Nuc and desal

[wjorg]

Darian,
I finally had to laugh at your extensive use of emoticons.....those two behind your methanol quote are funny.

Really though, the methanol economy is an interesting idea.

[Phil Synhorst]

METHanol......isn't that what the junkies use to fuel their cars, to get to the American and break into everyone elses

[Darian]

I do try to add a bit of humor to this place. Ed needs someone to work with....

Don't know enough about methanol to comment on it, yet. However, I recently saw a program on PBS that showed a dairy in the San Joaquin valley that has a methane recovery system in place. Uses a covered settling pond (several football fields long) to ferment () the cow crap. The gas is piped off for transport/storage. Interesting.

This dairyman is doing his part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions....

[wjorg]

When you create methanol you can scrub the air of co2. Of course its put back when you burn the methanol but at least its a neutral process.

Higher octane rating than gas...

Dont quote me on this but as methanol combusts it splits into methane, hydrogen (and other things?)....so you can utilize hydrogen as a fuel without having the problems associated with trying to store something atomically smaller than anything you would try to store it in, and hydrogen's explosive issues(like me on a bad day?).

just found a wikipedia page(havent even read yet but looks neat) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_economy

A really good book on the subject is George A. Olah (2005). "Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy"

ok.....off the soapbox(could you ever believe it?).

[Darian]

Given the propensity for drivers of motor vehicles to crash, I've been wondering how Hydrogen is considered safe for fuel in motor vehicles since it's explosive properties are what lead to using Helium in place of Hydrogen in lighter than airships (blimps/dirigibles) Oh well,.... whadoIknow....

[wjorg]

Another good reason to store the Hydrogen you'll combust as methanol first.


And the Hindenburg didn't explode....it burnt....something about the a chemical impregnating the canvas, combined with the hydrogen fuel. You can see it on the old video....burning section by section....didnt really explode like a baloon full of hydrogen meeting a match.....

[Darian]

Walter,.... I do recall seeing the Hindenburg burn by sections....

I'm curious if methanol would be stored as a liquid or in a gaseous state, similar to oxygen By any chance would you know the expansion ratio for methanol

[Darian]

Thought I ought to contribute something to the original subject of "Nuc and desal".

A private company (Poseidon Resources) is completing construction of a DeSal plant with Orange County at Huntington Beach. This is a private-public partnership. The plant is scheduled to be operational in early 2009. This plant will cost $250 million, uses a reverse osmosis filtration process and produce 50 million gallons of drinking quality water per day. The plant requires 35 megawatts of power for ops.

The same company is partnering with the county of San Diego for a facility at Carlsbad, as well.... The details are available at:

www.poseidonresources.com

Pretty cool .

[Phil Synhorst]

I'm glad to hear they are finally trying desal down south. I know I'm not the only one to wonder why it wasn't done long ago.

[wjorg]

expansion ratio for methanol...nope(240 to 79?)...but I can tell you how quickly methane expands through a sealed room or car....