What To Do With The Gas?

[aahz]

You all Make good arguments but, All the experts agree we are at peak oil capacity world wide. The decline in production is the only true debate here. We will run out of easy oil then comes the hard stuff e.g. oil sands, etc which the Canadians are currently doing. Other possibilities will be explored but in the end it Will run out! Alternatives will need to be adopted, period! When we will run out? But it will happen. Oil is a finite resource, the planet cannot replenish it as fast as we are using it therefore it will end. Alternatives?? Electricity? Well lets agree that many, many generating plants are fossil fuels. So those will go away, then coal or nuke plants, but those currently need fossil fuels for at least some of their systems. Ouch, gotta figure out something there, but the coal plants are being attacked by environmental groups as well as nuke plants! Am alternative to the alternative has to be found??? If there's no fossil fuels? WOW! Big problem!! Even if we can come up with a solution to battery life, etc. We still need something to replace fossil fuels? Solar? Possibly, but the technology needs to be drastically improved! Wind? The same! So what then? ??

 

[xtspode]

These are exciting times. We have great technology, we just haven't figured out which brand of energy is moving to the front of the pack. Fossil fuels have been there for a while and has fueled growth for a hundred and fifty years or so. It is energy dense and easy to store and distribute. Electricity has been a good source of energy for stationary or low load portable devices. Solar, wind and various other forms of electrical generation still cannot match fossel fueled generation for meeting demand. Regardless of which side of the debate you are on of whether we are changing the climate, or it changes on its own, we can do better at keeping our house clean. Nuclear generation is clean and energy dense and scales to meet demand. whether it is mountain high piles of garbage or spent fuel rods, we still have to cleanup after ourselves. Our parents should have taught us that much.

I am looking forward to seeing how we make better use of our resources and making our energy cleaner. Elio is a part of the first. It is not the total answer, but it is a good step. It would be able to move to EV easily with improvements in batteries because aerodynamics and light weight still work for EV's. We have the tools and the brain-power to move the world forward if we can keep from killing ourselves. It doesn't seem like that is going to stop, but it has always been that way for all of history. Energy and technology we can work on. Human nature and politics are not solvabe it seems. But we can still build better and cleaner ways to heat/cool our homes, fuel our tractors, trucks and cars. The Elio ICE is a pretty good piece of that.

Sorry for the length and the disparaging remarks on human nature and politics. I still think we have it pretty good in this world, and we could make it better. I am optomistic for better tools and keeping our house cleaner. Human nature is always going to provide the drama, horror, and Humanity and selfishness and selflessness it has always done.

Go Elio!

 

[skychief]

Alternatives will need to be adopted, period! When we will run out? But it will happen... Oil is a finite resource, the planet cannot replenish it as fast as we are using it therefore it will end. Alternatives?? Electricity? We still need something to replace fossil fuels? Solar? Possibly, but the technology needs to be drastically improved! Wind? The same! So what then? ??

Great news. There are other fuels which can power ICE engines (with a few modifications). Biodiesel, bioalcohol (methanol, ethanol, butanol) to name a few.

Also, oil can be synthesized which can out-perform [viscosity & temp rating] any fossil-based oils.

So no matter what, you'll always have something to put in your Elio. It might be expensive, though.

 

[ross]

EV's only work for personal transportation. How about the heavy equipment needed for road construction and maintenance, not to mention general construction? How about the agriculture industry, and the transportation of that food to market? I guarantee if you can't get food, personal transportation is of little matter. If fuel costs get to the point the American farmer can't afford it with the price of the commodities he raises, we aren't going to feed America let alone the rest of the world with 4 legged horsepower, and that's what the ICE replaced just a generation ago.

 

[booboo]

EV's only work for personal transportation. How about the heavy equipment needed for road construction and maintenance, not to mention general construction? How about the agriculture industry, and the transportation of that food to market? I guarantee if you can't get food, personal transportation is of little matter. If fuel costs get to the point the American farmer can't afford it with the price of the commodities he raises, we aren't going to feed America let alone the rest of the world with 4 legged horsepower, and that's what the ICE replaced just a generation ago.

EV's are only as good as the power to the E. An x factor energy to E could make anything possible. Diesel Trains and and Nuclear Vessels have an E drive.

 

[Elio Amazed]

Many of the older truck drivers said that automatic transmissions would never work in tractor-trailers either.

As far as other non-petroleum fuels that can run ICEs... To date, every single one mentioned takes more energy to make than you get out of them. That is, more cumulative energy, including fossil fuel energy, has to be put into them than the energy that you get out of them. That's the part that the corn belt and the tree-huggers don't tell you about. Yeah, some of them burn cleaner, but be fair and take into account the fossil fuel soot and C02 that went up the chimney during their production.

 

[ross]

EV's are only as good as the power to the E. An x factor energy to E could make anything possible. Diesel Trains and and Nuclear Vessels have an E drive.

But those are not true electric vehicles. You have a diesel engine and a nuclear reactor, my point is a wind or solar charged battery powered electric vehicle is not going to replace the diesel semi truck and trailer or the John Deere tractor and combine. Fossil fuel is a finite resource, peak oil will happen if it hasn't already. My fathers generation farmed with the horse, the internal combustion engine replaced it. All it will take is for the price of oil to rise to the point where the American farmer can't raise enough wheat, corn, soybeans or whatever to pay for his fossil fuel inputs, ie diesel, nitrogen fertilizer, chemical herbicides and his only option is the four legged horse the ICE replaced, that isn't going to feed current American population let alone the rest of the world. Am I missing something?

 

[Elio Amazed]

Nothing new there. It already costs the farmers more to produce the food than what we buy it for.
And has for a long time. Government farm subsidies have existed for almost a century now.

"More 1/2 of European Millennials either own an electric car, or plan to use one..."

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...-to-electric-cars-if-survey-results-hold-true

 

[larryboy]

But those are not true electric vehicles. You have a diesel engine and a nuclear reactor, my point is a wind or solar charged battery powered electric vehicle is not going to replace the diesel semi truck and trailer or the John Deere tractor and combine. Fossil fuel is a finite resource, peak oil will happen if it hasn't already. My fathers generation farmed with the horse, the internal combustion engine replaced it. All it will take is for the price of oil to rise to the point where the American farmer can't raise enough wheat, corn, soybeans or whatever to pay for his fossil fuel inputs, ie diesel, nitrogen fertilizer, chemical herbicides and his only option is the four legged horse the ICE replaced, that isn't going to feed current American population let alone the rest of the world. Am I missing something?

I don't think we will be able to feed the current population that we are feeding now, let alone feed the increase in population. Aquifers are being drained and the water that remains is full of ag chemicals, top soil is washing away, weeds are becoming resistant to pesticides and land is being converted from crops to houses and infrastructure. The US population has more than doubled during my lifetime. I find it interesting that many farmers and ranchers understand that you can only put a certain max number of animals on a pasture or a certain max number of plants in a corn field but refuse to accept that there can be any limit to human population.

 

[McBrew]

Well lets agree that many, many generating plants are fossil fuels. So those will go away, then coal or nuke plants, but those currently need fossil fuels for at least some of their systems.

Ummmm.. you do realize that coal is a fossil fuel, right?


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