Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

Lets start this debate off from square one.

That oil production may soon decline and prices will certainly go up is surely not in dispute. The market answers this:

1) Conservation, greater efficiency
2) Substitution (beef gets to expensive, you switch to pork)

This page has a rather good analysis of ethanol (although I think it's based on corn). But it lays out many ways to look at any alternative fuel source. well-to-wheel vs pump-to-tank.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4051

Also one must consider if it's really a source of new energy or just an energy carrier. For example it takes a lot of energy to free hydrogen from water. The burned hydrogen only gives back, say, 30% of the energy you used to free it. There is no source of free hydrogen on earth. Oil, by contrast, doesn't take much energy to get out of the ground. It provides way more energy that the energy needed to pump it out, refine it, ship it, etc. A hydrogen economy is really a nuclear/coal/wind economy.

An unfettered market will eventually solve the problem. Regulations and NIMBY can hinder the problem.

[Juregen]

I have a friend who has invested his entire capital in creating a factory to make Bio diesel from rapeseed.

I really see a future for crops that are now not so profitable to become more profitable due to the fact that energy (efficient solar energy isn't it) can be gained from regular crops.

There will be a huge push for engine developers to create more versatile engines that can handle different types of "fuel".

I certainly am looking forward to these things. Nothing like a good crisis to make people do something.

That said, all energy we have on planet earth comes from the Sun. My idea is that a lot of the energy from the sun is being dispersed into space.

Wouldn't it be great if we build huge solar panels around the sun, being able to transfer that energy to earth.

It's a wild dream of mine .

[mindmetoo]

I think in Canada we call rape seed, or the oil from it, "canola". Sounds way better than rape seed. For my part, in short order, let's start building nuclear plants, wind, and even tidal energy like they use in France. Also, the USA has vast amounts of coal. The problem with coal is global warming (although I think scrubbers have mostly solved the acid rain problem). But there are carbon capture technologies.

[Pluto]

I saw something on the news the other day about coal power plants. They were working on sending the waste underground. I'm not sure how far advanced that technology is at the moment. Sending the emissions underground underground as opposed as into the air seems like an interesting idea though.

[mindmetoo]

[Pak Yu Man]

What about the NOx and SOx? It's not just about CO2

[ontheway]

Conservation is the key to our energy problems. As I have spelled out in varous other threads, the US government (and other countries have, unfortunately, followed the US model) has subsidized malinvestment and infrastructure development that favored one type of fuel and one type of transportation and encouraged waste and not just discouraged, but prevented conservation.

We need to end all subsidies and taxes in all areas involving transportation, housing, energy, infrastructure planning, creation, development and maintenance. We need to turn the infrastructure over to private ownership, market management and market pricing.

Most of the energy used in the US and the world is wasted. Only the free market can allow us to acheive continued economic growth while reducing our energy consumption. Socialism is now destroying our economy, the environment, and our futures.

[mindmetoo]

[mindmetoo]

[4 months left]

Too much corn at the moment. Agreed corn ethanol is not the way to go. Brazil makes it work with sugar. The future is cellulosic ethanol that use the stalk of sugar cane or corn.

[Tony_Balony]

[huffdaddy]

[mindmetoo]

[keane]

[mindmetoo]

http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.co

Interesting blog.