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Could you create energy economy based on a mono fuel like concentrated hydrogen peroxide? Which catalyticly decomposes in the presence of metallic silver into steam and oxygen.

OleBlueEyes 5 July 18
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Energy diversity is one of the US's greatest strengths. So I would prefer to base an energy economy around as many sources of energy as possible because different energy sources are most efficient with different applications.

Hydrogen peroxide isn't a great energy source because it naturally decomposes even without a catalyst. This happens fast enough that your bottle of H2O2 has an expiration date of a couple years because it looses much of the hydrogen peroxide in that time. It is also catalytically accelerated by ultra-violet light so it needs to be stored carefully. Hydrocarbons, on the other hand, are way more stable chemicals.

At best, freshly generated H2O2 can be used to power small devices. I've seen little cars (less than a pound) powered by them, though I have heard of some go-cart sized as well.

My answer is, no. You certainly can't make a competitive economy based on hydrogen peroxide (relative to all our other energy sources), and it is unlikely you could even make a complete economy, either (even when you include original sources such as solar/nuclear/other).

How long are hydrocarbons actually stored. From wellhead to gas tank?

There's less diversity than you think, previous post about steam turbines producing most of our electricity. Trying to bring back the water wheel, in an updated high-tech form.

@OleBlueEyes Turbines are technically just the transducers of thermal/gravitational potential into electrical energy. They "produce" the electricity in a sense, but the original source is still quite diverse.

What are you actually suggesting?

@OleBlueEyes I don't know how long hydrocarbons are stored for.

But what I am pointing out is that a significant fraction of the usable energy from H2O2 decomposes spontaneously over significantly short lengths of time from an energy storage perspective. With hydrocarbons, while a can of gas can degrade to be less useful as engine fuel, the vast majority of chemical energy is still there, though it may need to be used by something other than a car if it's sat around for too long.

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You would need a source of hydrogen peroxide.

You make make it chemically or with electricity.

@OleBlueEyes If you have to use power to make it, it wouldn't make a good fuel.

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Never heard of hydrogen peroxide as being used as a fuel. Hydrogen would be better, but also use wind and solar power.

Remember those flying jet packs, they were powered by concentrated hydrogen peroxide being used as a mono propellant.

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Are you trying to meet women, or start a business venture, LOL!

By the way adding nanoparticles to water can make water turn to steam before it even boils..using two tiny solar panels of only a few cm to heat it. Then you can have free energy anywhere and go back to steam cars, which had almost unlimited power.

Rice University researchers unveil solar-energy technology using nanoparticles to heat water without boiling it, using tiny solar panels only a few square centimeters [news.rice.edu]

Both! Read Rice paper, you might be misinterpreting meaning of the results. It's about better absorption of the entire spectrum of light coming from the Sun.

As far as I know the second law of thermodynamics, hasn't been broken in any meaningful way.

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