Saturday, July 02, 2005

Zinc: Miracle Metal?

The Ergosphere

I'm not educated very well in chemistry but from all the talk on engineer-poet's website, it looks like this is hopefully a possible alternative to oil depletion. I'm going to have to read some more but I have questions. Like, is zinc everywhere? I suppose so since it's in the body. I know it's in the creams I put on the skins on the butts and burns of my patients at work! From what I've skimmed so far (and I do ALOT of skimming) it takes solar energy and puts it in the zinc combined with biomass or coal (carbons) through a heating process or something like that. It makes sense. I'll need to read more. I wonder what the EROI is? Does it take alot of the substance to create the same kind of energy that oil does? It sounds good because it could be used for transportation and electricity. Should I hold off my letter to the economic development leader in my community because of this? What about pesticides? What about things made from oil-derived plastics? Lots of questions!

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