points by chubs 1 day ago | 0 comments
I'd love to see a 'manhattan project' to get off of oil, in any way possible eg batteries or algae-produced diesel, whatever works, for geopolitical purposes.
[–] contingencies 1 day ago
In a very concrete way China has basically been running it. It's given us EVs, a massive PV cost reduction, cheap hydropower, cheap wind power, lots of battery cost reductions, and perhaps even enhanced competitiveness in the nuclear market. Also modern high speed rail which is readily fueled by non-ICE methods.
[–] rpmisms 1 day ago
Algae diesel would be amazing.
[–] dnautics 1 day ago
Honestly not really. Insolation energy is not that high, and photosynthesis tops out at around 10% under best conditions, and that's energy out the end of photosystem (solar cells are pushing 30% and perovskite might go to 40 or 50%), so doesn't take into account inefficiency in your sugar (much less hydrocarbon) conversio. The care and feeding of algae is annoying, they grow really slowly so contamination is a constant problem, and they self-shade, so the suface area to volume of growth conditions must be high. And a high surface area means awful evap problems... The list goes on
[–] rpmisms 17 hours ago
None of those things change the fact that you're growing your own diesel, which is really cool
[–] dnautics 16 hours ago
if you want that sort of biofuel you would be better off creating a carbon fixing (non-cyano) bacterium and connecting it directly to current coming off of solar panels.
[–] shrubble 1 day ago