Bio fuel takes off in Australia: run your car on fish and chips oil

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Frankychan
I save, you save, everyone saves.

Except Exxon, Mobil, etc... Thus the problem....

[Alexander's Horse]

its does show that altarnative fuels are viable

[dannubis]

plus
1) the lacking widespread infrastructure to safely deliver hydrogen to the car.
2) no sollution has been found as of yet to increase the amount of energy a car can take with it. you need a big volume of hydrogen to get a decent autonomy.

[Az]

plus, you need to manufacture that hydrogen.

[MOBIUS]

Easy for a country like Iceland.

When I was there they were starting to test fuel cell buses and were saying that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to having the entire country's vehicles running on fuel cells in the very near future...

I know of biodiesel being produced in Wales on a commercial basis and of course Brazil used to have a huge fuel industry running on ethanol from sugar cane - which I believe is enjoying a renaissance.

Bottom line in that with the correct political will ( X infinity - ) we could wean ourselves off fossil fuels at a fairly rapid rate - the technology is there and at often cheaper prices than the fossil alternative...

It beggars belief that nations such as Australia (and the UK) who when encountering a perfectly good publicly led environmental solution to burning fossil fuels stamp down hard as if it is some sort of insidiously harmful virus...


Sure tax it to protect revenues, by why not do it in such a way that it still encourages the spread and development of the technology, thus encouraging recycling and the reduction of greenhouse gases?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
Easy for a country like Iceland.

When I was there they were starting to test fuel cell buses and were saying that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to having the entire country's vehicles running on fuel cells in the very near future...

Population of Iceland: 293,291

[Az]

Population of the world: 6,XXX,XXX,XXX

which makes iceland 0.05% of the world.

[Frankychan]

I'm no expert on elements, but isn't hydrogen dangerous?

What would happen if a bus with fuel cells gets into an accident? I'm thinking the Hindenburg here...


Well, as for the big oil companies I think it would be smart of them to develop additives to the oil so that you wouldn't need to buy as much, but yet would still yield the same output. Slowly mix the additives to the oil until these companies are making 90% additives and 10% actual oil. Less to buy, and you still have a product that we "need". THEN eventually move to biofuel.

It's not what I would want, but it's probably more realistic.

[Alexander's Horse]

there was a big scandal here where fuel discounters were lacing the petrol with ethanol. played havoc on petrol engines.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Az
who exactly did they sell out the arabs to, I beg your pardon? The people that fought with them were all installed as chiefs of state - obviously as their puppets, but that's quite natural considering the fact that the brits had all the guns and money.

They didn't sell them out to "somebody," they just sold them out for themselves.

British promised them freedom, self-determination, not puppetry.

Ask the Arabs what they think about it.

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
Sure tax it to protect revenues, by why not do it in such a way that it still encourages the spread and development of the technology, thus encouraging recycling and the reduction of greenhouse gases?

With GST set at 10%, how are they going to tax this new product at nearly 40% to gain the same levels of revenue?

[Alexander's Horse]

you can't, which is why it has been cliamed for decades that the oil industry and government were suppressing alternative fuels

[Ted Striker]

I don't know how our gas taxes are. I thought they were a fixed amount per gallon type of thing, not a percentage, but I don't know for sure.

That makes sense though, if they are making more money off of gas taxes as the price goes up, I could see why they would not want a cheaper alternative.

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Az
plus, you need to manufacture that hydrogen.

the efficiency with which H2 can be electrolysed out of water is currently about 80 %.
fuel cell cars would run at about the same level of efficiency.

still beats the hell out of the combustion engine's 14 % no ?

and besides: H2 production would concentrate all CO2(+rest of pollutive emissions) at one point: the production facility. this would allow for a much better cleaning process of the combustion gasses.

[Az]

yes, of course, of course. Now factor in the efficiency of fossil power plants.Fossil power plant Energy efficiency is something like 10,000 BTU/KWh ( both are energy units, so it's a unitless coefficient)