# Hydrogen fuel may disturb ozone layer or: environmentalists need to bitch to survive. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 13, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydrogen-fuel-may-disturb-ozone-layer-or-environmentalists-need-to-bitch-to-survive/181585 "2003-06-13T15:18:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydrogen-fuel-may-disturb-ozone-layer-or-environmentalists-need-to-bitch-to-survive/181585/41 "2003-06-17T02:02:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by A Monkey With a Gun \* > \*_Tidal power? ::whistles:: Those things sound nice, but are usually an environmental nightmare. Fish kills and invertebrate kills seriously affect the local food change and altering the circulation pattern of the coast can produce possible flooding of nearby areas or dry up headponds. Shit, the damn things can even alter local weather patterns. Any proposed tidal plant is going to have a huge NIMBY_ problem. > > That said, if I remember my British geography right, they may have sites where it could work. \*\* Check the BBC website. They have an article up today about a permanent tidal power station, in Devon (right near where I stay when I go there…maybe I can go watch the construction) which is underway. They solve the fish kill issue by very slow-moving turbines. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydrogen-fuel-may-disturb-ozone-layer-or-environmentalists-need-to-bitch-to-survive/181585/42 "2003-06-17T02:17:05Z")
Thanks! Let me ask you another question regarding coal. You describe it as a “tree”. So that _wouldn’t_ be an alkane, as it isn’t linear, right? (My organic chemistry classes from college are a little fuzzy) Also, you said you got government funding for alternative energy. Can you expand? What do you actually do, etc, etc. On preview, thanks for the tidal power link, too. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydrogen-fuel-may-disturb-ozone-layer-or-environmentalists-need-to-bitch-to-survive/181585/43 "2003-06-17T02:31:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by A Monkey With a Gun \* > \*\*Thanks! Let me ask you another question regarding coal. You describe it as a “tree”. So that _wouldn’t_ be an alkane, as it isn’t linear, right? (My organic chemistry classes from college are a little fuzzy) > > Also, you said you got government funding for alternative energy. Can you expand? What do you actually do, etc, etc.\*\* My scanner is dead or I might scan something in for you. And I searched my own board, and apparently I’ve never posted a pic of coal. So I went to Google and found an example or two: [http://www.ems.psu.edu/~radovic/coal\_structure.html](http://www.ems.psu.edu/~radovic/coal_structure.html) It’s not as complex as the one I’m looking at, but it gets the point across. I receive some government funding (I have for a few years) to examine biomass and renewables supplements to existing power sites, including coal sites (which typically have lots of room). In addition, I’ve been examining biomass combustion from various angles - solid, liquified, and gasified, under funding from the DoE and other sources. I specialize in coal, however. All aspects of it, from detailed combustion analyses on-site mucking around in the yard, to legal and contract aspects of international futures. I manage some large engineering projects as well involving design of retrofit and new modifications to coal plants around the world, and write software to do analysis of various engineering problems (most recently, feedwater heater analysis), especially combustion-oriented ones. When the time arises, I get hired as an “expert witness”, an owner’s engineer, and a couple of fun times, as a “hatchet-woman” to shoot down the horrendously inflated claims of vendors who approach power plants trying to sell very expensive snake-oil. To do this, I travel to Europe, South America, and all over the US. Oh yes - recently I decided to expand my career options, and I’ve started managing a redesign of neural network AI systems at 3 power plants in the former East Bloc. Not fun to learn on the fly, but I’ve got a good background, and there are, after all, 24 hours in the day and 7 days in the week… Una ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydrogen-fuel-may-disturb-ozone-layer-or-environmentalists-need-to-bitch-to-survive/181585/44 "2003-06-17T03:33:02Z")
thanks again. And your link is _less_ complex than the things your studying? Wow, the linked molecule would have given this molecular biologist nightmares in college if I had to study something with so many rings. DNA is actually a far less complicated molecule than that thing. (to me, it looks like one seriously fucked up sugar - except there aren’t any hydroxyls) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydrogen-fuel-may-disturb-ozone-layer-or-environmentalists-need-to-bitch-to-survive/181585.md?page=2)