10 Million Prize for who can come up with a alternative fuel.

[OutHouse]

this contest worked for the private sector for getting a manned space vehicle into space. I think the some contest should be get people thinking about an alternative fuel than oil.

 

[notfred]

As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

 

[godmare]

10 Million Prize for who can come up with a aleternative topic titeL

 

[etalns]

10 Million? I doubt that would do much to accelerate the speed they are being developed at. The people developing it realize it is a multi-billion, if not trillion dollar market in the long term.

 

[shenaniganz]

The development costs for the manned space vehicle far exceded the prize money. IIRC.

 

[StageLeft]

We already have alternative fuels. They are just too expensive.

 

[Ausm]

Just feed my oldman beans...


Ausm.

 

[randomlinh]

10 million? that's it? that'd be quite the rip off for the guy who'd win.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
We already have alternative fuels. They are just too expensive.

Bingo.

Combine that with the fact that our entire "mobile" energy infrastructure is built around petroleum, and it isn't very hard to see it will take many, many years to change.

If we're lucky, maybe 1/4th of the time that it took to build it in the first place... that'd be pretty amazing, actually. If we could convert our entire infrastructure to something else in the next 25 years.

However.... that doesen't mean that it isn't possible. It's definately a step in the right direction. We definately need more research and development in this area. Who knows what they could come up with?

How about an easily made "synthetic" gasoline? Or an easier way to make alcohol? Man-made natural gas, propane? Maybe even a new combustible substance all together? Who knows.....

I'm sure there are going to people come in here and say that will never happen, because of the big oil companies. I say take your tinfoil hat off, shut the fsck up and start living in the real world.

Energy is a funny thing, though. We can't just pull it out of our asses. It's taken millions of years for the energy we're currently consuming at an alarming rate to form and build up.

Something is going to have to change. It's going to take energy to create energy, so we've gotta get out of our wasteful lifestyles somehow. There is nothing that even comes close to the "free" energy that is in oil. Think about it; even today when efficiencies are down, it takes on the order of 1 barrel of oil to extract 10 barrels. In the 30s, that was 1 barrel for 100 barrels....

Anyway, there is absolutely nothing that comes even close to that return. Everything else we know of takes a lot of energy to produce(alcohol), or a lot of real estate for not very much return (wind, solar)...

Any and all research in this field is important...... you just never know what they could discover.

We could start building nuclear power plants and convert to an electric energy infrastructure. That's probably our best bet, actually. Nothing else comes close, yet.

 

[StageLeft]

We could start building nuclear power plants and convert to an electric energy infrastructure. That's probably our best bet, actually. Nothing else comes close, yet

I agree. Once oil shows itself as a true, definite receding resource with steadily increasing prices--enough that all the nuclear-hating pansies are getting upset--we'll see more support for it. We'll never have the case of society stopping, but it will change. Electric vehicles have been available for over a hundred years. So what if a pure electric vehicle has a range of 100 miles? To me, and most of us, that would be fine for most of our commutes, so we just need a way to charge them. Nuclear is that way!

 

[K1052]

4th Generation nuclear plants are being designed that are to be able to seperate hydrogen and oxygen in water using thermal energy.

If only we could actually get some built here without everybody freaking out....

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: K1052
4th Generation nuclear plants are being designed that are to be able to seperate hydrogen and oxygen in water using thermal energy.

If only we could actually get some built here without everybody freaking out....

Fat chance. People are dumb, so it won't happen until their lives are truly affected by an marked and massive increase in gas for their precious cars.

 

[nakedfrog]

Why not set up big buildings with hundreds of people riding stationary bikes? How much power could we generate that way?

I agree with the prize. Set it up with the same sort of rule structure--it has to be able to be prdouced on a certain scale for a certain cost, meet certain safety requirements, etc...

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: K1052
4th Generation nuclear plants are being designed that are to be able to seperate hydrogen and oxygen in water using thermal energy.

If only we could actually get some built here without everybody freaking out....

Fat chance. People are dumb, so it won't happen until their lives are truly affected by an marked and massive increase in gas for their precious cars.

The crazy thing is that the US is in the best position to take advantage of this.

1. Thanks to a huge and long lived nuclear weapons program we are sitting on a veritable mountain of highly refined fuel that could create 10X (possibly more) as much reactor fuel.

2. We have a very full understanding of refinement, reprocessing, and reactor design that would enable us take full advantage of our resources without much foreign dependency.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: K1052
4th Generation nuclear plants are being designed that are to be able to seperate hydrogen and oxygen in water using thermal energy.

If only we could actually get some built here without everybody freaking out....

Fat chance. People are dumb, so it won't happen until their lives are truly affected by an marked and massive increase in gas for their precious cars.

we have nuclear subs, its time for nuclear SUVS

lol

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: K1052
4th Generation nuclear plants are being designed that are to be able to seperate hydrogen and oxygen in water using thermal energy.

If only we could actually get some built here without everybody freaking out....

Fat chance. People are dumb, so it won't happen until their lives are truly affected by an marked and massive increase in gas for their precious cars.

we have nuclear subs, its time for nuclear SUVS

lol

yeah but you know some WOMAN would forget to change the uranium rods and then we'd all be in for a world of trouble :roll:

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: notfred
As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

Hydrogen is highly flammable and thus unsafe. I think for the fuel to be feasoble it should only ignite when we want it too.

 

[Trevelyan]

Oil is literally the fuel for our economy.

Replacing this trillion dollar industry is not going to be easy in the first place. Combine that with the fact that we don't even have anything lined up that comes close to being as efficient and useful as oil, and you've got one serious impending crisis on your hands.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: notfred
As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

Hydrogen is highly flammable and thus unsafe. I think for the fuel to be feasoble it should only ignite when we want it too.

Gasoline never ignites when we don't want it to?

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
We already have alternative fuels. They are just too expensive.

even hemp?

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: notfred
As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

Hydrogen is highly flammable and thus unsafe. I think for the fuel to be feasoble it should only ignite when we want it too.

Gasoline never ignites when we don't want it to?

It doesn't explode if exposed to air...

 

[Trevelyan]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: notfred
As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

Hydrogen is highly flammable and thus unsafe. I think for the fuel to be feasoble it should only ignite when we want it too.

Gasoline never ignites when we don't want it to?

It doesn't explode if exposed to air...

Neither does hydrogen, unless there is enough heat.

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: notfred
As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

Hydrogen is highly flammable and thus unsafe. I think for the fuel to be feasoble it should only ignite when we want it too.

Gasoline never ignites when we don't want it to?

It doesn't explode if exposed to air...

Neither does hydrogen, unless there is enough heat.

Are you sure of that? I remember reading hydrogen self-combusts if exposed to air.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: Trevelyan

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: notfred
As if no one has thought about alternative fuels *hydrogen* yet.

Hydrogen is highly flammable and thus unsafe. I think for the fuel to be feasoble it should only ignite when we want it too.

Gasoline never ignites when we don't want it to?

It doesn't explode if exposed to air...

Neither does hydrogen, unless there is enough heat.

Are you sure of that? I remember reading hydrogen self-combusts if exposed to air.

Nope. It still needs a source of ignition.

 

[91TTZ]

Most citizens are too stupid to understand reality. They will keep voting against politicians who want to tax you and support nuclear power and they'll keep voting for those who cuts taxes while increasing spending, and oppose nuclear power.

They won't stop believing this until the entire country is in massive debt and their lights go out. They really are that short-sighted.