Whale oil alternative uses?

Question

Could Sperm whales be privately bred and then their oil be refined to be used in cars? Just as a put off until car companies get off their asses and bring us the hydrogen car. And also it can be used to generate the power to harness the hydrogen as you need to produce it.

I'm not talking about whale HUNTING, I'm talking about a scientific breeding or maybe even genetic engineering of what makes the whale oil, and producing it.

Answer 1

we already make too much use of sentient creatures - lets not go down that road more than we have to

Answer 2

I don't think there's any way you could breed enough whales to produce enough whale oil for use in cars.  I believe whale oil was phased out by crude oil 100 years ago.

Answer 3

I think sperm whales are probably too big for any breeding program. Remember that they eat tons of food per day, so as a captive animal they'd need to have lots and lots of squid provided for them.

As biofuels go, those derived from animals are particularly high cost.

Also, as for the timeframe that you're looking at, a sperm whale would probably need about 12 years to mature to the point where it'd be useful to harvest.

A smaller blubber-rich whale or perhaps seals would probably be a better bet, but again, the amount of energy you'd need to finding food for it would probably negate any gains, even if crude were $200 a barrel.  

Vegetarian animals usually provide a better conversion of biomass to protein/fat than predators. (That's why we at cows, pigs & chickens.)

Answer 4

Good lord NO. Do you have any idea how long it takes for a whale to reach maturity? Besides, a breeding program like that would interfere with wild whale populations and their food sources. The reason we went to petroleum FROM whale oil was that we outgrew that source. And that was BEFORE the automobile was invented!

Answer 5

I doubt that is a viable thing to do.  Maybe some kind of rodent bred for fatness might work but whales take a long time to mature, and they don't do to well in captivity.

Answer 6

i think u might be taping into a touchy subject we have enough problems in this world why try to mess it up more with another un balanced situation!