[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) A skeptical look at green technology

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 05:13:17PM -0700, Damien Sullivan wrote:

> On the flip side, a large stationary central source can afford better filters
> than a small mobile source.  Modern cars may be pretty clean now for random
> pollutants, but CO2 sequestration would probably work better at the coal
> plant.

I do not think sequestration works at all. Instead of focusing
our energies on an expensive boondoggle, we should rather exploit
alternative options.

I.E., instead of a Carnot-limited coal plant, gasify/synfuel coal in situ,
transport and use a local fuel cell for heat/electricify generation.
This has a vastly better J/CO2 emitted ratio than any sequestration.
 
> And I could see cases where a concentrated dump would be preferable to having
> stuff spread out; one place to avoid, vs. having everywhere become a bit
> worse.  Depends on the pollutant, but having all the DDT or mercury or lead in
> one place would probably be an improvement... heavy metals don't really clean
> up well.

Particulate filters and exhaust scrubbers work. Extracting CO2 from exhaust doesn't.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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