by guest blogger Stan Thompson
In case you came in late, the synthesis epoch is when we started making stuff like fertilizer from renewable energy which, in the previous extraction epoch, we sourced by digging or pumping matter out of the ground.
• Natural gas hydrogen is to electrolyzed H2 as jumper cables are to gasoline.
• Hydrogen, electrolyzers and fuel cells are to A/C power as A/C power was to Edison’s local generation DC electricity scheme.
• Hydrogen, electrolyzers and fuel cells belong in the same electrical catalog with copper wire, batteries, transformers, rectifiers, and inverters.
• Electricity is not “used to make hydrogen.” Hydrogen is used to deliver electricity, across space and time.
• Watt’s steam engine was to the epoch of extraction what the inkjet printer is to the epoch of synthesis. Then, coal and water made motion. Now post-carbon energy, information technology and re-purposed matter will make pretty much everything.
• The long term view of synthesis is beyond the distant mountains. We can no more envision where synthesis will take us than James Watt could picture a Ferrari Testarossa or Robert Fulton could imagine an Airbus a380.
For the full homily on the extraction to synthesis transition, visit “It’s Twilight for Extraction”.
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