oil

[dosset]

how long before all the oil runs out and when this happens what will be used to power planes?

[JOEYSHABADO]

What will be used to make plastic? To make Aspirin? To make creams? To make thousands of synthetic fabrics?

Big problem!

[dosset]

big big problem

[JOEYSHABADO]

It's hard to say when it will 'run out', ie when we can no longer economically recover oil. At the moment, it's not about running out, it's about recovering it economically. When you lift oil out ' ground, you lift a lot of water too and sometimes if it's in very deep water you can incur very high rig expenses. A technology called 'subsea' is taking off at the moment which makes us able to plant wellheads on the seabed and then pipe the oil up from lots of these to a big rig in shallower water, as opposed to rigs directly above the oil well, with a wellhead on the rig. So we can venture into much deeper seas. Also, a team at Edinburgh Uni has pioneered a cheaper 'conductivity' based method for testing for presence of oil, which will make it all a cheaper enterprise.

But 'oil running out' is still put at 30+ years away, and the main pressure is not from lack of oil, but from environmental pressures to find greener alternatives.

This discussion will be 'academic' in 20 years anyway, when we've found a better way to do it, or oil on Titan, or both.

[Thunderchild]

well we'd better get moving thencause 30 yrs is not long for greedy humanity that don't want to invest cause tomorow it won't bother me i'll be dead !

there has been the sugestion of running cars on rubarb alcohol that is very apetising (for the enviroment of course) because it will be an entirely natural process. we will just have to go back to what we used once upon a time before plastic

[Flurfl]

It is already economical to run diesel powered vehicles on vegetable oil and wouldn't take much to convert petrol engines to methanol which can be derived from various vegetable sources. pretty much everything that is made from oil, can be made from other resources, it's just a matter of when it becomes economical to do so. Don't forget oil is essentially just compressed vegetable matter.

[dosset]

still can't see whats going to get planes in the air

[ianess]

It's only just over 100 years since the aeroplane was invented.  There have been 1 or 2 attempts at using nuclear power in aeroplanes but that proved to be politically incorrect.  In another 100 years who knows?  Maybe the Starship Enterprise technology isn't too far away.  Maybe oil will become redundant.  Just think what your grand-children have to "look forward" to.

[dosset]

can u imagine the result of an aircrash involving a plane using nuclear power !!!!!!??

[JOEYSHABADO]

Flurfl>oil also comes from dead animals (diatoms). And the plant life you mention.

[jake-the-peg]

I remember in the 70's hearing that there was only 30 years of oil left and wondering if I'd get the chance to drive a car!

Seriosly though I'd say it'll be either a biodiesel based on a crop such as rapeseed oil that is carbon neutral. Although how we'd ever grow enough to satisy the world's ridiculous addiction to air transport I've no idea!

Or Hydrogen - You'll have to create hydrogen by the electrolosis of water - you'd power this by fusion reactors such as ITER  http://www.iter.org/ - The predicted radioactive waste from fusion comes mainly from decommissioning and would be safe to handle in about 100 years rather than thousands.

A more pertinant question might be will we be able to survive the environmental impact if we do burn the remaining oil?

We're running out of time

[peters cute]

hey do not worrie i think i will be bead before the oil runs out he he

[samz90]

What about hydrogen? we can use hydrogen to power cars and the only pollution is water vapour, and I think it could be used to power planes.

[flano]

yes fuel cells which use hydrogen are becoming every more efficient. Many cars I believe run on hydrogen in LA. Fuell cells will also be used in powering buildings,(each on having its own), while heating it as well and therefore beefiting from any inefficient heat energy being produced.

[jake-the-peg]

And where exactly are you planning to get your hydrogen from?

You'll  need to electrolyse water which will obviously require more energy than you get by recombining the hydrogen in the fuel cell (otherwise you have a perpetual motion machine)

[Ben8987]

Hydrogen can be obtained from many things other than water. For example, the hydrocarbons, as the name would suggest, are made or carbon and hydrogen. I heard recently about a hydrogen motor bike that has been designed and you can actually make your own hydrogen for it at home (apparently its not difficult with the right kit), using, for example, ethanol or anything else appropriate. I think hydrogen probably is the alternative fuel (for transport at least) for the forseeable future.

[jake-the-peg]

Obtaining hydrogen from hydrocarbons is not much of an option. OK there's coal and gas but they're all fossil fuels.

In Canada they've produced up to 710 litres of ethanol per hectare - We use nearly 50 billion litres of petrol and deisel per year in the UK alone.

I haven't had time to work out the exact area of crops we'd need to produce the equivilent energy in hydrogen but I think you get the picture. 

Geothermal is another option but I think we're closer to fusion than geothermal in areas like the UK where the gology in unfavorable. 

Either which way hydrogen is the way forward for portable energy in cars etc. Getting hold of it in a large enough scale is the challenge.