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NNadir

(38,520 posts)
4. The solution for self propelled vechicles...
Wed May 13, 2026, 02:07 PM
Yesterday

...which in general, I also oppose, since I do not believe the car CULTure is sustainable in any form, lies not with hydrogen - which is possibly the worst of all fuels for many reasons on which I've elaborated - nor with batteries. There is not enough cobalt, nickel, manganese, on the planet to replace a billion vehicles. There is not enough copper either, especially since so much of it squandered on connecting all this unreliable so called "renewable energy" junk together.

The key, to my mind, lies for those self propelled vehicles that are justifiable, ambulances, tractors, buses, etc., lies with the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce the wonder fuel DME, which has a critical temperature higher than boiling water, low toxicity, a short atmospheric half life, about five days, and is a drop in replacement for LPG, methane, propane, and with minor changes to seals, in engines, diesel fuel.

The use of DME was discussed at some length by Nobel Laureate George Olah in 2011 shortly before his death in 2017. I often link the paper but am writing from a phone as I am traveling.

The hydrogen for DME synthesis would, in my view, be prepared by thermochemical splitting of water using nuclear heat, recovering exergy and raising the thermodynamic efficiency of nuclear fuel use to numbers approaching 70%, possibly a little beyond.

Interestingly, the main use for DME today is as a replacement for CFCs in spray cans, with some use as a refrigerant as well.

The hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to DME is exothermic, meaning in theory, its preparation could drive its own compression.

As it's critical temperature is high it might well function in heat transfer applications.

I fully confess that it is nonsense to state what one is against if one cannot state what one is for.

I am emphatically against batteries and hydrogen. The embrace of these unsustainable affronts to the 2nd law of thermodynamics is a very dangerous bourgeois affectation.

I feel free to be against them since I am extremely aware that a far superior option is well known.

Thanks for asking.

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