An idea to solve our oil problems.

[PyRo]

Then we need more nuclear and hydro plants. Surely with the technology of today a Nuclear plant would be almost as safe as a coal fired plant?

Nuclear plants are and always have been perfectly safe. The problem comes in when you put incomeptent people in charge of them. Just about every nuclear incident can be related to a person or group of people doing somthing stupid and/or failing to do somthing intelligent. Look at chernobyl, the reactor didn't just randomly catch fire some genious decided to pull all the graphite rods out during a test and the reaction got out of control before they got them back in.
The second problem is the storage of nuclear waste. Only so much can be burried in the desert and launching it into space is cost and resource prohibitive.


What would be the biggest change in human history since the inception of fossile fuels and the industrial revolution would be if someone figured out how to sustain "cold fusion". All of North America could be safley powered, heated, and car batteries charged by what would amount to a couple barrels of waste a week. Anyone have any ideas for creating and sustaining conditions similar to those of the surface of the Sun? Currently we can recreate this process but it takes more energy then it creates because we can't get it to self sustain like it does on the sun. I'm sure it is possible to do this, it's just a matter of how long before the technology is invented if it is invented. It could be the scene from a movie where some sicentist wakes up and smacks himself for not realizing the answer was staring him in the face all along, it could be a thousand years away, or we could use up all our fossile fuels, burn the forests, enter another ice age, and revert to life as it was 10,000 year ago before it happens.

[PyRo]

The car could use gasoline to start, and the power of the wheels rolling can generate the electricity which at a certain point will kick in to start the spool valve/compressor process. That way, gas will only be used for the first few miles or at certain speeds until there is enough power being generated by the motion of the car to create a self-sustained air powered car.

You're basically trying to create a perpetuale motion machine. That idea has been gone over already. The hybrid cars work by having a gas generator run constantly. THe gas motor doesn't run for the first few miles to give the battery its initial charge then shut off and allow the wheel motion to recharge it.

[PyRo]

i think its a good idea, but it needs refining.

my idea, run the world off bio-diesel. its already been done (the original diesel engine ran on peanut oil) its safe, its clean, and it smells like french fries!

Bio-Diesel and ethenal are great in theory but they present the same problems as fossile fuels. They depleate the soil which is a non-renewable resource. You can fertalize all you want but once top soil is depleated it will never be the same. Try scrapeing two feet off sould out of your garden and growing some vegatables. You can fertalize the hell out of it but it still won't grow like it would have in those first two feet. Then you have fertalizers and pesticides running into ground water. Then don't forget to get this ethanol you're running all kinds of farm equipment that burns fossile fuels.

Ethanol is not the answer to anything except buying up surplus corn. Bio-diesel is not the key either. All it is capable of is keeping fuel costs down for the few who use it. I have no problem with the recycling of used oil this way but it's impossible to produce enough efficantly to run a country on.

[PyRo]

Compressed air won't yeild any better milage that a hybrid or diesel car. All you do is complicate things.

[PyRo]

In conclusion:
So good short term goals would be:
1. Get people to be concious of energy use and less wastefull.
Shut off lights when not in the room, use air conditioning spareingly, shut off TVs when not in use, etc.
Make apliences and all household products useing electricity more efficant without going nuts.
2. Home heating/cooling. Require proper insulation and double or tripple hung windows in all new construction and make people aware of the benifits in older construction. In most areas this is alredy in effect. More effivant air conditioning and heating systems. Multiple heating zones in houses is a great one. Provide people with information about heating/coolig efficency. Perhaps create a type of reward system for those useing less fuel. Example; the first hundred gallons of heating oil a year is exempt from taxes, the next hundred gallons is taxed X-amount and so on. Although to be fair the system would have to take into account the size and age of a home.
3. Renewable energy sources. Solar and wind fields whereever practical, and pannels on roofs of houses where practical. Hydro-electric really screws up rivers too much to be a good energy source.
4. Automobiles are the hardest to look at because our society is based on them, and we have a conotation that bigger is better.
As far as new cars move towrds dieself motors I have no idea why diesels arn't more popular in the U.S.. The Jetta TDI vehicles are getting about the same gas milage as the hybrids and they still have power unlike the hybrids. Diesel trucks tend to get a couple more MPG then gasoline motors although the differance isn't huge.
Somehow we need to get people to stop thinking big SUVs or luxery cars with big motors are status symbols. If you need a pickup truck to haul around a trailer ever day or 50 boards of sheetrock that's fine. But you don't need an Excursion because you go to home depot and buy 3 2x4s once a year.
Encourage carpooling.
5. Buiild more nuclear power plants.
6. Put more money into researching alternative nuclear and non-nuclear power sources.

[Pacifist_Farmer]

I said it in post 4 and it;s been reiterated, it won't work.

Pyro is headed down the right road, improve efficiency until we have alternative sources.

[Lohman446]

Pyro and I have already both stated it and it needs stated again. The movement of the car cannot be used to create enough energy to sustain movement - it takes more energy to create energy then what is gained. IE more energy to get to speed to allow the "wind" energy to create power. While ideas such as regenerative braking do create some energy it takes far more energy to get there then is created by the systems. Regenerative braking is only useful because braking is a waste of energy anyways. Overcome this base fact of physics and you have created a perpetual motion machine, which is not within the forseeable future.

Personally I beleive the answer is in ethanol and a better system to refine ethanol to use (or soy based if you don't use corn). This uses a renewable resource that America is the top grower of. Not only does it "solve" the oil problem, it also furthers America's domination of the world politically and economically. It is also very likely that any vehicle capable of running on pure ethanol would also be able to run on gasoline, if not fully at least trace amounts. This solves the infastructure issue assuming the old tanks and pumps could be used to pump ethanol. The same argument could be made on the infastructure of a bio-diesel, any bio-diesel vehicle is probably able to run trace amounts of gasoline in it as well.

The answer to America's energy problem is not in Alaska, its not in space, its growing in the ground all around us.

[maxama10]

So what does Mcdonalds do with all that oil anyways? They should be required to donate it to collection agencys who from there filter, treat, and distribiute it to the public for a very low fee. Random idea, didnt put much thought into it so if it sounds stupid then it probably is.

[PyRo]

Bio-diesel and diesel are completly interchangeable. The only time you need to make changes is when you want to run bio-diesel with less refinement. You could dump a gallon of vegtable oil in with every 5 gallons of gas and not see any problems.

Ethanol, I'll say it again, it can help but it isn't the answer. Ethanol isn't as renewable as everyone thinks it is. Once the soil is depleted it's depleted. We also don't have the capability to produce enough ethanol. Ethanol is also more expensive then gasoline is evern at its current price.


Cheap and easy ways out:
Bomb China back to the stone age and make sure their economy is ruined. One of the biggest reasons for increased oil, wood, and steel prices is growing demand from China. Last I checked scrap steel was going for $7.50/100lbs. To further reduce prices follow China up with India. As a bonus once India no longer has any phone lines Dell will be forced to return customer service to the U.S.
Use coal as a power source. This will put a huge gapeing hole in the ozone layer but the United States has one of the worlds largest coal deposits in the North East.

[Muzikman]

Nuke plants are a lot safer, and better for the environment. People just get scared when they hear the word nuclear because they don't know anything about how it actually works. If I could get a nuclear powered car I'd be all over that.

Tell that to the folks at Chernobyl...well, what's left of them.

I am not anti-nuclear, far from it...I do think we need more plants...just don't fool yourself in to thinking it's completely safe.

[Ole Unka Phil]

Tell that to the folks at Chernobyl...well, what's left of them.

I am not anti-nuclear, far from it...I do think we need more plants...just don't fool yourself in to thinking it's completely safe.

That was a Graphite embeded reactor. And very poorly run one at that. I don't advocate that design and even when they built it they knew it was seriously flawed concept. No one else would build one. Then they set about making sure it would fail by poor management. They had no way to stop a runaway reaction. Which they deliberately caused. Thats an atypical senerio of a plant. We have mostly water cooled reactors with redundant systems. If that one taught us something it was that we were right not to build any plants like that.

[beam]

When Ethanol can efficiently be made out of any cellulose, not just corn or sugar cane, watch out.

Any stick, weed, leaf, etc. becomes potential fuel. And then you just regrow more.

[SCpoloRicker]

TANSTAAFL

Thats all I need to say.

I'm actually right in the middle of re-re-re-reading that!

/We will throw rocks, Man.
//Oh for Bog's sake, Mike!

/// Is/was Lazarus Long part of the Stone Gang?

[Jeffy-CanCon]

Ethanol isn't as renewable as everyone thinks it is. Once the soil is depleted it's depleted.

O Rly?

Then how have humans managed to farm the same pieces of ground for thousands of years? Could it be that all those fantastic stories about manure and composting are true?

I'm actually right in the middle of re-re-re-reading that!

/We will throw rocks, Man.
//Oh for Bog's sake, Mike!

/// Is/was Lazarus Long part of the Stone Gang?

I beleive Lazarus was there as Dr Lafe Hubert. But it's been a while since I read Stranger.

[beam]

Ethanol, I'll say it again, it can help but it isn't the answer. Ethanol isn't as renewable as everyone thinks it is. Once the soil is depleted it's depleted. We also don't have the capability to produce enough ethanol. Ethanol is also more expensive then gasoline is evern at its current price.

Problem: Nutrient Depletion of Soil
Answer: Crop Rotation (here is a quick explanation)

Problem: Price
Answer: Build Ethanol processing plants


The soil is not in danger of being depleted of nutrients...farmers have been managing fields for centuries and they know what they're doing.

As far as price...yes Ethanol is not as cheap as it could be. But it is going to be getting cheaper soon. Just in my area (NE Iowa) they are building Ethanol plants that will up production significantly. That will drive down prices.

The next big step, as I said earlier, is when Ethanol can be effieciently created out of any type of cellulose. This will mean that farmers no longer need to "waste" a cash crop like corn. They can plant an alfalfa field which will have a much higher yield of plant life (harvested multiple times a summer). If you want to take it to the extreme...think Back to the Future, where Doc is dumping garbage into his Mr. Fusion. Creating Ethanol from garbage will one day be possible.