Why is oil so important?

starwars51
In a perfectly efficient system takes about 25% more power to produce hydrogen from water than you can get out of it in a 100% efficient engine. In the real world that is a huge difference. There is no plausable way for Wind power to provide the worlds energy needs (plus about 50% energy loss in producing hydrogen). If not for the cost of purchasing/mainting the turbines, imagine the environmental impact on those few places that are really suitable for wind power.

I wasn't referring to all the worlds electrical needs to be met by turbines. I was just talking about how they could power the facility that does the hydrogen extracting by wind, General Electric's newest and biggest wind turbine is a 5 megawatt.

and I know that it needs more electricity to get it then it produces, but the thing you keep missing is that its clean and portable.

Originally posted by Murcielago

starwars51
In a perfectly efficient system takes about 25% more power to produce hydrogen from water than you can get out of it in a 100% efficient engine. In the real world that is a huge difference. There is no plausable way for Wind power to provide the worlds energy needs (plus about 50% energy loss in producing hydrogen). If not for the cost of purchasing/mainting the turbines, imagine the environmental impact on those few places that are really suitable for wind power.

I wasn't referring to all the worlds electrical needs to be met by turbines. I was just talking about how they could power the facility that does the hydrogen extracting by wind, General Electric's newest and biggest wind turbine is a 5 megawatt.

and I know that it needs more electricity to get it then it produces, but the thing you keep missing is that its clean and portable.

Clean - Maybe. But Noisy, requires a bunch of space, costly, and not portable (there are very limited areas with steady/strong winds - at least to make enough to make wind power feasable).

To me, it has to do with two things: money and horsepower. I'm no mechanic, but it seems that it would too expensive to drive a muscle car fueled by something other than oil. Oil is also a nonrenewable resource, money can be made off it.

something else no one has mentioned. thermal depolymerization. you can set up a plant that will reduce anything to a lightweight oil. be it wood, computer components or turkey guts. there is a debate as to how efficient it is but the bottom line is it makes oil. when the hydrogen/electric/biofuel economy begins picking up speed thanks to ever increasing oil prices we will have enough oil for necessities but i'm sure our standard of living is going to change. kiss disposable plastics away and i'm sure there will be recycling deposits on everything.
also the fact that bio oils cant be used as lubricants is a load of bunk. seen it done. also an indian company has developed a synthetic nanobearing lubricant that will last up to 10 years without a change. ther is no single replacement for oil but there are more than enough alternatives to pick up the difference.

best resource i've found for this type of info is www.evworld.com


[edit on 23-1-2005 by broken_halo]

Originally posted by poonchang
To me, it has to do with two things: money and horsepower. I'm no mechanic, but it seems that it would too expensive to drive a muscle car fueled by something other than oil

thats also the problem the north american fixation with size and horsepower has to and will come to and end. who will want to drive a viper that gets 8mpg or worse an H2 *shudders* when oil gets to $4 a gallon.

starwars51
Clean - Maybe. But Noisy, requires a bunch of space, costly, and not portable (there are very limited areas with steady/strong winds - at least to make enough to make wind power feasable).

I was talking about the car not the building, and who cares if the structures to make this take up room, it would be less then oil takes up (IE:huge oil fields). Once fuel cells become the norm in vehicles expect some really strange looking vehicles to emerge, because everything doesn't need to be in one spot, like todays engines its in front so all cars have a certain look, but with the ability to be able to seperate key parts to different sections of the car you can make a car with an odd design.

A lot of places have wind blowing most of the time, like near the ocean or in the middle of the US in the plain states where the terrain is flat so nothing slows down the wind. You can have any thing power the process, but it just makes sense to use a "green" sourse so that way people wont say anything about your company like "If your new image for your vehicles is green & clean, then why is it powered by coal", so if you use wind or solar or hydro you wont get people saying that.

Originally posted by poonchang
To me, it has to do with two things: money and horsepower. I'm no mechanic, but it seems that it would too expensive to drive a muscle car fueled by something other than oil. Oil is also a nonrenewable resource, money can be made off it.

fuel cells doesn't mean that gasoline all the sudden wont be sold, hell even in 50 years the stations will all be hydrogen but they will still have a pump or to that has good ol' gasoline.

broken_halo
thats also the problem the north american fixation with size and horsepower has to and will come to and end. who will want to drive a viper that gets 8mpg or worse an H2 *shudders* when oil gets to $4 a gallon.

first of all, its not a problem. Americans just like things BIG & POWERFULL.

If your expecting that there will be a decline in SUV's and trucks and an increase in all those other tiny little foreign cars then your mistaken.

Dont mean to sound like a broken record,but yeah,it is a widely used resource for many products.Unless other viable resources can be used to produce the results of oil,it will always be in demand.
Being that it is the main resource for so much,it creates greed.I for one feel it is one reason we are in Iraq.How much can we get from other countries before we start using what we have?Granted we dont have as much as those other countries,it would surely ease the price we pay for products.
Dont we get like 60% of our oil from other countries?This is what I believe associates to large hikes in oil prices.If we started drilling our own,I feel it would lessen the dispute over it.How much of OUR oil do we even use for products that require it?

Originally posted by Murcielago
Currently it takes a little more electricity to extract the hydrogen from water, then you will get out of it in your vehicle, but whats wrong with that?
[edit on 23-1-2005 by Murcielago]

There is one free and clean way to get pure Hydrogen out of water. Green algae (ordinary pond scum) has the unique ability to convert water and sunlight into hydrogen gas.

Algae has a metabolic switch when the algae is deprived of a key nutrient, sulfur, and forced to live in an anaerobic, or oxygen-free, environment, the
plant reverts to an alternate life style in order to survive. Under
these conditions, the algae makes hydrogen.

We could in the future have large algae farms just to produce clean pure Hydrogen.

"The US has some of the lowest oil prices in the world, it isn't taxed the hell out of. Go to Europe, then complain about gas prices breaking 2 bucks a gallon here. "

how many people live in Europe compared to US? Maybe that is why the prices for their gas is so high? more bang for your buck. In Canada they take huge amounts of money, in taxes from gas. Im sure the US does the same


[edit on 24-1-2005 by Tahlen]

Originally posted by Tahlen
"The US has some of the lowest oil prices in the world, it isn't taxed the hell out of. Go to Europe, then complain about gas prices breaking 2 bucks a gallon here. "

how many people live in Europe compared to US? Maybe that is why the prices for their gas is so high?

No, the europeans have put high taxes on their gasoline, thats why the prices are so high. I don't know how much 'higher' it is when that tax is removed tho.

Im sure the US does the same

The revenues from gas taxes must be huge, but there isn't nearly as much tax per gallon as in euro-canada.

diesel is around 0.82 and 0.90 euro cents / liter.

patrol is just around 1.10 and 1.20 a liter

In the netherlands