The US navy is researching methods to make fuel from seawater and have a working prototype!
This has been a many-year effort.
Basically CO2 is extracted from sea-water by acidifying seawater with HCl and using electrolysis to extract CO2 and H2.
Then, using a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst and high temperatures (190C) long-chain hydrocarbons can be formed.
Both main reactions/processes are obviously endothermic and require energy, so you wouldn't expect a ship to make their own hydrocarbon fuel and run on it, so ships can't be self-sufficient and not need to dock for fuel. However, it also means a whole new supply chain can be opened up which don't require traditional shipping/supply of oil from oil rigs and mines around the world.
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Yay for Linux on military drones courtesy of Raytheon! It might be a smart move to do stuff like open API for cost redundancy reduction and inefficiency reduction. Security through obscurity is not real security, so it's arguable no less safe than a proprietary *nix system like Oracle.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/05/us-military-drones-are-going-to-start-running-on-linux/
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Speaking of open APIs, wtf is this:
Oracle granted API copyright, wins vs Google.
I mean, we've been down this road before with software patents and all their predicted detriments, and now you can copyright an API. Not sure how closely your API can resemble another's but this is treading deep into the patenting an idea. Maybe in 10 years time I can patent the idea of mining asteroids, even though Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries would have been going at it for 10+years. Then I'll just receive royalties from any enterprising new-space company or project and live in luxury while drowning my guilt and shame and morality in loads of ice-cream. Also, everyone will have to hire more lawyers and the ratio of lawyers to engineers, scientists and other staff would be 50-50 in any technology company. And all the lawyers will be busy doing nothing but harming everyone.
And speaking of horrible copyright and patent rulings, if you know me you should know how much I look down on the USPTO - I have no hope in it. I mean, they just let Amazon patent taking photos against a white background! Watch out, passport photo takers! - That Star Trek double face-palm image is quite apt, so is "credibility reaching zero".
This has been a many-year effort.
Basically CO2 is extracted from sea-water by acidifying seawater with HCl and using electrolysis to extract CO2 and H2.
Then, using a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst and high temperatures (190C) long-chain hydrocarbons can be formed.
Both main reactions/processes are obviously endothermic and require energy, so you wouldn't expect a ship to make their own hydrocarbon fuel and run on it, so ships can't be self-sufficient and not need to dock for fuel. However, it also means a whole new supply chain can be opened up which don't require traditional shipping/supply of oil from oil rigs and mines around the world.
----------------------------------------------
Yay for Linux on military drones courtesy of Raytheon! It might be a smart move to do stuff like open API for cost redundancy reduction and inefficiency reduction. Security through obscurity is not real security, so it's arguable no less safe than a proprietary *nix system like Oracle.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/05/us-military-drones-are-going-to-start-running-on-linux/
---------------------------------------------
Speaking of open APIs, wtf is this:
Oracle granted API copyright, wins vs Google.
I mean, we've been down this road before with software patents and all their predicted detriments, and now you can copyright an API. Not sure how closely your API can resemble another's but this is treading deep into the patenting an idea. Maybe in 10 years time I can patent the idea of mining asteroids, even though Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries would have been going at it for 10+years. Then I'll just receive royalties from any enterprising new-space company or project and live in luxury while drowning my guilt and shame and morality in loads of ice-cream. Also, everyone will have to hire more lawyers and the ratio of lawyers to engineers, scientists and other staff would be 50-50 in any technology company. And all the lawyers will be busy doing nothing but harming everyone.
And speaking of horrible copyright and patent rulings, if you know me you should know how much I look down on the USPTO - I have no hope in it. I mean, they just let Amazon patent taking photos against a white background! Watch out, passport photo takers! - That Star Trek double face-palm image is quite apt, so is "credibility reaching zero".
