Japanese idea of using satellite for split water on the ground

I pulled "2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future" off the shelf last night. O'Neill was more optimistic about hydrogen use than what I had remembered. He quoted one expert who said that the fire from a damaged hydrogen tank can actually be less dangerous than that from a ruptured car or airlinerfuel tank, because the flames and hydrogen tend to go upward, away from crash victims and property. He also mentioned the metal-binding storage medium that somebody here was talking about. That said, he did still mention the idea of adding carbon to "pacify" hydrogen to make it less volatile. But he left it open which synthetically generated fuel would predominate, mentioning methane, ethane, propane, and butane.

Regards,

Mike Combs

>
> Working strictly off of memory, I seem to recall that
> O'Neill advocated using SPS energy to make some other liquid fuel using water
> and CO2 as feedstock. Some fuel that would remain liquid at more
> reasonable temperatures and pressures.

Please provide mroe details. I'll try to remember to have a look for that book tonight. Any fuel which contains carbon will contribute to greenhouse gas emmission. I really should have stuck the word "atmospheric" in front of "CO2". If we subtract the same amount as we put back in - no net change.

Regards,

Mike Combs