Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...
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The nuclear future here will be thermochemical hydrogen used captively to make dimethyl ether, (DME).
This is what we should be pushing for.
DME is much like LPG in its properties, and is more versatile than either gasoline, natural gas, LPG. It's extraordinarily clean and can be made with a nuclear source of primary energy.
NNadir.
DME is consistent with the use of nuclear power for motor fuel manufacture. Arguably nuclear power could be the best option for making the stuff.
DME is the perfect fluid fuel for generation synthetically from hydrogen, since it can be made by hydrogenation of carbon dioxide directly.
I wrote at length about this subject in a diary called "Banning Oil: Dimethyl ether, Hydrogen, Nuclear Power and Motor Fuel for Cars and Trucks."
Here is the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/24/195214/27
DME is suitable for use in all gas fired systems, including gas fired turbines that could be used in automotive settings. It runs diesels quite well. It is non-toxic. It has a short lifetime in the atmosphere.
Best of all, it is available conceivably in vast quantities from nuclear energy.
-NNadir