ways to get rid of oil spills

science_man_88 · 2010-07-29, 19:00

http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthr...268#post223268

is my way to take pollution out of the air and recreate the oil we have burned.

the Xprize people have offered a challenge through coverage on CNN for ideas to stop the oil spill.

any ideas. they are offering 1.4 million i think(check the xprize website).

cheesehead · 2010-07-30, 06:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by science_man_88

http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthr...268#post223268

is my way to take pollution out of the air and recreate the oil we have burned.

Why don't you show the net energy flow?

science_man_88 · 2010-07-30, 11:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheesehead

Why don't you show the net energy flow?

I'm not a science major

retina · 2010-07-30, 11:32

If we take the oil burning exhaust products and try to put them back together and re-form the oil then we also have to put back in the energy that was released by the burning. There is no free lunch here.

Oil does have a useful storage model. Easier to store long term than electricity. But making it in the first place is tricky. It took nature millions of years to store the sun's light energy in the form of oil. It takes us only tens of years to release all that energy again. If we were to find some way of recombining all the exhaust products (say with solar energy) then the only reason to do it would be for storage. Since if we wanted to use that energy immediately then it would be better to generate electricity directly and avoid the intermediate stage of making oil and re-burning.

science_man_88 · 2010-07-30, 11:44

I said nothing of reburning did I ?

retina · 2010-07-30, 12:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by science_man_88

I said nothing of reburning did I ?

Why else would you want to recreate the oil? There appears to be no other rational reason to recreate oil when instead we could do many other more useful things with the energy instead.

science_man_88 · 2010-07-30, 13:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by retina

Why else would you want to recreate the oil? There appears to be no other rational reason to recreate oil when instead we could do many other more useful things with the energy instead.

look this thread isn't about that stuff it's about the xprize offer.

retina · 2010-07-30, 13:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by science_man_88

look this thread isn't about that stuff it's about the xprize offer.

The oil spill problem is not about replacing the lost oil. It is about stopping it from escaping. So in that sense your proposed solution to recreate oil from exhaust products is not going to win you $1.4M.

science_man_88 · 2010-07-30, 13:52

look I wasn't saying it was.

cheesehead · 2010-07-30, 21:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by science_man_88

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheesehead

Why don't you show the net energy flow?

I'm not a science major

If you were to study just the basics of energy flows in chemical reactions, you'd find out why your suggestion makes no sense.

2010-07-29, 19:00	#1
science_man_88 "Forget I exist" Jul 2009 Dumbassville 2⁶·131 Posts	ways to get rid of oil spills http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthr...268#post223268 is my way to take pollution out of the air and recreate the oil we have burned. the Xprize people have offered a challenge through coverage on CNN for ideas to stop the oil spill. any ideas. they are offering 1.4 million i think(check the xprize website).

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2010-07-30, 11:32	#4
retina Undefined "The unspeakable one" Jun 2006 My evil lair 2²·19·79 Posts	If we take the oil burning exhaust products and try to put them back together and re-form the oil then we also have to put back in the energy that was released by the burning. There is no free lunch here. Oil does have a useful storage model. Easier to store long term than electricity. But making it in the first place is tricky. It took nature millions of years to store the sun's light energy in the form of oil. It takes us only tens of years to release all that energy again. If we were to find some way of recombining all the exhaust products (say with solar energy) then the only reason to do it would be for storage. Since if we wanted to use that energy immediately then it would be better to generate electricity directly and avoid the intermediate stage of making oil and re-burning.

2010-07-30, 11:44	#5
science_man_88 "Forget I exist" Jul 2009 Dumbassville 2⁶·131 Posts	I said nothing of reburning did I ?

2010-07-30, 13:52	#9
science_man_88 "Forget I exist" Jul 2009 Dumbassville 2⁶×131 Posts	look I wasn't saying it was.