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Author: Subject: Value of gold
Herr Haber
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[*] posted on 1-4-2022 at 15:39


Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  

If we can ever find ways to extract elements from the ocean effciently, we will be in great shape, as has a huge amount of gold, uranium, and many other elements in the ocean, so it would be a great source. They are already looking at that for lithium and some other limited source metals. Already used for salt/chlorine, Mg, Ca, Iodine, Bromine (Dead Sea), Lithium (Salton Sea), and some others.

The real Fritz Haber did try to extract gold from sea water to help Germany pay war reparations after WW1. It didnt work as expected.
A century has passed though so I guess it will be more interesting to do now.

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  

The Ukraine situation may alter the prices of Pt and Pd, as well as the use of electric cars, which don't need catalytic but do require many other metals.

That's not entirely true. The "electric revolution" will also use fuel cells that do need Pt and Pd in addition to all the batteries that as you say do require other metals.
In this regard the decades to come promise to be very interesting as there are a lot of competing technologies.


[Edited on 1-4-2022 by Herr Haber]




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[*] posted on 1-4-2022 at 17:24


Quote: Originally posted by Herr Haber  

That's not entirely true. The "electric revolution" will also use fuel cells that do need Pt and Pd in addition to all the batteries that as you say do require other metals.
In this regard the decades to come promise to be very interesting as there are a lot of competing technologies.

[Edited on 1-4-2022 by Herr Haber]


In my opinion the electric revolution is already happening, and fuel cells are not a part of it.
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Herr Haber
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[*] posted on 5-4-2022 at 09:43


I dont know... There are so many people with so many projects that seem very confident.
I count hydrogen as a part of the electric revolution and you can find PGM's all the way from electrolysis to the catalytic oxidation of the produced hydrogen in a form or another.
Some people are working on systems that use hydrides in paste form in canisters. It makes no sense to me as I imagine that the cost of producing said hydride is huge but hey, I'm not a specialist and some (I assume) smart people decide to fund this kind of research so who am I to judge ?

It certainly seems that we are at a threshold though. A bit like 120 years ago when acetylene was trying to take coal gas place while at the same time electricity was more and more common for city lights.




The spirit of adventure was upon me. Having nitric acid and copper, I had only to learn what the words 'act upon' meant. - Ira Remsen
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Rainwater
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[*] posted on 5-4-2022 at 10:25


Once we figure it out it will be all to easy. Just like medicine. The first pill can cost billions. Everyone after that is almost free



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zed
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[*] posted on 16-6-2022 at 07:35


Easy enough to make those fancy heavy elements. Just bang a couple of Neutron Stars together, and collect the material ejected by the explosion. The super dense Neutronium, upon being released from the terrible gravitational pressures inside the Neutron stars, rearranges itself into ordinary matter, yielding a decent proportion of very heavy elements. Gold, Platinum, Plutonium... Etc.

Since we don't yet have the interstellar flight, required to mine that enriched detritus, and we haven't figured out how to duplicate that Neutronium process in the lab, we will just have to scrape along, for a while.
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clearly_not_atara
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[*] posted on 16-6-2022 at 08:44


Fuel cells are very interesting for the highest-end high-performance applications. Direct borohydride fuel cells, for example, have been under development for submarines. This makes sense, because a submarine tends to cost tens of millions of dollars anyway.

For cheaper applications the range advantage of a fuel cell relative to the operating cost doesn't make sense when you can just add a few more refueling (charging) stops. Transoceanic flight is the one major exception for obvious reasons.

Mo, Ru and Pd are accessible in asteroids, but we won't mine them before I'm retired at the earliest.




[Edited on 04-20-1969 by clearly_not_atara]
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Tsjerk
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[*] posted on 16-6-2022 at 09:24


I'm really wondering whether aviation will ever be done with electricity from batteries. Synthetic fuel seems more plausible to me.
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Dr.Bob
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[*] posted on 16-6-2022 at 12:32


Batteries are too heavy, they just need a really long, light weight, extension cord instead.
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[*] posted on 16-6-2022 at 14:23


Yes, and then fly in circles.
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Fleaker
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[*] posted on 30-6-2022 at 10:47


It will be H2 storage from renewables (Ir catalyst) put into the ammonia molecule.

It will be ammonia cracked back to hydrogen and nitrogen to run a fuel cell (Ru catalyst).

It will be platinum in the fuel cell.

This is the gist of what I heard at this year's international precious metals conference.
From my understanding, US electric grid cannot support a fully electric vehicle fleet. It will be a hybrid technology of "gas stations" with ammonia.




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draculic acid69
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[*] posted on 30-6-2022 at 18:14


Quote: Originally posted by Rainwater  
Once we figure it out it will be all to easy. Just like medicine. The first pill can cost billions. Everyone after that is almost free


Unless you are in the u.s. where medication can cost more than one can pay
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