When diesel and petrol run out what will we use?

Question

this is for homework btw and everything else i found confused me.

Answer 1

Aside from those things we used before internal combustion engines for transportation, such as feet, bicycles, horses and sailing ships you mean.  Since diesel and petrol both come from oil which will get scarcer, we will have to find other  sources of energy to replace them.  The best choice is coal, which can be made into liquid fuel, synthetic petrol or diesel fuel, a fuel gas or be burned as a solid fuel, as there is a lot of it and it would cost about the same for synthetic fuel.  Germany used synthetic fuel in WW II, so we know it can be done.  Plastics can also be made from coal as well as a number of organic [biomass] sources.

For vehicles coal-based fuels, bio-fuels, some petrol and diesel will be used.  Each vehicle would run on one fuel and the roadside refuelling stations would carry each type for the various vehicles using them.  Say 5% used vegetable oil, 10% were electric, 15% used ethanol, 35% used coal-based synthetic fuels and the rest still used petrol and diesel at some time, all refueling stations would handle all these vehicles.

One vehicle that could use any of these fuels with only tiny modifications is a steam electric hybrid.  A steam engine is cleaner than an internal combustion engine and more efficient. Use one with a generator to keep the batteries charged in a car and you can travel without stopping except for fuel, just as in an internal combustion car.  The car would operate as a plug-in electric car 80% of the time when going less than 50 miles, but the steam powered generator would automatically start as the battery charge dropped, so you would never be stuck with dead batteries for that 20% of driving that is over 50 miles.  Since most of the time you are driving on electric power from the grid, your fuel use would be small.  A steam electric hybrid would be about the same price as an IC hybrid, would run longer at a lower cost than an IC car and be cheaper than an electric vehicle requiring more batteries.

If you use this, let me know. [see below]

Answer 2

Bicycles and horses and we'll walk more - good excercise.

Answer 3

Diesel and petrol will not run out for a long time but they will run short and become quickly more expensive within the next five years.

The fact that you have asked specifically about diesel and petrol, which are both made from oil, suggests that you are interested mainly in the transport implications of oil shortages and price increases.  But you might like to think wider about the many other things made from oil, such as synthetic textiles for clothes and plastics for computers.

Instead of waiting for the oil to run out we need to start adjusting our lifestyles now.  Walking and cycling instead of using cars is obvious.  Public transport also needs to be used and developed more.  And if we stop buying things unnecessarily we will help to delay the oil shortage and price increases that are coming.

Another good reason to stop wasting oil and other fossil resources (such as coal and gas) is to put a stop to global warming caused by burning these resources in cars and in power stations.  By doing so we will save the young people of today and future generations from the enormous social and economic upheavals that global warming and fossil resource shortages would cause.

Some people will say we can replace fossil fuels (like diesel and petrol) with new fuels like hydrogen cells and bio-fuels.  Yes but only at greater cost and often they need fossil fuels to produce them in the first place.  These higher cost fuels will play a part but the only real solution to the fact that fossil resources are becoming depleted, and burning them is causing global warming, is to adopt simpler lifestyles with much less use of fossil resources.  We need to reduce our demands for stuff (including car and air transport), we need to repair and re-use stuff rather than throw it away and we need to recycle stuff we can not re-use.

Best wishes

Answer 4

we could use hydrogen pwered car jus like the warthogs in halo. very bad vehicle.

Answer 5

i watched a programme yesterday and some farmer was using apples and with what ever he extracted used methane gas to run his car i thought that was cow farts!

Answer 6

Something else.  When conventional oil deposits run out, we will make use of oil sands and then oil shale.  Oil shale deposits in the U.S. actually exceed the oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.  Once these are gone, we will convert coal to oil using a process that has been in existence for over sixty years.  When all of the coal is gone, we will come up with something else, but this is so far in the future, that I am not going to worry about it.

Answer 7

Sorry but we will never run out of fossil fuels. Mother nature and the plants are hard at work recycling the Corbin that the plants got from CO2. After the earth was formed there was no plants or fossil fuels. All the fossil fuels is part of that recycling. The plants leaves float down the rivers to form more gas and oil and after a long time coal. So we should be using all the coal before it just oxidizes. The amount of solar energy that the plants capture is huge.

Answer 8

don't worry. now the next generations power source will be nuclear(atomic) energy.it will full fill all our needs

Answer 9

gas, wind , solar power, pedal , electric power.

it won't happen for a long time yet, only good side of that is people will be forced to walk more and be slimmer.

Answer 10

when we run out of diesel and petrol.....we will use renewable fuels like solar,methain, and wind.........(not that kind ...methain cover's that)   but thats not the problem im worried how much tax the govenment will hit us with..for these new fuels.....i once heard that a man had developed an engine that ran on sea water ....and the oil companys coverd it up because it would ruin them!

Answer 11

the best resource of them all our own legs and body strength

Answer 12

nuclear fuel..Fusion came at a early part ,,we didnt really know how to handle it ,,but with todays technology we can harness it & make it work for mankind

Answer 13

Our feet.

Answer 14

We will use at great expense, power sources (means of propulsion including the fuel) that oil companies have bought up and are concealing until the oil begins run out.

Answer 15

Head scratchers ?

Answer 16

horses

Answer 17

bio diesel

Answer 18

We may have to walk. Remember that peregrination?

Answer 19

electric, we have already designed cars that will run as fast as petrol, i do not understand why these have no been available for sale to the public

regards x Kitti x

Answer 20

Shanksies pony

Answer 21

water!

we are allready using hydrogen fuel cells to propel cars

Answer 22

I use plant based oils,and can use animal fat to run my diesel.

Answer 23

Theres these little things that most I know have forgotten the use of.Thats it,walking,and hopefully walking cuts through any class barrier,and wars arnt needed to fuel walking.