VirtualOptics

Global Warming Up to a Hydrogen Economy

This is one of the best explanations of the global warming controversy and the probable future of energy development. I want to remind the author to look into increasing albedo of ocean clouds as a way to reduce earth absorption of infrared. This would be implemented by "seawater droplet disseminators" that are floating barges equipped with atomizers of seawater that is transported to a level of 50 ft above the water surface and become nucleii of cloud formation. It has been observed that certain areas of the ocean, roughly located along the west coasts of continents are deficient of normal ocean clouds and would the the places where the barges are deployed. The barges would be powered by wave action power generation and switched on or off and relocated by satellite observation and communication. This may sound like a crackpot idea, but is a simulation of the normal method of cloud seeding which is wave action causing splashing and waves striking the shorelines. The calculations show that relatively few barges are needed, and when feasibility is demonstrated in one region, more barges can be replicated, providing a demand for the product. This would need to be funded by an overseeing global financial structure such as the World Bank, because there would be no direct economic return on any one company or country.

The idea was originally proposed by a Harvard professor back in the 1980's, but has been only reconsidered in recent years. A series of papers are available at: ccc2006.ca/docs/Abstra...

I also want to see your comment on the Thai system being licensed by Petrobank of Vancouver. This is a means to reduce the viscoity of heavy oil making its recovery more complete and less expensive. The basic idea is to inject air into a region beyond the oil well and combust some oil underground. The oil well has a long horizontal bore within the oil bearing strata. The heat generated will liquify the oil and tars and the pressure from injecting air will force the oil up the main well bore. The CO2 generated is retained below ground thus preventing its release to the atmosphere. By the processes you mentioned in your article, it is conceivable that it could also be converted to methane when the well has ceased production of oil. This process is the basis for optimism about the Bakken Oil Formation recently identified in the northern Midwest states and Canada.