mobius217 comments

Posted in: New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane See in context

@Bob Fosse

Well I am as disheartened as you are. But we have to accept physical limits of batteries. Alternative fuel concepts have been tried way back since the sixties by the Soviets and Americans. The best ones that have worked so far for large aircraft are hydrogen fuel and biofuels derived from algea.

My bet is on Biofuels and/or hydrogen, becuase that is what actual Aerospace engineers at Boeing and Airbus are working on. They already flew a Boeing 777F test bed on 100% biofuel derived from plants, used cooking oil and animal fats.

And that brings me to another point. Research and devlopment in the aviation industry is insanely expensive and its takes a very long time to not only create a new revolutionary product but also for market forces to make it profitable. It took only a decade to make solar and wind energy competitive and cheaper than coal.

But it took more than 40 years since the dawn of the jet age to make aviation affordable for the middle class. And it took even longer than that for for us develop the material science, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and advanced manufacturing techniques just to make Ultra high bypass turbofan engines. Jet engines back it the day were a joke.

It is much easier to transition to biofuels as it requires very minimal R and D. We already have genetically engineered algea that have 70% lipid content that can be used to economically make biofuels. We just need to scale up the process to bring down the cost of algea biofuel from $8 per barrel to $1 per barrel to compete with oil.

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Posted in: New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane See in context

it is also depleted as it is used, unlike batteries which are dead weight. Planes consequently land lighter than they take off which is a benefit for many reasons.

Yes I forgot to mention this. Consider the worlds longest flight by Singapore Airlines from Newark to Singapore and back on an A350-900ULR. That flight is probably at max fuel capacity and at its maximum take-off weight. If the plane had to return to singapore due to an emergency it will have to dump 3/4 of its fuel to land back in singapore. If it landed without dumping fuel it would be massively overweight and explode in flames on the ground. In this regard hydrogen fuel is better.

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Posted in: New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane See in context

@sf2k

I agree, Hydrogen is unsafe for aviation. But it is leagues better that batter electric power. But if the world wants to properly transition to a renewable energy economy, then green hydrogen is absolutley necessary. Australia and Africa have enough excess renewable energy to power the world. How else are you going to get that excess power across oceans to places that need them most, like Japan and Korea.

Meanwhile for short distances a plane can receive microwave transmissions and pick ups in the wings. This was demonstrated to work on a Cessna in the 80's. If a plane flew in a made microwave corridor it might be able to suppliment the power needs.

A Cessna can carry only 4 people and with enough reserve power in store? Probably. Do you have a source for this? It makes sense to invest money in something like this for the military. A small electric powered drone that can stay up indefinitely powered by microwave beams from a remote locations is great for surveillance.

The champions of the aerospace industry, Airbus and Boeing are only seriously studying hydrogen and biofuel concepts for high capacity, medium to long haul aviation.

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Posted in: New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane See in context

@Bob Fosse

The developments in battery technology are commendable, but that is nothing compared to what kerosene fuel can do. Jet fuel is still the most energy dense fuel available by a longshot. Battery technology is reaching its physical limits, even with advancements in solid state batteries. Liquid fuels that release energy readily from bonds of hydrocarbon molecules are simply better. It all comes down to practicality and in the cut throat aviation industry where airlines go bankrupt all the time, this is even more pronounced.

Aviation above all else has had its naysayers since, well since the first person tried to fly. Denying the importance of this feat is just lining up in a long queue of people who were wrong.

Some industry experts criticized the practicality of supersonic aviation going mainstream back in the 60's. Nobody listened to them as that was the golden age of aviation. Look at how that turned out.

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Posted in: New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane See in context

Sorry to break it to you, but electric aviation is not going to be revolutionary. At best it will be a niche to be filled by short haul and very low capacity regional markets to replace kerosene guzzling ATR-42 or Dash 8-100 turboprops. And even that is generous.

Hydrogen fuels are only slighty better as they are very unsafe to carry on planes and they take up a lot of weight to pressurize in liquid form. They cannot be carried in the wings.

When it comes to aviation, kerosene fuel is hard to beat.

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Posted in: Japan looks to renewables; role of nuclear power elusive See in context

Just take all the human waste and plastic and metals and food waste and junk and use microbes and bacteria to turn it into energy.

Very inefficient and and low capacity power.

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Posted in: Japan looks to renewables; role of nuclear power elusive See in context

@reasonandwisdomnippon

It's pointless. Nuclear power is political dynamite in this country. Even if SMR's are viable, they will never be implemented. The restarted reactors will continue operation for the next 20 years and then be decomissioned completely. After that, Japan's energy mix will be 15% wind and solar, 10% hydro and 75% natural gas (combined cycle) power.

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Posted in: Lagging youth vote still a concern in Japan elections See in context

@Henry Montag

Yes, in the true Aussie style.

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Posted in: Lagging youth vote still a concern in Japan elections See in context

In Korea, millions of people (especially young people) took to the streets in the candlelight vigil to protest the conservative Park Geun-hye administration's corruption. And then they promtly elected the centre-left Democratic party, the second progressive administration in a decade.

Japanese youth just dont have that kind of desire and vigor.

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Posted in: Toyota testing hydrogen combustion engines in race cars See in context

@desert tortoise

What is the efficacy of hydrogen combustion engines vs fuel cell vs pure EV? From what I understand you need to crack ammonia that you stored to get back the hydrogen, pump that hydrogen into the car's fuel tank and then use it for combustion or fuel cell.

Of course if we can just create an ammonia combustion engine it would be great, but those are incredibly inneficient and have high change of producing NOx emissions.

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Posted in: Toyota testing hydrogen combustion engines in race cars See in context

@Jamminradio

You misunderstood Samit's comment, which was questioning the legality of hydrogen combustion engines and not hydrogen fuel cells.

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Posted in: Toyota testing hydrogen combustion engines in race cars See in context

Shouldn't Toyota be focusing on making that solid state battery with Panasonic we were promised years ago?

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Posted in: Political parties promise increased child aid, but more than money needed See in context

An entire ministry position dedicated towards "solving" the low birth rate in an overpopulated country?

Nobody is worried about increasing the population. You are missing the point.

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Posted in: Toyota testing hydrogen combustion engines in race cars See in context

which countries will dominate in the automotive industry in say 50 years from now?

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Posted in: Political parties promise increased child aid, but more than money needed See in context

Remember when Abe said that the purpose of raising the consumption tax was to create funding for child aid and free daycare?

That money probably got wasted on that failed, over budget olympics.

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Posted in: LDP loses one of two by-elections in blow to Kishida See in context

@Reckless

 Korean politics is more dynamic and the politically active youth are willing to fight to bring meaningful change. The Japanese youth are either sheep or have given up entirely to allow those LDP dinosaurs to run their country to the ground.

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Posted in: LDP loses one of two by-elections in blow to Kishida See in context

The legacy of abenomics:

More consumption tax for the working class - discourages spending, more deflation.

Tax breaks and subsidies for Japan Inc. - Japan Inc. hoards on people's money, spends it overseas, no investment in Japan.

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Posted in: LDP loses one of two by-elections in blow to Kishida See in context

@Reckless

Wages and quality of life in South Korea already surpassed that of Japan more than a decade ago. But Korean's have more household debt, rising housing costs and more competition for well paying jobs. Japan has more affordable housing (relatively speaking) and better job availability, but most jobs in Japan are becoming low paying temp work and this really skews employability statistics. In my opinion South Korea has far better prospects than Japan, as long as they have competent government and deal with the housing affordability crisis. Japan's future is just uncertain.

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Posted in: Japan adopts plan to push clean energy, nuclear to cut carbon emissions See in context

@HonestDictator

do some land reclamation to set up wind farms

That is prohibitively expensive and meaningless. Fixed support turbines exist for max 60m depths and anywhere deeper needs floating plaatform wind turbines.

Japan has deep coasts so floating platforms it is. Unfortunately this tech is still immature and in development.

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Posted in: Japan adopts plan to push clean energy, nuclear to cut carbon emissions See in context

@kurisupisu

No those are for homes and they are location specific. I think what you were referring to was probably the Hornsdale Battery storage centre in South Australia that was built by Tesla. Those battery storage facilities are expensive, made of toxic and rare earth metals and like Lithium ion batteries, suffer degredation and are sensitive to climatic conditions.

No, what you need is something like Ambri.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNCC8QGy_u0

These are liquid metal batteries are made of cheap, abundant and non-toxic metals. They do not degrade, have much longer lifespans than Li batteries and they are scalable. They are the best option I have seen so far. But still the company is in its early stages. Only time will tell.

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Posted in: Japan adopts plan to push clean energy, nuclear to cut carbon emissions See in context

@wipeout

probably becuase jiangsu and beijing is closest to inner mongolia and they are going to need a lot more HVDC lines. Even HVDC lines suffer losses, making them inefficient over long distances. That is why China is building nuclear reactors at the coasts.

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Posted in: Japan adopts plan to push clean energy, nuclear to cut carbon emissions See in context

@kurisupisu

I have yet to see any practical energy storage solution for solar and wind power that can be scalable globally. If we did, Europe would not be having an energy crisis right now.

And what about a energy transmission solution to go along with it?

For example China's Inner Mongolia region has enough wind energy density to meet all their electricity needs. But they can't effectively transmit that energy to their coastal cities where 90% of their population lives. So they are forced to build the bulk of their wind turbines offshore near the coasts which have much less wind.

One solution that they are experimenting with is to use the plentiful and excessive wind energy from Inner Mongolia to creat green hydrogen and transport it to their cities for use as part of a hydrogen economy.

But then problems arise becuase Inner Mongolia does not have a lot of water sources. Then there is the issue of transporting hydrogen itself, which is difficult to handle.

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Posted in: Japan adopts plan to push clean energy, nuclear to cut carbon emissions See in context

while windmills and solar panels are expensive boodoggles for virtue-signalling

They are not expensive. Not anymore. The costs of wind and solar have fallen considerably and are cheaper than coal and gas. Coal plants in North America and Europe are being decommissioned in droves becuase they are more expensive now, and not becuase of politics. The main weakness of solar and wind is intermittancy and they can be unreliable. This is why the UK still operates gas turbines even though they are blessed with a very windy climate.

Due to rising costs, France aims to reduce nuclear from 70% to 50% by 2025 and replace it with renewable energy. 

Correct me if I'm wrong but in the light of the energy crisis France has decided to scrap that plan and they are now comitted to building Gen 4 reactors and and Advanced SMR's.

@wipeout

Knowing J-gov I take any commitment's thay make with a grain of salt. Didn't Japan get busted as one of the countries that lobbied against emissions targets? I have far more faith in Korea's renewable energy plans.

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Posted in: Japan adopts plan to push clean energy, nuclear to cut carbon emissions See in context

@wipeout

But you are missing some key details. You really cannot compare UK and Japan.

Firstly the UK, Ireland and other north European countries have the benefit of shallow waters in the North Sea (less than 60 meters deep) which makes it easy for the construction of fixed support wind turbines. Japan does not have that luxury. Japan's coasts are very deep and drop off massively into the continental shelf and within a couple of kilometers the depths reach in excess of 1000 meters. This means you need floating rig wind turbines which are expensive to build and maintain. Another advantage of shallow coasts are that the UK and others can build fixed support offshore sub-stations to better transfer electricty from wind farms to the national grid. As in the case of Hornsea 2. Denmark is going the land reclmation route to build an "energy island" sub-station and energy storage facility to enhance integration of North Sea wind power into the European super grid.

Secondly wind speeds in Japan's EEZ are not as plentiful as that of Europe.

https://globalwindatlas.info/

And the windiest parts are far out in the Pacific ocean at depths of 2000 ish meters.

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Posted in: Climate: Removing CO2 from the air no longer optional See in context

https://theconversation.com/what-europes-exceptionally-low-winds-mean-for-the-future-energy-grid-170135

if wind speeds in Europe continue to stay low due to the changing climate then we have to build many more wind turbines to meet baseload supply. Like three times as much.

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Posted in: Climate: Removing CO2 from the air no longer optional See in context

@ zichi

nope. I am a first year civil engineering student.

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Posted in: Climate: Removing CO2 from the air no longer optional See in context

@ zichi

You seem far too fixated on the costs. What matters more to the energy grid? Costs or reliablity.

The world spends $2 trillion every year on military expenditure. With that money we can easily fund commericalisation of Gen 4 reactors, especially since the technology is mature and has been tested since 1967.

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Posted in: Climate: Removing CO2 from the air no longer optional See in context

Thanks for the response zichi

When will Gen IV reactors become available.

That is when the first commercial LFTR reactor in China will come online. The prototype at Wuwei will acheive first criticality this month. The first one was built at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the US in 1967. It was cancelled becuase it had no use for the military. Probably one of the worst decisions made in history.

The current costs are high. $10,000 per kW. Times that by 1000MW and then by 400 reactors.

For which country is this price. Have you compared this to nuclear kWh prices in France and China which are much cheaper than prices in North America and other European countries due to overregulation.

iii. Where are the trained resources to construct and operate them?

Currently only in China.

 Who will pay for the poor countries to construct them?

It is not the poor countries that need them. Its the developed and highly industrialised countries that need them as they are the biggest CO2 emitters.

Which countries will be allowed to produce the high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU for those reactors?

Can you elaborate more on this point?

Coal-fired plants are operating and can be converted to ammonia. Gas-fired plants can run in hydrogen.

Your kidding. You know what else can fill that role? Nuclear power. Add to that nuclear seawater desalination, nuclear based methanol production, fertiliser production etc.

Still no answer to the energy storage and transmission problem.

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Posted in: Climate: Removing CO2 from the air no longer optional See in context

Currently, in the world, there are about 440 operating reactors with a combined electrical capacity of 390 GW. Additionally, there are 55 reactors under construction and 109 reactors planned, with a combined capacity of 63 GW and 118 GW, respectively, while 329 more reactors are proposed.

Only 30 countries have reactors. 20 of them have less than 10 reactors.

This is unfortunate but the way our nuclear industry is today is becuase it was born and bred through the cold war. Governments wanted uranium thermal reactors becuase they could work in tandem with nuclear weapons programs to get the bomb. If circumstances were diffrent in the 1950's we could have gone the route of LFTR reactors which are safer, more effective, cheaper and ploriferation resistant. That is the struggle that the nuclear industry is going through today. They are trying to recreate that panacea that should have been taken 70 years ago. If LFTR became the mainstream back in the 60's then 60% or more of the worlds electricity mix could have been nuclear. We would not be talking about global warming becuase a solution to that problem would be right in our hands. But alas, that is in another time, in another life.

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Posted in: Climate: Removing CO2 from the air no longer optional See in context

Hey zichi

Germany wants to temporarily burn more coal this year. Shutting down all those nuclear powerplants may not have been a good idea in hindsight right? And just think. This is happening in Europe, which already benefits from a bounty of very windy climate and shallow North Sea coasts that make it easy to build offshore fixed support wind turbines. If wind rich Europe is struggling to wean off its dependance on coal and gas how do you expect India, China, South Korea and Japan to go coal/gas free whilst decomissioning nuclear power plants?

Awaiting you answer zichi

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