As the saying goes, “I have an idea for a novel…” But this time, it’s NOT as a pretext to ask a question about something grossly illegal or dangerous.
I have a concept for a planet in a scifi/fantasy setting that has an Earth type biosphere and atmosphere, but is extremely poor in all fossil fuels, even coal. (A wizard did it.)
Now, given this setup, but assuming you had technology available…would it still be possible to make synthetic fossil fuels, like kerosene or gasoline?
I know that it’s possible to make synthetic petroleum from coal, which the Germans and South Africans have done. But…can you do it without using any other fossil fuels as a base?
And, if so, how hard would it be? Could it be done on an industrial scale? And what would be the rough minimum technological level a civilization would have to be to be able to do it?
Well, thanks for your time,
Ranchoth
Yeah, the Russians developed a synthetic kerosene, called “Sintin” that they used as a component in rocket fuels. I can’t find much information on the web, though, other than the fact that it exists. I have no idea how it was manufactured, or how much it cost compared to petroleum-derived kerosene.
Actually there is a process that is operational that makes petroleum substitutes out of organic garbage such as turkey guts from a processing plant. It can’t really be called a net energy producer but it takes waste and makes into something useful.
You can make a poorer efficiency and more costly fuel from grains. Corn specifically has been used in ethanol, but with 15% gasoline. You could make it purely alcohol though. There are many technical barriers with this but it can be done.
Of course, people could go another route and use hydro/wind/solar to make hydrogen ane just use that.
The process Padeye is refering to is known as Thermal Depolymerization. You can pretty much take any hydrocarbon source, and convert it into any other hydrocarbon you might need.
According to the Wikipedia article on Thermal Depolymerization that RandomLetters posted:
Doesn’t that indicate net energy production? Or is there some obvious point that I’m missing, perhaps due to a lack of sleep, I swear?
In any case, sounds like this would be the perfect solution for the people living on the OP’s planet, so they could turn their organic garbage into easy-to-use fuels.
Well, it is net energy for us, as we can get more energy out then we need to actively put into it. The energy from the sun is almost free. Thermal depolymerization just provides a convient way of storing solar energy for mobile use. Just like regular fossil fuels are actually stored solar power.
Well, yes, but then, any fuel is ultimately a net energy loss – entropy must increase, laws of thermodynamics, etc. etc. etc. … I assumed that “net energy gain” means that you end up with more energy available than there would have been otherwise. With a process that converts garbage into fuel, at greater than break-even efficiency, you pretty much have to be producing a net energy gain, don’t you? Otherwise the garbage would just be dumped in a hole somewhere. It’s not like it would have been used for some other purpose (by us, at least – I don’t count bacteria digesting it or anything like that) had it not been converted into fuel.
It’s not like, say, a program where traditional fossil fuel is used to run tractors and other equipment to grow grain, which is then converted into ethanol, but more energy was used up by the fuel used to grow the grain than we get out of the ethanol. If the fuel hadn’t been used to grow grain for alcohol, it surely would have been used for some other purpose. But garbage would just be thrown away.
