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A quick idea for when there is cheap and plentiful energy
Sidestepping the very difficult question of how humanity will even get to the state of having cheap and plentiful energy, I wanted to quickly word vomit an idea that’s been bouncing around in my head the last couple of years: plasma gasification.
In short, this is a process involving a plasma torch to gasify materials: “The waste is heated, melted and finally vaporized. Only at these extreme conditions can molecular dissociation occur by breaking apart molecular bonds. Complex molecules are separated into individual atoms.” [1]. The effect of molecular dissociation has massive implications for what we can do with almost any sort of material good produced today. I can imagine it being possible to use plasma gasification for molecular dissociation, after which the now separated atoms are filtered by element type using nanofilters developed for desalination plants (the process used for separating salt from water) [2]. So now imagine tanks full of Hydrogen, Carbon, Oxygen, etc. which can be transported and sold back into industry. The obvious problems with this approach are that this method has never been publicly attempted before, and I have absolutely no sort of formal education in this domain. The point is, I just like the idea of having a truly cyclic material lifespan.