If there'll be something to replace fossil fuel, what might it be?

Question

1.May be nuclear energy? What do you think?

2.I think inflation might help people keep up with the oil price. So we and our children might have to rely on the same old fossil fuel all their lifetime, right?

Answer 1

I think geothermal has real potential.  There's a few companies world wide doing this and right now an Australian company is building a test powerplant to prove it can work.  Within a few years they will ramp up the project.

check out: http://www.geodynamics.com.au

Regards,

ili

http://www.carbonfreepc.com.au

Answer 2

Either Oxyhydrogen or Water fuel cell and then there's Denny Klein's Hydrogen Car

Answer 3

Electricity from nuclear, solar, and wind.

Vehicles will be powered by either batteries or hydrogen made from that electricity.

The price of oil is going up faster than the rate of inflation.  Each year we find less new oil than the increase in demand.

Not to mention global warming.  The era of fossil fuel will draw to a close.  The only question is, will it take an economic disaster to get us to prepare for that?

Answer 4

Solar, wind  and hydro are the cheapest over the long haul for electricity.  Bio fuels for transportation.

Nuclear is the most expensive and if not for government backing it up, no one would buy it.

Hydrogen cost more to make then it is worth.

Of course the cheapest thing is to conserve power with high efficiency homes and electronics.  

If they ever pass a law requiring " Off is off " technology, that is, no power drain when something is turned off,  we would solve all our power problems.  That alone could save enough electricity to shut down all nuclear power plants in the USA.

Turn off every thing in your house and look at your power meter, it's still turning.  Now unplug every thing and it stops turning. Multiplied the drain by every home and business and you can see the amount of power wasted every day.

Answer 5

I am still thinking Methane (pure form of natural gas).  Why?

A) Loads of natural gas infrastructure and reserves already exist...no need to build a new distribution platform

B) As natural gas becomes more scarce and expensive, we can extract Methane from waste, which is, in many way, infinitely abundant.  Sounds crazy but there have already been, literally, engines designed to run off animal remains directly with no outside power source required to extract the methane (unlike Hydrogen).

C) The alternatives fail IE Hydrogen requires in many ways more energy to make then it's worth (IE fossil fuels burned to extract it from water) and then energy to ship (unlike electricity or natural gas via existing pipelines).  Electricity is good long as it is generated from wind/solar power or natural gas, but given the very limited reserves or wind/solar power natural gas seems to be the prominent potential source.

2.  No, sadly, oil price is rising notably faster than inflation: inflation is only about 3% per year, oil has been rising well over 5% per year

Answer 6

Nuclear, no. It would be much to heavy because of the radiation shielding required.

Bio Fuels will help, but it is almost impossible to produce enough needed without destroying forests and crop lands.

Electric, will help some for city driving if Nuclear Power is used to produce electricity, so we don't add pollution. Wind and Solar will help a little here also.

Hydrogen, ???? Maybe, but not yet ready.

Looks like the old fossil (gas / diesel) is it for now. Maybe all those engineers all over the world that have been studying this problem for many, many years do know something?

Maybe someday the news media will ask one of them about it, instead of an "Environmentalist" who  usually knows little about anything. After all, the "Environmentalists" killed Nuclear Power in our country, and just 20 years ago said we were all going to freeze to death.

Answer 7

Yes, here's one.  The world's cleanest running car uses compressed air.  It should be on the market next year and should be cheaper than the hydrogen car.

Answer 8

Nuclear can take over for coal, in big electricity generating plants, but it doesn't look like there will be any nuclear reactor invented any time soon that is small and safe enough to run a car or airplane. Those will have to rely on some kind of liquid fuel. Something like bio diesel or ethanol or liquid methane or even liquid hydrogen. Some of those fuels take energy to make and that energy will come from nuclear power when the world runs out of oil and coal. Maybe nuclear fusion.

Answer 9

biodiesel from algae.