this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Technology
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A solution that is inexpensive, scales, is not inconvenient, and fits household demands? What's the catch?
I hope it's as good as it sounds and becomes a thing.
One of the big catches is how Greenhouse gas intensive concrete production is
I think the idea here is to bake it into construction that would happen anyway. If you just need energy storage, keep using batteries. But if you're pouring a foundation already, why not also turn that foundation into a battery?
concrete seems to be used here for its structural properties, just like we do it today. Their solution doesn't seem to require it:
And how greenhouse gas intensive is carbon black production?
If you’re releasing CO2 you’re losing carbon.
If you make it with electricity it’s effectively a carbon sink.
If it's just a byproduct of other industries, like existing coal power plants, it might be seen as carbon neutral. And lithium batteries also use it.
Carbon black is produced bij burning a hydrocarbon with a limited amount of air. It's not a byproduct, but uses organic materials. This can be of renewable sources like vegetable oil, but it is made a lot from the heavy fractions in fossil oil.
I mean, there's a reason why we've taken so long with even electric cars lol I hope this becomes a reality, but moneyed interests will fight tooth and nail.
Edit: Also, they sold the idea of electric cars to us so we wouldn't question a lack of infrastructure investment in railways which we so desperately need.
Yeah they’ll scoop up the technology patents and then slowly utilize it if and when it works in their favor to maximize their profits
One catch is that carbon black is mostly made from fossil oil.
It's more nuanced than that. The question is whether we're just using carbon black that's already an excess byproduct of other industries, or we'd be actively producing it to make these wall batteries.
The catch is, if it works some oil company is gonna buy it out and kill it.
The last time this news was posted everyone tore into it. I don't remember the details, but it was funny.
It's just not feasible in reality.