I always read about new ideas that scientists come
up with to produce green energy. Although the ideas always seems that its going
to end the soaring demand for oil worldwide. there is always something that prevents those
ideas from being a reality. I recently read an article about a new aluminum alloy that researches at
Purdue University have developed. researchers say that by putting this alloy in
water a reaction takes place from which they can produce electricity from the
hydrogen produced in the reaction and also the steam produced kill the germs
and purify water to make it drinkable.
Here is a link for the
article I read, but you can find many other articles about this topic.
Such an invention can
have limitless uses domestically and militarily. I also didn’t find that many
limitations for it that could prevent it from being implemented to produce
green energy.
My question is what
could be the limitations of this method of producing energy and why such an
amazing invention and many other methods to produce green energy never see the
light?
Money is always one of the main factors when it comes to "going green." Another is the effectiveness of green alternatives. However after reading this article it appears that this alloy is very cheap to produce considering the cheap water and energy prices they provide. The article is actually from a year ago, and a Google search on it shows numerous reports on this topic from around the same general time frame. However I'm having trouble finding any updates on this research. It may be due to either some secret research the guys at Purdue are performing or simply they found a flaw with the system and it is now another idea wasted. Maybe I'm just bad at Google but if anyone finds any updates on this research it would be interesting to see what progress they have made in a year. I feel like technology like this could replace power plants to some extent, especially in less electrically active areas around the world.
ReplyDeleteAs far as green energy goes, people are always wondering why we don't resort more to wind or solar power. I learned in my thermodynamics class last year about the various sources of energy, and the fact of the matter is that coal is extremely effective. While energy alternatives such as solar power sound nice, the fact of the matter is that the energy harnessed by a solar panel on the roof of your house will not be enough to power your power thirsty home appliances such as dryers or ovens.
While we're talking about energy, I saw a documentary on Netflix about cars that got 100 miles to the gallon on gasoline but were bought out and hidden from the world by the oil companies. Whether true or not, there's a lot of politics behind issues like these. Maybe the politics is why some of these green ideas never get out there.