[Vision2020] Conserve precious Oil

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

Ted, Bill, et al,

The hydrogen and oxygen for fuel cells can come from water.  Solar power can be 
source of energy for the electrolysis of the water and pressurization of the 
gases.

Wayne

Art Deco  (Wayne Fox)
deco at moscow.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tbertruss at aol.com
  To: Bill at strand.bz ; vision2020 at moscow.com
  Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 8:14 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Conserve precious Oil



  Bill et. al.

  I think you are correct about bio-fuels as an alternative to oil.  In fact, it 
will be difficult for any alternative fuel to compensate for the cheap abundance 
of energy from oil.  Gas would need to rise over $5 a gallon to... I'm not sure 
at what price for gas that alternative fuels would start to compete in the open 
marketplace, but it's very high.  And then the availability of the quantity of 
alternative fuels needed to replace the prodigious amount of energy from oil 
that we currently use is another problem, as you pointed out with your 
examination of what it would take to replace oil with canola.

  We have heard a lot about fuel cell cars and the coming hydrogen economy, but 
there is no free lunch.  The hydrogen must come from hydrocarbons (propane 
or...) or some other source, and this may not be as cheap as oil is now.  Fuel 
cells do produce energy from a given amount of propane that is more efficient 
than burning the propane in an internal combustion engine.  I guess if you want 
to run your internal combustion car on propane this is not so hard to do?

  But unless there are some break throughs in energy technology, the world will 
face a major economic crisis when oil starts to run out.  Using less energy per 
person seems like the only practical solution.  Just try and tell that to the 
average American!

  What ever happened to fusion power?  Seems like this technology is just not 
currently practical.  If it could be made to work, this would help solve the oil 
crisis, but this is a big if.  So much for the happy face technologists who 
think science and technology will solve our energy problems!

  Ted Moffett


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