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Giant Microwave Turns Plastic Back To Oil
New Scientist ^ | 6-26-2007 | Catherine Brahic

Posted on 06/26/2007 2:48:23 PM PDT by blam

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To: blam

If they microwaved the immigration bill, would it turn back into sh**? Oh, that’s right. That’s what it is in its present condition.


21 posted on 06/26/2007 3:19:38 PM PDT by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
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To: Nathan Zachary

Never stand in front of a 200kw microwave,,you could revert back to oil..!!


22 posted on 06/26/2007 3:22:56 PM PDT by silentreignofheroes (When the Last Two Prophets are taken, there will be no Tommorrow!)
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To: Edward Watson

Similar tech has been weaponized for use against rioters.

(Heats up skin, or more acuately, the water inside skin.)


23 posted on 06/26/2007 3:24:19 PM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Fred Thompson)
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To: syriacus
An abstract of a patent application for MICROWAVE-BASED RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBONS AND FOSSIL FUELS
24 posted on 06/26/2007 3:29:56 PM PDT by syriacus (If the US troops had remained in S. Korea in 1949, there would have been no Korean War (1950-53).)
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To: blam
Reminiscent of the "Anything Into Oil" story that came out four years ago, looked spectacularly promising, and has apparently gone nowhere.
25 posted on 06/26/2007 3:32:58 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: blam
"Anything that has a hydrocarbon base will be affected by our process"

Dude! Peoples are hydrocarbon.... and soylent green is people

26 posted on 06/26/2007 3:38:40 PM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (An unending supply of the elderly, a microwave and !Voila! Energy independence.)
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To: blam

The first thing I’m thinking is “weaponize it”.

The second thing is, the article says anything with a hydrocarbon base can be fed into the machine. Does this go for... say, maybe... vegetable matter?


27 posted on 06/26/2007 3:51:00 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: Edward Watson
Can it be used as a weapon? Imagine melting enemy vehicles or equipment.

I can just imagine this... Turn all their tires and plastics into combustible fluids and gases... and then light it on fire.

28 posted on 06/26/2007 3:52:12 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: blam

And exactly how much energy does it take to make a gallon of oil this way?


29 posted on 06/26/2007 3:57:23 PM PDT by BuffaloJack
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To: Born to Conserve
You are certainly no petroleum chemist.

I am not, either. Can you explain to those of us who are not, the errors in Post 11?

Thanks.

30 posted on 06/26/2007 4:00:27 PM PDT by Gorzaloon (Global Warming: A New Kind Of Scientology for the Rest Of Us.)
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To: philled
This is interesting and much more useful than my microwave that excels in turning popcorn into carbon. If the government would give me huge subsidies for doing it, I’d be singing a different tune...

I'm pretty sure he used the "Pizza" setting on the microwave.

31 posted on 06/26/2007 4:19:04 PM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: coconutt2000

Sure, it can be a weapon against anyone you can get into a vacuum. LOL


32 posted on 06/26/2007 4:19:48 PM PDT by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: blam

How many gigawatts does it require? The Chinese also have a solution, they just throw everything into their furnace burners.


33 posted on 06/26/2007 4:25:24 PM PDT by fso301
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To: mbraynard

Those are not landfills they are urban mining resource areas.


34 posted on 06/26/2007 4:31:25 PM PDT by pointsal (q)
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To: blam

Giant Microwave Turns Plastic Back To Oil

Mayor Rocky Anderson, Mayor Gavin Newsom & Bloomberg need to read this!

Salt Lake mayor calls for bottled water ban
12/15/2006 2:17:29 PM
SALT LAKE CITY — Mayor Rocky Anderson has asked the city staff of 400 to stop buying and drinking bottled water for public meetings and office events and to use tap water instead, according to a December 15 story from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Anderson told city department heads in a memo that the manufacturing of plastic water bottles consume over 10 million barrels of oil year and 80 percent of the bottles end up in landfills, the article said.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855170/posts


35 posted on 06/26/2007 4:40:26 PM PDT by restornu (Whatever time we have is being paid for with our life!)
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To: ClaireSolt
Sure, it can be a weapon against anyone you can get into a vacuum. LOL

Space based weapon... Recycle enemy satellites into fuel and spare parts for our own satellites. :-)

36 posted on 06/26/2007 5:25:28 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: Edward Watson

“Can it be used as a weapon? Imagine melting enemy vehicles or equipment.”

Actually the Japs decided to build a microwave superweapon instead of the atomic bomb. I saw a show on it one time. It was pretty impressive for it’s day and good thing for us they didn’t have it perfected by the end of the war.


37 posted on 06/26/2007 5:40:56 PM PDT by quant5
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To: BuffaloJack
"And exactly how much energy does it take to make a gallon of oil this way?"
I bet it takes a heck of a lot more than you get back.
38 posted on 06/26/2007 6:26:48 PM PDT by Abcdefg
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To: syriacus

Sounds totally cool to me. Industrial strength electronics “modifying amplifiers and power supplies” is something I used to be involved in.
Induction heating has been around for a long time; basically, you’re able to heat steel by placing it in a varying magnetic field. The molecules inside the steel are forced to keep changing their alignment building heat: ‘hysteresis losses’.

I recall something like 50kw and 450kHz. You could turn steel cherry red in about 20 seconds. That’s why I always thought of it as a microwave for steel. It was just an oscillator - water cooled vacuum tubes - and the output coil was really very much like the antenna on a transmitter.

Back to the HAWK, like so many new energy devices it’s going to depend on the cost of energy at any given time and a whole host of other factors, markets, and governments around the world. But it sure sounds cool.


39 posted on 06/26/2007 7:11:43 PM PDT by WhoisAlanGreenspan?
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To: blam

What if you stuck Jerry Lewis’s head in this thing?


40 posted on 06/26/2007 7:18:23 PM PDT by Krankor (kROGER)
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