relatively new development, and large-scale implemenation has yet to happen. On the flipside, the test facility, while small, is proven to work, and can theoretically be scaled up.

Integrating these into our waste-disposal infrastructure, near hospitals, farms, and coal-mines, would be extremely ideal.

The reason I asked about the coal thing is because I believe in a complete wipe of our currenty coal-dominated infrastructure with a movement towards IFR nuclear plants. With the electricity being supplied by nuclear plants that are 300% as efficient as traditional methods, it would be even more economical to convert these wastes and overly dirty fuel sources into cleaner and more useful ones.

Imagine this -

1. All electricity that cannot be provided by wind and solar power is provided by IFR nuclear plants.
2. All coal is converted to gasses and oils through the TDP process.
3. All useful wastes are converted to gasses and oils through the TDP process.
4. ANWAR is opened up to cover any remaining gap in the supply that would otherwise be filled by foreign oil.
5. We no provide every source of power for everything in the country with internal resources and inexpensively.

I'm at a loss for words regarding the dozens of implications of these combined factors.

What do you bet we'd completely and utterly blow away even the Kyoto protocols if the only source of CO2 and pollutant emissions was from our cars? No more coal plants, no more emissions from huge landfills, etc etc.
 

Alistar7

Lifer
May 13, 2002
11,978
0
0
Had a friend one time who envisioned a car that would be powered by human waste, you of course would be sitting on a toliet as you drove, maybe he will get his wish someday.

Scale them down, make them portable, install them in every household. You could wipe out sewage treatment, garbage disposal, and the consumers electric bill, plus create a surplus to use for fuel for your vehicle. You wouldn't see much litter anymore....
 

ConclamoLudus

Senior member
Jan 16, 2003
572
0
0
Originally posted by: Alistar7
Had a friend one time who envisioned a car that would be powered by human waste, you of course would be sitting on a toliet as you drove, maybe he will get his wish someday.

Scale them down, make them portable, install them in every household. You could wipe out sewage treatment, garbage disposal, and the consumers electric bill, plus create a surplus to use for fuel for your vehicle. You wouldn't see much litter anymore....

Sign me up. It puts a new meaning to "piece of sh!t car".:p
 

RyanM

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2001
2,387
0
76
Originally posted by: Alistar7
Had a friend one time who envisioned a car that would be powered by human waste, you of course would be sitting on a toliet as you drove, maybe he will get his wish someday.

Scale them down, make them portable, install them in every household. You could wipe out sewage treatment, garbage disposal, and the consumers electric bill, plus create a surplus to use for fuel for your vehicle. You wouldn't see much litter anymore....

Essentially, we'd have a Mr. Fusion under the hoods of our cars, albeit without the fusion.

"Marty, get me some banana peels and table scraps. My trash tank is running low."