<Every synthesis that is generated with the help of the sun can be reversed and release energy for human use............. but then again you have the oil mafia lobbying against those developments >
Not so Haim. BP Oil International used to pay me very good money and spend a lot on various projects to develop alternatives to oil. We even investigated tallow ester as a diesel supplement [made from sheep fat]. I used to drive a methanol-fuelled car [methanol can be made from lots of stuff, but natural gas is the main source at present - Jay's Trinidad-Tobago has got a lot of methanol feedstock]. Check out BP Solar for a very successful sun-based product. bpsolar.com
I had fun one day with my methanol car, which had a 1 litre container for petrol [gasoline] in the engine compartment for starting when cold and the usual fuel tank contained pure methanol [with 1% de-ionized water added to prevent corrosion; counterintuitive though that might seem to you, it works].
I needed some petrol, so pulled into a service station. The attendant filled the 1 litre tank and I explained that it runs on water and hardly any of it, the petrol just being for starting. So I asked him to add some water to the fuel tank. He very diffidently poured some water in from the watering can they have for filling windscreen wiper tanks. I encouraged him to give it a good slosh of water [about a litre or two]. I had my fingers crossed that the water would mix enough with the methanol [they are completely miscible in any proportions] without stalling the engine.
When I went in to pay the cashier, he was raving to the other attendant that it does run on water and he put the bloody water in himself. So are rumours born that cars can run on water and the evil oil companies buy such ideas and bury them.
When I was talking with one of the refining guys about the possibility of running California on methanol, he was, as you say, against it because there are umpty $$billion in oil infrastructure already installed. I explained to him that if we didn't do it, somebody else would, so we could either do it and dominate the market if it developed, or go out of business and have redundant oil infrastructure anyway.
As it happened, oil got really cheap again and methanol became uneconomic as a fuel again. But it, along with many other liquid fuel technologies are waiting in the wings for demand for oil to increase a bit more and the price to rise. I think there is so much oil, tar, gas and coal that we won't be seeing price rises for any length of time for a few decades yet. Nuclear power also puts a cap on oil prices.
The human population is going to plummet before we run out of oil. Demand for oil will decline along with the decline in the human population. Which will mean cheaper oil and energy as existing producers try to increase their market share to avoid shutting down their businesses.
Mqurice
PS: The oil industry is probably lobbying against subsidies for bludging farmers who want to produce ethanol, and rightly so. |
