Contributors

Sunday, May 11, 2014

The Navy Comes Through

Our government does more good things than people want to give them credit for which gets pretty frustrating for me. Here's a great example:

US Navy Cracks New Renewable Energy Technology To Turn Seawater Into Fuel, Allowing Ships To Stay At Sea Longer.

The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel could one day relieve the military’s dependence on oil-based fuels and is being heralded as a “game changer” because it could allow military ships to develop their own fuel and stay operational 100 percent of the time, rather than having to refuel at sea. The new fuel is initially expected to cost around $3 to $6 per gallon, according to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, which has already flown a model aircraft on it.

Amazing!

Consider that this same technology will be put out to the private sector at some point as well. That would completely change the face of energy on the planet. Countries like our own have access to abundant seawater which means we would be a powerhouse. Juxtapose that with out ability to innovate and that second American century is looking crystal clear.

5 comments:

GuardDuck said...

Uh-huh. We went through this two months ago when N posted it.

Mark Ward said...

I had a couple of requests for a repost because Nikto doesn't tag his articles.

Juris Imprudent said...

Yeah and you might notice they haven't actually cracked the $3-6 a gallon figure at scale - that is what they are hoping to get to.

GuardDuck said...

Plus that price point is production cost - for an organization that has already paid for nuclear reactors with excess generating capacity just sitting around.

Juris Imprudent said...

Much less optimistic than M portrays it.

Also, no discussion of what wastes are left over after the production process. The military isn't all that great with the environment in general.