On Jun 14, 2009, at 10:08 AM, Lawrence de Bivort wrote:
Hi, Robin,
Agreed that carbons can be used to make carbon compounds. But, as
you point
out, there is non-trivial the matter of energy consumed in the
process and,
I would add, the non-trivial matter of economics.
There is a reason we aren't making carbon-based materials out of
CO2. And
this same reason is the reason why we should be conserving oil for
feedstock
purposes, rather than fuel.
It is notable that we *can* make feed stocks from CO2 using algae and
sunlight:
http://www.oilgae.com/
Unfortunately, most of the CO2 producing plants are in the north.
One solution might be to pipeline CO2 south. Probably more sensible
to build new hybrid plants in the south and ship power to the north
using HVDC transmission and and bio-oil products using pipelines.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
