biolithium crystals

June 24, 2005 11:18 AM

Eprida:using biomass to produce hydrogen, reduce the emissions of coal-fired power plants, and suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, all while improving agricultural productivity. A new virtuous cycle (flash)?
posted by alms (9 comments total)

*missing the days when we had trees and rain forests to help suck CO₂ out of the atmosphere.*
posted by spock at 11:31 AM on June 24, 2005

Silly me. I forgot that "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
posted by spock at 11:34 AM on June 24, 2005

I'm just wondering, what happens if I write a completely off-topic, irrelevant, nonsense post on MetaFilter? If I just talk about the juveline pink ass bunnies from Omicron 7, and my favourite brand of Pilsner, and the liquidity or otherwise of the glassy state. Does some kind of moderation sledgehammer descend and crush my nuts? Cos i don't see many other people going ape shit here, which of course is a good thing. Not that I intend to go apeshit on a regular basis of course, but I just want to get this out in the open now. Milk teats. I mean REALLY milky. Like fnar. Sayj nams fNAAAAR niv-mizz-na. If you say the previous sentence, and then replay it backwards, you will recover the sentence "I'm simply dying for some munchies". Peep peeep peep. I'm a choo choo. Hehe
posted by snoktruix at 11:52 AM on June 24, 2005

organic carbon is more readily bound to minerals to form rich soil.

As opposed to all that inorganic carbon. *rolls eyes*

... whereby biomass such as wood chips, straw, peanut hulls or other organic waste material is heated in a sealed vessel. This process drives off steam and hydrogen, which can easily be captured, purified and used for energy. Hydrogen can be used to make transitional fuels such as green diesel or ethanol today...

The bolded activities require energy input. It's possible that this process can be a net energy gain, but... it's nowhere near certain. Woulda been great if they'd included an efficiency measure in there somewhere.

ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't NH4 a complete molecule? I guess that structure would be OK if it was NH3HCO3; maybe that's a minor error but just goes to show how sloppy this site is overall. If I was a VC they wouldn't get my money.
posted by rkent at 11:56 AM on June 24, 2005

Despite the current LSD Drought, it seems that snoktruix has managed to find some. Care to share with the rest of the class?
posted by afroblanca at 12:13 PM on June 24, 2005

isn't NH4 a complete molecule

No, it's the ammonium ion which is usually found in an aqueous solution of an ammonium salt. In this case the Acid H2CO3 has one of its protons substituted for the ammonium ion.
posted by nervousfritz at 12:21 PM on June 24, 2005

Algae?
posted by Yellowbeard at 1:52 PM on June 24, 2005

Introducing organic material to thin soils improves them? Really? Especially if you toss in some extra nitrogen you say?

Not exactly breaking news.
posted by fshgrl at 3:58 PM on June 24, 2005

I've recently heard of a different cyclic system that solves several problems at once.

Methane ice mining, to get rid of the enormous undersea deposits of methane, an eruption of which could radically alter out atmosphere overnight. Instant greenhouse effect.

It works like this. First, the methane is mined, then transported to an incinerator/generator. Lots of clean electricity is generated, and the methane breakdown products, CO2 and water are returned to the mine, some of the energy being used to cool the CO2 to become dry ice.

The dry ice and water are sprayed into where the methane ice had been. This stabilizes the mine and ocean floor above, cools the mine far below the melting temperature of methane, and as the CO2 sublimates, to be replaced with more water ice, it fills the mine with CO2 gas, which also helps prevent accidental ignition in the mine.

This "cold mining" technique is a lot safer than warming the methane ice and pumping the gas out. It depletes the major risk of a massive methane release, and provides a great deal of clean energy.
posted by kablam at 6:46 PM on June 24, 2005