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THE FUTURE OF PLATINUM MINING
Lunar platinum and alcohol fuel cells (part3)
Article # : platinum183
As an interim solution, the deployment of alcohol-powered fuel cells would allow off-grid villages access to cell phones, video and audio equipment, computers, and ordinary electric light. Alcohol fuel cells running LED lights would improve standards of living and diminish the pollution and inefficiency that comes from using kerosene lamps for ordinary household lighting. A rural Indian village that “goes Wi-Fi”, powered by alcohol-based fuel cells, might thus leapfrog the 20th century and pass from the 19th or even 18th century directly into the 21st century. If the alcohol used to power these fuel cells is derived from agricultural sources, such development is also independent of the increasingly problematic global petroleum economy.
This potential use offers a staggeringly large potential market for the manufacture, sale, and deployment of fuel cells similar to that being sold today by Smart Fuel Cell for use in upscale motor homes and offshore sailing yachts. In theory, hundreds of millions of such units could be sold and deployed across India, rural China, and elsewhere in the Third World. And since the RV-sized version will be too small for many rural villages, larger fuel cell devices will require even greater quantities of platinum catalyst. While at current price levels the Smart Fuel Cell product line is too expensive for the rural Indian market, the development of a lunar platinum supply to supplement terrestrial supply could be combined with the application of global human development funding sources to subsidize the local manufacture and deployment of countless alcohol-based fuel cells across the Third World.
This potential use also creates political allies as space advocates seek sustained governmental funding for space exploration, both inside the United States and around the world. This potential use also establishes a basis for India and the United States to form a strategic partnership for the development and exploitation of lunar platinum. Our assistance with the economic development of the rural poor in India could assist the United States in forging even stronger ties with a vital future ally.
Source: thespacereview.com