World running out of time for oil alternatives

Reuters (Via Drudge) ^ | Aug 18 9:45 AM US/Eastern | Anna Mudeva

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Yes sir! Plant those soy beans..............

[whd23]

The CWT plant is operational but the oil cost is a lot higher than $10/barrel. I believe that CWT was expecting to get their raw stock for either free or to be paid for its disposal. This expectation was due to (then) pending changes in regulations allowing rendering waste to be reprocessed into animal feed. The thought was that the waste to feed practice was going to be outlawed and therefore rendering plants were going to have a disposal problem. Since the regulations weren't changed CWT has to pay for their raw stock which changes the price per barrel substantially.

[tfecw]

Ahh, Thanks for the extra info. I'm finding this stuff pretty neat :) I guess we'll just have to wait and see where the tech takes us.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Like I said yesterday, if the Bush Administration would announce that it was considering selling off a significant portion of the U.S. strategic oil reserve--taking advantage of high prices to reduce the federal deficit--the price of oil would drop drastically. I believe the current oil futures market is being driven by--Saudi King Dies! Oil Refinery Fire! Middle East Violence!--etc. etc. The reason to shift to alternative energy is that burning fossil fuels is an antiquated system. We are driving the same basic automobile we were driving in the 1940's. Oil is dirty and expensive and its procurement entails politically distasteful realities.

[joesnuffy]

Let the wealthy arab Muslim terrorists become the richest in the history of the world...

And they and their allies become the new world leaders...

Every time we fill up our fuel tanks we put the money God entrusted us with into the hands of terrorists...

Why not take this option away from them while we still have the means and will to fight..?

Maybe there are those among us making too much money at this game to want it too stop.

While there is nothing redeemable about the Islamo-Fascists and Marxists..there is still a dark side to capitalism a kind of greed that supersedes patriotism and the love of the nation our founders established as an inheritance for us and our children's children.

imo

[untrained skeptic]

"Under the project, ECN will develop a new type of membrane reactor, which will separate CO2 during the process of producing hydrogen from fossil fuels, Hoff said. The CO2 could later be stored by companies in depleted gas or oil fields."

Why in the heck would we store CO2 someplace? It's a necessisary part of photosynthesis. Plants need CO2. They grow faster in a CO2 rich environment. They produce more Oxygen in a CO2 rich environment.

CO2 is not some evil toxin that must be stored away like neuclear waste.

[Brad from Tennessee]

We could use it to make dry ice, soft drinks, fire extinguishers, etc.

[nomorelurker]

Yes the farmers will have the last laugh on this. Don't know if it will be in 5,10,25 or 50 years but biofuels will start to play a significant part of the energy equation as the price of oil increases. I'm not some farmer looking for an ethanol subsidy. Saw an article in a farm magazine (so I take the number with a grain of salt) the other day that if the entire U.S. corn crop was converted to ethanol it would/could replace 30% of the U.S. gasoline usage. Add in the fact that we still produce about 40% of our own oil thats a big step to energy independence. The above numbers are rough, I know I'm mixing some apples and oranges and that we can't actually ferment the entire corn crop but they give a good idea of what could be done.

[kaktuskid]

If we run out of fossil fuels --
Stopped reading. We will never run out of fossill fuels, this guy is obviously just trying to get his name in the paper

Coal is a fossil fuel...and we have enough for 200+ years.

[JAKraig]

I am not familiar with how much corn it takes to make ethanol but making vegetable oil makes a lot more sense. We could produce enough oil to run all our cars and electric plants with land we are not now using. The price is high enough for oil now that I think many will start considering this capability. Get a Diesel car now. The demand will be high soon.

[RightWhale]

This is part of the Peak Oil theory. When they are writing about thew Peak Oil theory they ought to make some reference to Peak Oil theory instead of pretending this is a fresh discovery.

[BurbankKarl]

We can burn muslims for fuel.

[nomorelurker]

I have 2 diesel pickups now.

[Faraday]

Many of your links are mis-entered. There seems to be missing a slash after "org" in many of the links. Zero point energy seems unlikely to provide a solution to the need for energy requirements as it occurs on a quantum time scale.

[nomorelurker]

Also please note that I used the term biofuels. You are correct bio-diesel may be a better alternative. All will wind up in the mix. Additionally corn is just an example, sugar from cane or beets is better for alcohol production as I understand it, but I'm not a chemist.

[gogeo]

I think the idea of selling some of the reserve is misguided, and I hope it's never seriously considered. It's for emergencies.


If some middle east country goes jihad on us and blows up their pipelines, then that's an emergency.

[concrete is my business]

It has to be mined, not drilled.

A messy, dirty and expensive process.

Canada has developed technology that has lowered the costs and pollution but I think the EPA could bankrupt these companys if they tried operating in the USA.

[thackney]

Wind, Solar and Biomass are not replacements for oil. They serve different markets and cannot replace oil.