If this isn't a hoax -- and I can think of four or five times in history where almost exactly this setup was used as a hoax, and the people got away with the equivalent of millions of dollars -- it's potentially the best news I've read, like, ever.
My personal hoax-o-meter puts this at an 8, where 1 is "sell plasma to get more money to invest in it" and 10 is "get out the tar and feathers".
The claims being made -that anything with carbon can be input - are pretty broad.
In addition to the thermodynamic problems - are they really not using more energy to process the stuff than is in their output, there are a couple of things that sound iffy to me.
First of all, their claim that no harmful byproducts are produced. I find it hard to believe. Also they say "minerals" are byproducts... well, what's that? Solid waste they can't process... but how much? What's it made of?
How long does it take to tune their machine to different input streams? What happens if it's not tuned precisely? How do they tune it? I suspect that the answers might be "a long time", "noxious goop messes everything up", and "carefully" might be the answers even if they're otherwise legit.
Another thing to realize is that if they're using catalysts to help process the goop, there are volume issues there as well... it might work great with one batch, but then require frequent infusions of new catalysts... so it might work fine on paper, but not be sustainable in practice.
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Date: 2003-04-22 06:33 am (UTC)The claims being made -that anything with carbon can be input - are pretty broad.
In addition to the thermodynamic problems - are they really not using more energy to process the stuff than is in their output, there are a couple of things that sound iffy to me.
First of all, their claim that no harmful byproducts are produced. I find it hard to believe. Also they say "minerals" are byproducts... well, what's that? Solid waste they can't process... but how much? What's it made of?
How long does it take to tune their machine to different input streams? What happens if it's not tuned precisely? How do they tune it? I suspect that the answers might be "a long time", "noxious goop messes everything up", and "carefully" might be the answers even if they're otherwise legit.
Another thing to realize is that if they're using catalysts to help process the goop, there are volume issues there as well... it might work great with one batch, but then require frequent infusions of new catalysts... so it might work fine on paper, but not be sustainable in practice.
So, in conclusion, I'm not holding my breath.