Oil, is it important?

[Mountain-God]

In other words, pretty high?

I read a study based on an American bio-ethanol facility - largely solar powered, recoverign CO2 for coca-cola, and plant-waste for feed-stock. End product ethanol cost about 2/3rds that of petrol.

Good, but not fantastic, until we figure in the fact that essentially takes into account all bi-products and is paying for all costs - not like oil, where we pay only part, and defer the rest until later

 

[Zhuge_Liang]

If it's oil, we'll suffer later unlike in bio-fuels, we suffer earlier and free later.

 

[Zhuge_Liang]

Or maybe we'll cash in bio fuels?

 

[Abaddon]

Oil will kill us all

 

[carmen510]

Sorry, but I am not keen on food being used for fuels anyway.

Don't worry, biofuels can be made out of food waste, such as corn husks.

 

[DYNAMICS]

I'm an engineering Student so i know that it's possible to make an electrical car faster and safer for the consumer. However, I'm not a politician who holds the keys to the treasury.

 

[El_Machinae]

What we need is an electric car that is cheaper. No one cares about much else, as long as we have the cost down.

 

[Zhuge_Liang]

you must be talking about a "solar powered car", right?

 

[Elrohir]

I know that this is like insane but really, is oil important? Many alternatives are there like biofuel, ethanol, etc. Some says that oil will ran out by 2040. Is this true?

Oil is important because it allows you to effectively transport large amounts of energy easily and cheaply. Wood can be burned, but it isn't efficient to have a car that runs off of burning wood like an old steamship, because there isn't enough energy "in the wood" to make it work well. There is in oil, though, which is why we have cars that run off of gasoline.

Fortunately, there are literally trillions of gallons of the stuff left. (And trillions of gallons of shale oil in the US, too - but that will take sustained oil prices of over $100 a barrel to make profitable) But we definitely should look into alternative fuel sources, but even so, I don't expect oil prices to go do significantly in the future. Ups and downs, sure, but I doubt that we'll be seeing $30 barrels of oil for any length of time worldwide ever again.

 

[Snowball]

Oil will not run out anytime soon. It will eventually be in enough demand that the cost to extract shale oil will become economical. That oil will last for a hundred years at least.

 

[Perfection]

What we need is an electric car that is cheaper. No one cares about much else, as long as we have the cost down.

Well, there's three very important things that limit electric powered cars:
1. Battery life, this is definitely improving but battery replacement is still needed and expensive
2. Charging speed, batteries need to be charged quickly so that if you're doing a road trip you don't need to wait hours for your car to get juiced up again
3. Battery capacity, electric cars need better range

These things are getting better and cheaper, so I think sometime in the future electric cars may be predominant

you must be talking about a "solar powered car", right?

Solar cars are relatively impractical. There just isn't enough solar energy, even under Perfect conditions with perfect panels you're not gonna get much more then 10 horses and current cars are significantly less.

That doesn't mean solar shouldn't be part of the discussion, because for certain small applications they're okay and they can aid in charging the batteries of electric vehicles.

 

[DYNAMICS]

What we need is an electric car that is cheaper. No one cares about much else, as long as we have the cost down.

It’s always important when investing in an idea that the capital return is lucrative. Keeping cost down and marking the idea to the consumer is the make or break point. You can have a fantastic idea about manufacturing composite materials or some fancy engine dynamics, but if the law of demising returns is not threaded into the equation you might as well quite while your ahead. Same with the space industry, their is no need for companies to rush into space or mine some mineral ore, in some distant solar system, when you could find them on earth at a fraction of the cost.

Economics pays a massive role in determining which ideas are here today, or which get kept on the shelf collecting dust.