This breakthrough would allow use to “burn” organic fuels at room temperature, just like living organisms do!
http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20050419-00
An unimaginable new fuel tech, yes?
Neat, although I fail to see its use. I mean, isn’t the point of most combustion to, you know…be warm? I don’t want a stove that cooks at 75 degrees. Although I did find this line funny:
Oh, is that all? A wonder we didn’t find out about it sooner!
There are times that you want to break stuff down without generating excess heat–incinerating waste, for example. You just want it smaller, not hotter.
Also, if they find some way to generate enough heat to perform the functions of, say, a steam engine, without having to heat the fuel up first, you would be able to have smaller engines with less excess heat production, which will be invaluable in the construction of giant robots, as any good MechWarrior player knows. More to the point, you might be able to make a steam-powered engine that ran on peat moss, which would lower our dependency on oil.
(checks thread title)
Oh, good thing we’re in MPSIMS, here.
From the thread title I thought that somebody had found a dead body in the lab.
We’re already in the middle of an ethical dilemma on the peat moss front, as the demand even now, when peat moss is used mostly for home garden and landscaping purposes, is causing some environmental damage. How much worse is it going to get if we start using the stuff as fuel?
Seconded.
Dude. Don’t kill the messenger. :dubious:
… ironically enough, not intended as a reply to kaylasdad99’s post, but to jayjay’s.
Not my intention. I was just pointing out that there are underlying negatives to industrial application of even something as innocuous and relatively renewable as peat moss.
I don’t get it. How is this different from throwing a bunch of sodium into water?
“Stay tuned to see a preview of the next CSI”
It might be good for building a low temperature fuel cell.