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Oil is currently at $100 or so per barrel. The current reason for the high price is instability in Middle Eastern countries like Libya. In addition, demand for oil is increasing at a time when new oil discoveries are declining. In the United States (and many other parts of the world), coal is abundant. What [...]
Yesterday I put up a post about a company that has the potential to completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels: The impossible has happened: the solution to global warming and foreign oil dependence has arrived They have created bioengineered creatures that produce diesel fuel on demand. They claim they can produce 15,000 gallons of [...]
This article indicates that, next year, the problems of carbon emissions, foreign oil dependence, oil spills, fuel shortages, etc. will all end: A brave new world of fossil fuels on demand In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for “a proprietary organism” – a genetically [...]
World Record #155 – Amazing Navy railgun shoots shells farthest and fastest
by Marshall Brain | December 13, 2010
Military organizations have been shooting stuff out of cannons for centuries. You take a strong steel tube that is closed off at one end, put in some gunpowder, put in a projectile (either a cannon ball or an artillery shell) and then light it. The expansion of the burning gunpowder creates a force that shoots [...]
You Asked:
How does a hydrogen generator work? — Sepideh, Tehran, Iran
Marshall Brain Answers…
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How is coal converted to oil and gasoline? — Al, S Prairie, Wash.
Marshall Brain Answers…
Invention – hydrocarbon fuels produced directly from solar energy
by Marshall Brain | August 16, 2010
The big problem with a solar panel is that it only produces power part of the time. As we discussed in How Wind Power Doesn’t Work, the intermittent nature of solar (and wind) energy doesn’t work so well on the grid. The power company still has to maintain backup power plants to replace all the solar power that is lost on days when the sun doesn’t shine.
One thing that would help solar/wind is an ability to efficiently store electricity and release it when needed…
Have you ever wondered why internal combustion engines have been around, pretty much unchanged, since Henry Ford popularized them in the 1910s? Sure we’ve made internal combustion engines more efficient and less polluting, but the engine in the Model T has the same pistons, cylinders, spark plugs crank shafts and cam shafts found in every engine today. Why the longevity? Why the lack of change?
What happens when crude oil mixes with water? Here’s a video that nicely demonstrates the problem, and also shows why crude oil is such a problem for birds…
We are all aware of the gigantic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of gallons of oil will end up destroying beautiful beaches, abundant commercial fishing grounds (oyster, shrimp and fish are all products of the Gulf), nature preserves and wetlands used by birds and fish. The leaking oil may move toward fragile [...]
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