So this guy, John Kanzius, was looking for a way to cure cancer, but in the process he ended up finding a way to burn salt water as a fuel. He uses radio waves to burn the water. Considering how much salt water there is on planet earth, we could power everthing with this new energy source. Plus we won't have to worry about running out of salt water there is a lot to go around. And if you are unfortunately far away from the cost and you can't get salt water, John say getting tap water and putting salt in it works just as fine. this new energy source would be very helpfull to us. but already there are poeple saying that it wont work, there are some skeptics. the skeptics point is that this process of burning salt water with radio waves, is not that big of a breakthrough. they also point out that it is not that efficient because the process is putting a lot of radio wave energy and only getting small amounts of heat. I think that if we can get this technology to work we could solve all our energy problems.
website: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55934
A quick read into the website, I spotted a problem. It's not developed far enough to the point that you're getting more from what you put in (electricity wise). Though it's painful and long, research needs to be done and an improved version, to shut those skeptics up, needs to be developed. The part about using plain tap water is an interesting thought. It would get more people interested about recycling water, being self-conscious about water usage, in the US at least, and conversion of salt water to drinkable water.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this discovery would attract more skeptics than supporters. Even though it may seem like a new good alternate energy source, but it also raises up good issues about how it's efficient, cost-wise, and etc.
ReplyDeleteI bet if this energy source really did work, it'll be a great scientific advancement, but wouldn't it be easier to try to improve an energy source that is already supported by many to solve our energy problems?
I think the same issues and problems that other energy sources face such as environmental impact, efficiency, etc would be the same in the end for this energy source. So either way, I don't think this could solve all our energy problems.
But who knows, a lot of scientists made great scientific discoveries by mistake.
This just seems like a less efficient way than electrolysis to extract hydrogen from water. Meaning that it is not really an energy source but actually just a means of storing energy. Therefore even if it was to reach a higher efficiency than conventional electrolysis it would still suffer from the same problems that prevent hydrogen cars from being economically feasible today. Hydrogen is very tough to contain and transport in useful amounts and therefore costs an extreme amount of money to implement. It is currently more reasonable to just charge up a battery directly and drive off instead of messing around with hydrogen conversions. For more info visit http://dvice.com/archives/2008/07/shift_hydrogen.php
ReplyDeleteFirst off, after reading only halfway through the article, I am already skeptical of the validity of this "discovery." The entire concept seems too good to be true. In addition, the writer uses phrases such as "If it's for real," to describe the possible truth behind this newly found form of energy. Again, this creates some skepticism, based solely on the language the writer is using. With all the salt water on the planet, this appears to be a dream come true. If it actually is possible to turn salt water into a energy that we can use, and potentially halt the world's consumption of nonrenewable resources, what are we waiting for!? Oh, that's right. It's not efficient. There are factors that must be accounted for that do influence the practicality of this research, such as energy required to actually convert the water into usable energy. It does not make sense to exhaust more energy in the process than would be created as a product. Furthermore, this energy created would either have to be used or stored. And storing the energy would again cause another loss. Unless John Kanzius can come up with a more efficient method of turning salt water into heat energy, the losses are too great to be practical. Nuff said.
ReplyDelete