Thursday, April 17, 2014

Mining methane

BBC News - Methane hydrate: dirty fuel or energy saviour?

The article looks at the question of whether mining methane hydrates would be a good idea, or not.  One thing it doesn't mention is what sort of benefits could come from the widespread use of methane for fuel cells, rather than burning it.  I would like to know what difference that would make.

Update:  interestingly, via the link in the last paragraph, you can get to a Tim Worstall post about fuel cells, about which he seems to know quite a bit.  His conclusion:
My basic belief about solid oxide fuel cells is that they’re going to be the technology we all end up using. No, I don’t know the precise technology, rare earth, scandium, bismuth, that will win out in the marketplace. But my operating assumption is that wind and/or solar to the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen which is then stored to be run through a solid oxide fuel cell is the basic answer to future energy needs.
Carbon pricing to make that happen faster would help, no?

1 comment:

John said...

Brilliant, thanks. I have noted some incredible developments in energy storage technology. It hasn't hit the mainstream yet but commercialisation is probably already underway for a few of these. Very promising. It is the future and yes it does need investment and start up initiatives by govts.

BTW, I think Abbott and Co now have a problem with their AGW stance because even in Australia public awareness is growing. By the time of the next election they are going to have a very hard time justifying their stance.