Hacker News Reader

Comment by mandeepj | Hacker News Reader

A good time to be reminded - solar and wind doesn’t need to be exported out of Hormuz :-)

The real problem is that some of the most important fertilizers are synthesized basically from methane. And about 25% of natural gas is exported via the Hormuz strait. This is something solar energy currently cannot tackle.

You can do solar -> hydrolysis -> hydrogen -> ammonia-> fertilizer, rather than methane -> steam reforming -> hydrogen -> ammonia -> fertilizer.

So it's technically feasible. Not quite there in terms of cost and scale but if the alternative is a blockade then probably worth investing in.

Ironically some of the best locations for production are in the middle east.

You can run the numbers the cost isn't that bad to do it that way.

I think South Africa gets most of its diesel from the Fischer–Tropsch process. You could use electrolytic hydrogen as an input for that. About 40% of the energy in gasoline is from hydrogen burning.

It's not great but it would allow you to run current vehicles off about 40% solar energy.

Best part you can probably miniaturize entire process into panel itself and 5 panels per hectare would be enough...

I'd like to see a turnkey synfuels plant for home/business use. Making methane or (better?) hydrocarbons. "Just add solar panels."

Anyone got a WAG about how much it would cost.

Some university in the US midwest demoed a prototype of this several years ago using wind power. Sorry no link to hand.

If 25% of natural gas demand is replaced by renewables then we don’t have to depend on Hormuz for fertilisers.

I don't think it's feasible to do get that done this season.

It’s less important to get it fully perfectly done this season and more important to actually do it at a short-medium timescale. Why are we still so dependent on the Middle East and Russia?

Actually it can, but it needs to be scaled up 1000x at least:

https://www.topsoe.com/news/worlds-first-dynamic-green-ammon...

Main innovation in this plant is that the process is optimized to run off of intermittent sources like solar or wind.

well I guess its time to grow nitrogen-fixing plants like beans & peanuts...

Solar and wind are more economically efficient methods of nitrogen fixation.

Release the strategic wind and solar reserves!

Solar and wind needs another source for base power since it is not constant 24/7 365 days and that other source is often natural gas. Nuclear on the other hand works 24/7 all year.

Solar and wind doesn't get a single ounce of grain or rice in to the market. No, actually, let me correct that. Solar and wind gets rice and grain to the markets, but only enough for roughly one billion people globally.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com