Originally posted by Larry Gude
Supposedly, the spent rods we have now are more dangerous as weapons than MOX and non-proliferation was apparently the reason to ban it.
How yah feelin these days?
Why can't we make power-generating plants run on vaporized alcohol? Lots of power and it is a fuel that we can replenish.
Originally posted by vraiblonde
...despite her best efforts.
(Just kidding, Ken! )
Originally posted by Heretic
I did a project in college where I had to investigate the validity of alcohol fuel. Turns out to just change the coal burning power plants in the US over to alcohol fuel we would have to cultivate a planet the size of venus with the alcohol producing plants.
THe issue is energy density, how much energy is packed into a set volume of fuel.
Originally posted by Heretic
Ken, Id really like to see more info on that. Alot of what you read about so called miracle cars is total BS. If you calculate the energy contained in a gallon of gasoline and the energy required to drive the automobile you will see that the numbers don't match at all. This isn't even taking efficiency into account. A spark ignition engine can only achieve about 34% thermodynamic efficiency (no friction isnt the reason for the loss either) and a diesel engine can achieve about 45% thermodynamic efficiency.
Most of the pie in the sky stuff out there is spouted by enviromental activists that know nothing about thermodynamics. Believe me if it were possible there would be people on it like white on rice to because the possibility to get rich would be enormous. There is no big conspiracy of the man keeping anyone down.
Most of my undergraduate years in college involved alternative fuels and Hybrid Electric Vehicle projects.