From Chuck: "I have heard about this coating that acts as a battery charger but what is it made out of? Oil?"
Why do we have to make everything out of oil? That's insane.
As a kid, plastic was rare. Sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper & put in paper bags- with an apple instead of a plastic wrapped treat bar. I have to guess the wax on the paper wasn't oil based either.
Covering leftovers? Parchment paper or, at worst, aluminum foil. My first car sure wasn't a plastic factory on wheels either. Even athletic shoes & car seating have plastic coating on the leather. (With a few exceptions, such as Rolls Royce)
Food came in glass, tin or steel containers. Water wasn't in plastic bottles. Toys were steel. House paint was linseed oil based, not petroleum oil latex. Styrofoam? Don't remember seeing it. but it's everywhere now. I used to do work for a couple of movie studios. It was insane how tractor trailer after tractor trailer delivered styrofoam. It all ended up in landfills. I also do work for auto companies. They use tons of it for clay modeling substrates. I was told that Ford & Toyota recycle what they can of it. Don't know about the others.
I get sad every week when I look at all the plastic in the recycle bin- and we're light consumers. Add what "can't" be recycled, such as PVC and steam-in-bag vegetables. It's really sad. Run out of space for landfills & watch how fast we learn to recycle what "can't" be recycled. It works. Ask Japan.
My generation is the undisputed king of greed-based planet wreckers. My parents' generation was mostly inadvertent planet wreckers. For the most part, they didn't know better.
Their parents' generation were super duper industrial revolution polluters. They didn't know better.
Hopefully the 20-somethings will put greed aside in favor of saving their earth.
A "Plastic Ain't So Great" Story-
I remember the first time my mother bought something from the market in a plastic jar. It was touted as "unbreakable".
Being a dopey kid, I tested it. It wasn't unbreakable. I expected my mother to go "full speed Italian mother" on me, but she laughed her head off. (Phew!)
I'll bet if that jar was of soy plastic it wouldn't have broken & probably would have decomposed in the landfill by now. But what's the earth-cost of growing soy & making it into plastic using our current greedy ways? Only Dow & Monsanto know.
Sorry to complain so much. Our planet is a gift that I'd like to pass down in good condition to the future people & animals when I'm done with the tiny piece I'm borrowing.
Extracting Hydrogen...
From Mr_Yan: "I remember reading that the main way to make hydrogen gas was using methane (nat-gas) as the feed stock."
This makes me wonder if electric extraction could be done in an environment friendly (and cost effective) way.
Fun Hydrogen-From-Water Experiment-
I remember, as a kid, my father took a lantern battery and connected a wire from the positive pole to a carbon rod from the carbon arc street light out front, which he sharpened to look like a crayon. He connected the negative to another rod. These were put, points up, upright in a tall jar filled with enough water to cover the rods. The rods were an inch or so apart.
He suspended inverted glass jars over the rods, slightly above the water. They captured the gas from the bubbles that formed around the rods & rose to the surface.
After some time, he took one jar and, holding it still upside down, took it outside, flipped it upright and immediately held a lit a match over it. A large, blue flame came out & burned for several seconds. -Oxygen-
When putting a match over the second jar, a huge explosion occurred. Huge! -Hydrogen-
In his born-and-raised German scientist way, my father gave me a very good explanation of from what water was made of & how the oxygen (jar one) and hydrogen (jar two) were extracted from the water. Needless to say, my very Italian mother was not at home for this "Fun With Dad" project & I was sworn to secrecy.
www.energy.gov
