LogFAQs > #981167586

NFUN posted...

"natural gas" as an idea pretty inherently involves the whole pipeline from extraction to delivery. if you want to quibble on that, whatever. my objection to that line was you not understanding how conservation of matter works (ie, if you have x molecules of CO2 and you convert it to y molecules of CH4, you end up with x molecules of CO2 at the end [and incidentally, x=y]). The amount of emissions doesn't matter because this is just the combustion process backwards! You necessarily have to store as much CO2 and you'd get by burning the methane!

I guess it would be helpful to know how much energy is lost in this process compared to traditional battery storage.

Because this IS just a roundabout way to store energy, while also requiring copper as an input product?

I'm just having trouble seeing the point of this method versus something like sodium ion batteries (which seems like a strong option for large scale energy storage as long as you have the space for large batteries)

I mean heck, couldn't you just pump water uphill with excess energy and then run a water turbine when you need the energy back later?