Scientists Discover Alternative Way to Make Plastic »
Posted By IsraGeek 6 months, 1 week ago in Science & TechnologyScientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered a way to transform plant cellulose into plastic in a single step. Although the process is expensive, it offers a better alternative to the current process which involves oil.
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IsraGeek
I am a thirty-something (on the low end of the thirties) "hi tech" professional from Tel Aviv, Israel. Although I am in the twilight of ...
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Mikunited6 months, 1 week ago
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It would be wonderful if this worked on a commercial basis.Our reliance on oil for fuel and plastics is the single most destructive force human kind has unleashed on the environment.It is obvious anyway,that as oil becomes more scarce, over the next 2 or 3 decades,replacements need to be found.This process sounds most promising---Thanks for the share
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CHAM6 months, 1 week ago
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Jeboba. Those Radical Buttheads in the middle east actually own the oil, don't you think?
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But as to the amount of oil available to the United States, the Bakken Field in the Dakotas and the Green River Field in Colorado and surrounding states has an estimated reserve of 2.5 Trillion barrels. At our use of 20 million barrels per day, those 2.5 Trillion barrels, if all could be recovered, would last the U S for the next 342 years at the curent rate of usage.
Course in this time of poor economy, Royal Dutch Shell (doesn't sound like an American Company to me ) has the rights to develop most of Green River.
And that doesn't count the coal reserves that could fuel us at our present rate for upwards of a thousand years. Then there's Solar, GeoThermal, Wind, etc. etc.
But I am glad they found a better way to make plastic - without oil.
And it would be nice if American Companies, or even better yet, the American people were given title to the reserves. -
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CHAM6 months, 1 week ago
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Pokydoke. What you say is correct. But it doesn't mean it can't be done. And what irks me the most is who gets the license to do the extraction.
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It reminds me of the time during Nixon when $20 Billion was taken from the American taxpayer to develop a Coal Slurry that would stay in suspension in tank farms and could be piped.
The problem was that in the early 30's some American Companies developed this very technology and placed it into service in south Africa in 1934.
A homogenized slurry was refined with de-sulfurization here in the U S after Nixon's $20 Billion disappeared with nothing to show for it. The company I worked for put de-sulfured "Clean Coal" on the market in the 80's.
Do you hear the howl now that there is no such thing as clean coal? -
mkymorrisComment removed: Hard Banned
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