End of Fossil Fuels: Dark ages or next stage

I think Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is the answer until fusion is available. By harnessing the small temperature differences in the ocean, you can

1) Generate Electricity
2) De-salinize water

www.nrel.gov...

Geothermal is awesome where available.

Wind and solar are irratic but can help.

Hydrogen has a ways to go, still requires non-economical amounts of energy to create, store and transport hydrogen. I have heard this crazy idea before...

Put a couple thousand wind turbines on the Aleutian Islands (strongest winds in America), wire them to a massive ionizing plant on mainland Alaska and convert the pipeline to the lower 48 to carry hydrogen.

hydrogen is a pipe dream.

the best that we could do is to prolong the remaining reserves as much as possible by displacing them with other technologies -- solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and nuclear. despite the serious problems with nuclear power, it will eventually cease to be a choice.

our current socio-enomic-political system is not set up to support these actions. i see a coming period of strife and misery for humanity.

nah man, i see it as gonna be a great time, a chance to really get things goin. when u get stuck in a backwards trend, often times u need the # to really hit the fan for things to get goin again. the end of fossil fuels cud be just that

I'm not getting this fuel from water thing. Water is basically H2O. If you burn off the hydrogen won't you be left with oxygen? If so what do the plantlife feed off of? Could someone explain?

What ever happened to hydroelectric power? There are a few places that run almost exclusively on it. Quebec sells tons of it to New York every year. WHy not just refine existing technology to make hydroelectric power a viable for large areas?

DE

OOOH YEAH! Now we are on a subject that I am familiar with and learning more every day.

----------
This is a link for plans for (unproven) fuel from water:
www.keelynet.com...
"Q: What kind of performance can I expect?

A: Properly adjusted, your modified vapour-only fuel system will run cooler, and at a modestly higher power level. The mileage performance expected from this design ranges from 50-300 mpg, depending on your adjusting skills."

----------
Pulse Motors have been built (Nikolai Tesla made one, and another guy in Sweden made one as well that he used in a car everyday!). Pulse motors are kinda in their fledgling stages still, but have awesome potential. Pulse motors are basically in the same stages as the Ford A-Model. They use the negative spike to feed back power and recharge it's own battery. In ordinary motors this energy (the 'vacuum' side of an energy spike) is not utilized and is wasted. The newer pulse motors are using alot of different configurations to optimize this feedback.
www.theverylastpageoftheinternet.com...

----------
Yet again another electric motor that somehow qualifies as 'free energy':
www.theverylastpageoftheinternet.com...

----------
And, if you are familiar with Tom Bearden, you'll recognize the MEG (Motionless Electric Generator) that extracts power from vacuum:
www.theverylastpageoftheinternet.com...

----------
There's ALOT of other devices out there that could possibly be used in place of 'Dino Fuel'. Unfortunatly alot of these devices have been bought or stolen by oil and power companies. When they run out of power, they own patents on devices that will replace dino fuels. Why don't they just start introducing them now? Because instead of making billions a year from selling power or dino fuels, they will only make millions, and that will slow down as less and less devices are bought because almost everyone already owns one. Yes, it's a conspiracy. If you want more info on 'free energy' or 'overunity' devices, start searching for them on the net... lots of public domain plans. A good place to start searching on alternative energy is to find out ALL you can about Nikolai Tesla. He was a victim of the greed of power and oil companies. Most of Tesla's work has been covered up, incompleted, or destroyed because of this.

[Edited on 28-2-2004 by Earthscum]

Myself Im not so worried about fossil fuels running out. There's other technologies on the horizon that are just about to become viable such as fuel cells:

www.autoalliance.org...
www.millenniumcell.com...

As the resources become rarer the prices will rise and will spur additional investment and research into alternatives. Its not going to be a case where suddenly one day they go "woops we are out of oil"

Originally posted by intrepid
I'm not getting this fuel from water thing. Water is basically H2O. If you burn off the hydrogen won't you be left with oxygen? If so what do the plantlife feed off of? Could someone explain?

off human carbon dioxide...besides i think carbon monoxide kills trees

Originally posted by spangbr
Myself Im not so worried about fossil fuels running out. There's other technologies on the horizon that are just about to become viable such as fuel cells:

www.autoalliance.org...
www.millenniumcell.com...

As the resources become rarer the prices will rise and will spur additional investment and research into alternatives. Its not going to be a case where suddenly one day they go "woops we are out of oil"

fuel cells can stay alive WAY longer than fuel and promote a cleaner earth

as the (fossil) resources become rarer

right now it takes more hydrocarbon fuel to make pure hydrogen than energy you can get from the hydrogen i saw recently where they are trying to use algae which emits pure hydrogen in vast ammounts naturally

Originally posted by intrepid
I'm not getting this fuel from water thing. Water is basically H2O. If you burn off the hydrogen won't you be left with oxygen? If so what do the plantlife feed off of? Could someone explain?

In order for hydrogen to 'burn' you have to have oxygen. The energy you get is from the hydrogen recombining with the oxygen.

So, you have a source that separates the hydrogen (they have even developed special plates that do this with a low current... one that would use very little draw from an alternator) from the oqygen. Now you have a hydrogen/oxygen mix that are recombined in the combustion chamber that leaves nothing but pure water as a byproduct. Any other byproducts are simply from not having a good sealed system... remember that mecanical parts use some sort of lubrication, so any miniscule amount that is left inside the combustion chamber will produce the hydrocarbons. It's not the recombination of hydrogen and oxygen that creates the hydrocarbons. I should know, I was an exhaust tech and had to learn a bunch of the EPA laws and physics behind the production of dangerous byproducts from the burning of fossil fuels. Alchohol will produce hydrocarbons, although not nearly the amount that dino fuels do.

reply to post by cmdrkeenkid


the answer is uranium.