Help me understand OOT ( Warning boring Global warming issues ) NSFW

[Felix_Nietzsche]

Short Answer: We will NEVER-NEVER-EVER run out of oil.
We may run out of CHEAP oil but as long as their is a demand for oil, there will ALWAYS be oil.

1st: You can take coal and add hydrogen to make oil. This technology was developed by Germany during WW2 and SASOL of South Africa uses this method to make oil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasol

2nd You can make oil from oil shale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale

There are two main barriers from more widespread use of using coal and oil shale to meet our energy needs.
1. Mideast oil is cheaper.
2. The high capital cost of building a coal-to-oil plant.

I've seen claims that you can profitably build a coal-to-oil plant if oil stays above $40 a barrel. The risk is if you build a coal-to-oil plant and the price falls to below $40, then the company that builds the plant risks bankrupcy... In South Dakota they built a coal-to-methane plant and they are making money hand-over-fist. And the USA has plenty of coal and oil shale....

The OPEC cartel has to be very careful to keep the price of oil from going too high otherwise they risk competition from companies like SASOL. If the price of oil gets too high, entrepreneuers with deep pockets can make some nice bank by building a coal-to-oil plant.

[EssencE]

^^ thanks Felix..

Btw.. any insight in the surge of prices for Uranium? Arguement I heard is that since OIL is running out everyone is in the process of building nuclear reactors.. China and India have 7 in the works..

[Felix_Nietzsche]

[ QUOTE ]
Btw.. any insight in the surge of prices for Uranium? Arguement I heard is that since OIL is running out everyone is in the process of building nuclear reactors.. China and India have 7 in the works..

[/ QUOTE ]
Obviously you can't use uranium to fuel your car so I would argue the price of uranium is largely independent of the availability of oil. Coal-fired electricity plant dirties the air and upsets people like Al Gore who claims CO2 causes global warming. Nuclear generated electricity keeps the air cleaner and its waste comes in a very compact form.

I think nuclear energy is becoming more acceptable these days as oppose to the 1970s where there was a lot of hype of the dangers of nuclear power.

[Mickey Brausch]

[ QUOTE ]
We will NEVER-NEVER-EVER run out of oil.
We may run out of CHEAP oil but as long as their is a demand for oil, there will ALWAYS be oil.

[/ QUOTE ]How can a finite mass be also infinite?

Are you drunk?

[John Feeney]

[ QUOTE ]
How can a finite mass be also infinite?

Are you drunk?

[/ QUOTE ]

Mickey,

You may already have noticed; there are shockingly large numbers of inebriated citizens walking around out there. Many have latched on to this "finite things are infinite" thingy. I'm wondering if it's psychedelics.

[jws43yale]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We will NEVER-NEVER-EVER run out of oil.
We may run out of CHEAP oil but as long as their is a demand for oil, there will ALWAYS be oil.

[/ QUOTE ]How can a finite mass be also infinite?

Are you drunk?

[/ QUOTE ]

It is a relative answer. It is not infinite, but we will never use it up due to the fact that the scarcer it gets, the higher the price. If there were only 100 barrels left in the world, the price would be so high no-one could afford to actualy use it.

[51cards]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We will NEVER-NEVER-EVER run out of oil.
We may run out of CHEAP oil but as long as their is a demand for oil, there will ALWAYS be oil.

[/ QUOTE ]How can a finite mass be also infinite?

Are you drunk?

[/ QUOTE ]

It is a relative answer. It is not infinite, but we will never use it up due to the fact that the scarcer it gets, the higher the price. If there were only 100 barrels left in the world, the price would be so high no-one could afford to actualy use it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whew, that's good. I thought we were going to run out there for a minute.

[Mickey Brausch]

[ QUOTE ]
[Petroleum] is not infinite, but we will never use it up due to the fact that the scarcer it gets, the higher the price. If there were only 100 barrels left in the world, the price would be so high no-one could afford to actualy use it.

[/ QUOTE ]In the run-up to petroleum getting so scarce as to be approaching a total of 100 barrels, do you suppose that people will continue to use it up at its obviously rapidly rising price -- or that people will be forced early enough in the climb to look elsewhere?

It just might be that those 100 barrels of oil will be indeed priced highly enough, although not as a scarce natural resource but as a precious relic; something like the price for the only extant remains of a complete brontosaurus.

In the oil business, a petroleum product in an installation is said to be "No Longer Available" NOT when it reaches zero tons, but when it drops at the "Unpumpable" level. In so many words, oil <u>is</u> finite, whether that means (a) it's no longer in pumpable quantities, (b) it's too expensive, or (c) the physical reservoirs have been completely emptied.

But let's not digress. For the persistent efforts of Felix, and the other hyper-mathematicians in this thread, I wanna thank 'em all for giving us a real life example of an infinite quantity; I'll let you figure out what that was.

Mickey Brausch

[ChrisV]

[ QUOTE ]
1st: You can take coal and add hydrogen to make oil. This technology was developed by Germany during WW2 and SASOL of South Africa uses this method to make oil.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where do you get the hydrogen from?

[Felix_Nietzsche]

[ QUOTE ]
Where do you get the hydrogen from?

[/ QUOTE ]
I believe they use H2O (water).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_synthesis