Using Polywell to burn suger cane... huh?

[drmike]

These guys do it all - suck in CO2 and convert it back to hydrocarbons for burning again:
Los Alamos Renewable Energy (LARE).

You can do the same thing with polywells, and make the process continue even at night.
Even trees can't do that!

[rj40]

I think coal can be turned into gasoline, but it is much less expensive to pump oil out of the ground. I wish I could find the reference. Maybe short-term this is the way to go if Polywell works?

[Helius]

These guys do it all - suck in CO2 and convert it back to hydrocarbons for burning again:
Los Alamos Renewable Energy (LARE).

You can do the same thing with polywells, and make the process continue even at night.
Even trees can't do that!

Atmospheric C02 is in trace quantities (although important for retaining heat). The beauty of fast growing plants is that they can concentrate carbon from the atmosphere cheaply and easily. If we have unlimited Hydrogen, and Carbon limited by biomass production, I wonder what percentage of the Hydrocarbon market can be filled. What would the "refinery gain" be if we had unlimited Hydrogen to combine with the Biomass carbon? I'd guess the volume gain would be huge relative to the biomass harvested.

I agree with everyone who says Biomass is a bad idea, but I think if it is used strictly as a carbon source, and not as an energy source, then it may work without deforestation and soil degredation that biomass alone would surely cause.

[Roger]

I think coal can be turned into gasoline,

THe Air Force flew a B-52 on liquid fuel from coal last year, pretty much the same process the Germans used in WW2.

[scareduck]

Yes. Fischer-Tropsch is your friend.

[rj40]

[quote="scareduck"]Yes. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-tropsch]Fischer-Tropsch[/url] is your friend.[/quote]

According to the Wikipedia article, a large amount of CO2 would be released if fossil fuels were used to run the process. Polywell would get around that. Excellent! I'll take two.

[MSimon]

CO2 is important for plant life. Even now it is at geologic record lows.

And suppose we are headed for a little ice age. Despite increasing CO2. Then what?

[Roger]

If the thermohalenes fail it can lead to a Little Ice Age rather quickly. The models I've read about says this can happen after a period of global warming. Though the Little Ice Age is only one option of many.

[jlaw]

This might have already been mentioned, but with a practically unlimited supply of energy couldn't a large amount of farming be done in "vertical farms?"

[MSimon]

If the thermohalenes fail it can lead to a Little Ice Age rather quickly. The models I've read about says this can happen after a period of global warming. Though the Little Ice Age is only one option of many.

Global warming has been detected on Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto among other planets.

There is a 300 year solar cycle (not in the models) The current phase of global warming started in 1850. The stall since 1998 and the drop in the last year fits in with the solar model. We shall see if the drop is a fluctuation or a phenomenon. There also appears to be a 20 to 30 year cycle.

Still no sunspots:

http://spaceweather.com/

There have been no regular spots. No large ones. Since the end of the last cycle.

If we go into an ice age we will be spreading carbon black on the ice to keep the place warm. Maybe even mirrors in space. And a lot of genetic engineering for crops.

[drmike]

Thanks! That is so cool!!

Helioseismic Holography

How does helioseismology work?

The Sun is a hummimg ball of sound waves launched by turbulent convective motions in our star's outer layers. "The waves we monitor [using MDI] have a period of about 5 minutes," says Phil Scherrer of Stanford University, principal investigator for the MDI instrument.

By monitoring the Sun's vibrating surface, helioseismologists can probe the stellar interior in much the same way that geologists use seismic waves from earthquakes to probe the inside of our planet.

Intense magnetic fields around sunspots affect the transit times of sound waves bouncing from one side of the Sun to the other, variations that the MDI can detect and transform to reveal magnetic condensations (i.e, sunspots) on the hidden side of the Sun. Called "helioseismic holography," this technique can produce actual images of the far side of our star.