Cold Fusion and the Peak Oil Myth

[Ian62]

Cold Fusion has very real possibilities of providing virtually free limitless energy with absolutely no pollution.
(Free apart from building the power stations, power cable infrastructure and basic maintenance.)
Why aren't huge funds being made available to pursue this technology?

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-04-29/peak-oil-crisis-quantum-fusion-hypothesis

Peak oil is a myth propagated by oil companies to keep oil prices high and suggest there is an energy shortage.
It is supported by the arms industry as a reason to intervene in the Middle East.
It is supported by the US government as a method of continuing the endemic corruption in Washington DC and controlling the population.
It is supported by the "green" energy companies which would otherwise be undermined.

There IS a shortage of refinery capacity in the US.
Very few refineries have been built in the last 40 years.
However very recently the US became a net exporter of petroleum products.

The estimated oil reserves in the 1970's was about 200 years worth. (The date of the peak oil theory.)
The estimated oil reserves now is about 200 years worth.
I predict in 100 yrs time estimated oil reserves will still be 200 years worth.
The relative price of oil will not change very much in the next 100 yrs.

Peak oil is a myth (although the production level in the US is true).

There are numerous sources of carbon based energy.
Oil shale deposits in Canada (and elsewhere).
Fracking - extracting nat gas from rocks across the globe.
New technology to extract more oil from existing fields.
New finds (none of them have been huge but there are more all the time).

Fracking
The energy reserves of this are absolutely huge.
Little exploration has so far been done, but estimates are that each of the US and Europe are equivalent to Saudi reported oil and gas reserves. From the little exploration so far done. More reserves will be found.
It is new technology and like all new technology it has teething problems. Environmental concerns will need to be addressed.

China has huge reserves of coal and is building one coal fired power station a month.
The US has huge reserves of coal which are under utilised due to the green lobby.

Then there are totally new technologies.
Cold Fusion is a very real possibility of provifding limitless non-polluting cheap energy.
Zero Point Energy is another.

And there is another really interesting possibility - deep oil.
No existing theory can explain how there is so much oil concentrated in the largest Saudi field.
If this field was supplied from a deeper larger geological source it could explain it.
No exisitng theory can explain why some fields seem to be mysteriously filling up again. If they were being supplied from a deeper source thru cracks in the rock it would explain it.
The Russians have had some success with finding oil much deeper than conventional theory suggests could be possible in Siberia.
We will see if deep oil becomes convention in the next 20-40 yrs.

[ret5hd]

1. I will only say...

You are a purposeful fool.

[Gregorian]

2. Pick a subject, any subject.

I'll take fusion for 10. We have a fusion reaction already. It's called the sun.

[pscot]

4. Oh sure. The damned thing only works

half the time.

[Gregorian]

5. We'll all have to move to Alaska.

Save up all the sunlight for six months, and move to Antarctica for the remainder.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Um, you're facing the wrong way half the time. nt

[pscot]

16. I get blamed for everything

[eppur_se_muova]

19. To be fair, it's the planet that keeps moving around. nt

[Ikonoklast]

23. His Holiness would like to have a word with you.

What?

You mumble something?

[arcane1]

9. LMAO

[FrodosPet]

27. In Michigan, we don't need solar panels

Has anyone invented a "cloudy" panel?

Newsflash: The sky in Michigan is a weird color today. It is blue, and there is this big bright light up there. I think I remember seeing something like it a couple decades ago, but I am not sure.

[Motown_Johnny]

31. Solar panels work on cloudy days

and it is over 90 here in Detroit

I could do with some clouds right now

[DiverDave]

33. What? there is a switch somewhere?

the sun works ALL the time...sheesh

[Confusious]

6. While cold fusion is a joke

money spent on nuclear fusion experiments is well spent.

Solar and wind won't get us off the planet.

Besides which, it would take 1/4 of Arizona to power the united states.

a couple of nice fusion plants (real fusion) would power the United States and take up no more then a city block.

[jmowreader]

18. Taking up a quarter of Arizona for a solar plant doesn't sound like that bad of an idea

Just as long as the part includes Arpaio's tent gulag.

[CK_John]

3. That and the secret 100 mpg carburetor and a telsa coil will get you a gig on sysfy. nt

[arcane1]

8. I have NEVER heard the oil industry, the arms industry, or the US Gov't ever MENTION peak oil

And those three entities "undermine" renewable energy all the time

Besides, Zero Point Energy can never compete with the limitless energy of Time Cube

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Actually the DOD woke to this a few years back

Mostly for strategic reasons. That op though is funny in all kinds of wrong ways.

[MineralMan]

10. So much written there.

And so little truth, it seems. More's the pity.

[Odin2005]

12. it's a woo-woo BS 2-fer!!!

Cold Fusion and Abiotic Oil.

You do know the later is a bunch of BS promoted by RWers that think Peak Oil is a "Liberal Lie", right?

[Motown_Johnny]

13. So much foolishness, so little time

Last edited Mon May 28, 2012, 05:00 PM - Edit history (1)

For the foreseeable future, Cold fusion is a pipe dream. Maybe if we can start pulling He3 down from The Moon in sufficient quantities it could be an actual player in producing usable affordable energy. Maybe your grand-children's grandchildren will use it but the rest of us are S.O.L..

Peak oil is a mathematical inevitability. We can argue about when it will happen or if it has already happened but production simply can't increase forever. The very fact that we now need to mine tar sands in Canada to produce oil is evidence enough that we are running out. The gushing oil fields of yesteryear are gone forever.

Oil companies are closing refineries in the US.. We are also exporting more refined products than we import. This is not a matter of opinion. It is an undeniable fact. End of story.

Fracking does offer the ability to extract more carbon based fuels than we have previously been able to extract. It also has such huge downsides that it can't be sustained for any reasonable period of time. Poisoning ground water was just the beginning. Now Ohio is having earthquakes near fracking sites and Colorado farmers are being outbid for water by energy companies. Fracking is not here to stay.

If China wants to strip mine it's countryside then there is nothing we can do about it. Destroying our country one square mile at a time just to extract the most filthy source of energy the world has ever known is also not a viable long term option.

Deep Oil? We are already planning on drilling into the Earth's Mantle. How much deeper do you think oil exists? You do know how that stuff was formed don't you?


The very simple truth is that Pres. Reagan set this country back a quarter of a century when he repealed all the innituatives Pres. Carter had put in place. We would already be achieving goals that we now hope to reach by 2035+. Don't listen to Conservatives when it comes to energy policy. They haven't gotten anything right yet and it is highly unlikely that the very first thing they do get right is the thing you happen to have heard from them.


There is also the problem of Climate Change. Fracking and coal extraction will just make it worse. So would "deep oil", if it even exists.

Clinging to the energy sources that were popular around 1900 is insane. We need to move on and simply get past burning fossil fuels. We can still use them to create things like plastic so those companies can still exist for centuries. They just can't be the behemoths that they are today. Germany has already made huge strides in this area. Brazil has done well also. I suppose we, as a nation, are just to lazy and/or stupid to do the same thing.



*Edit is in bold print, for accuracy. My apologies for the sloppy response.

[AlecBGreen]

28. Your post is 99.9% correct

We humans have never penetrated through the crust to reach the mantle. The deepest hole, the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, is the farthest we've penetrated. It got about 7 miles down into the crust. The mantle is far deeper.

[Motown_Johnny]

29. I should have phrased that more accurately.

These things are still in the planning stages. I should have said "We are already planning on drilling into the Earth's Mantle". My apologies, and thank you for pointing out my inaccuracy. I will try to not be so sloppy in the future.


Here is a link to "World Oil News Center" about plans to drill to the mantle:

http://www.worldoil.com/Plans_unveiled_to_drill_worlds_deepest_well.html


Here is one to National Geographic:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110323-earth-mantle-drill-sample-first-science-nature-teagle/


^snip^


Scientists are planning to drill all the way through the planet's miles-thick crust to Earth's deep, hot mantle and retrieve samples for the first time. The samples, they say, would rival moon rocks for sheer scientific import—and be nearly as hard to get.

"That has been a long-term ambition of earth scientists," geologist Damon Teagle told National Geographic News.

But a lack of suitable technology and insufficient understanding of the crust have long tempered that ambition. (Get an overview of Earth's magma and other layers).

Now, better knowledge of the Earth's shell and technological advances—for example, a Japanese drill ship equipped with six miles (ten kilometers) of drilling pipe—have put the goal within reach, according to a commentary in this week's issue of the journal Nature, co-written by Teagle, a geologist at the U.K.'s University of Southampton.



And NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134855888/Drilling-To-The-Mantle-Of-The-Earth

^snip^


FLATOW: We're talking about drilling into the mantel this hour on SCIENCE FRIDAY, from NPR.

I'm Ira Flatow. We're talking with Damon Teagle. Let's see if we can get a phone call or we have a question from Second Life, saying: What materials are the drill bits made of? What do you drill with? What is...




And finally, Phys.org:


http://phys.org/news/2011-03-scientists-drill-earth-mantle.html

^snip^


(PhysOrg.com) -- In what can only be described as a mammoth undertaking, scientists, led by British co-chiefs, Dr Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England and Dr Benoit Ildefonse from Montpellier University in France, have announced jointly in an article in Nature that they intend to drill a hole through the Earth’s crust and into the mantle; a feat never before accomplished, much less seriously attempted.

[AlecBGreen]

34. very neat, thanks for sharing!

[bhikkhu]

14. You need a job with the Information Ministry

...cold fusion hasn't worked yet, but who knows. I'm not holding my breath or planning on it to "save" us. Zero point energy is a scam based on most people's limited understanding of physics.

If we don't run out of oil, however, we are truly and finally screwed, as that is the only practical limit to greenhouse gas emissions.

[hunter]

15. Climate change will kill enough of us that peak oil won't be a problem.

Don't worry, be happy!

[Motown_Johnny]

30. Most of those deaths will be in underdeveloped countries

and they are not big users of oil.

[FogerRox]

17. Uh, Chevron ran a TV ad a fews ago

About how they were working hard to work around peak oil.


In addition to that, nearly every statement you've made is grossly in error. This isnt even a good CT post, its dribble.

[hatrack]

20. OFFS

[XemaSab]

32. .

[SidDithers]

21. Wow...

Sid

[FogerRox]

22. 763 views and no Recs, I'm proud of my fellow DUers

[OnlinePoker]

26. I rec'd just to be contrarian. n/t

[sakabatou]

24. There's only one thing I have to say

[IDemo]

25. -