Fossilfuel economy: the end is nigh..

[Spursex]

Breakthrough in hydrogen-powered cars may spell end for petrol stations

100 per cent of the sugar stored in corn stover can be converted into hydrogen gas with no overall increase in carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere
Steve Connor Author Biography

Science Editor

Tuesday 07 April 2015


Scientists have dramatically increased the efficiency of producing clean hydrogen fuel from plant waste in a breakthrough that could one day lead to petrol stations being replaced by a network of roadside “bioreactors” for refuelling cars.

A study funded by Shell Oil has shown that it is possible to convert all 100 per cent of the sugar stored in corn stover – the stalks, cobs and husks leftover in a harvested maize field – into hydrogen gas with no overall increase in carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.

The researchers perfected the process by mixing the raw biomass with a watery solution containing a cocktail of ten enzymes that turned the plant sugars xylose and glucose into hydrogen and carbon dioxide, said Professor Percival Zhang of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Previously it has only been possible to convert between 30 per cent and 60 per cent of the plant’s sugars into hydrogen using either fermenting microbes or industrial catalysts. However, the latest technique converts 100 per cent of the plant sugars into hydrogen, Professor Zhang said.

 

[Departed]

LOL. Do you really think that we grow enough corn to power the world?

It is a good use of waste though.

 

[Spursex]

80deg16minW - 7/4/2015 12:50

LOL. Do you really think that we grow enough corn to power the world?

It is a good use of waste though.

Actually, the numbers suggest we could grow enough to replace fossil fuels in vehicles - but it then ignores the problem how what water resources we'd need to do it...

The day is coming when fossil fuel use will start shrinking year on year.

 

[Departed]

Spursex - 7/4/2015 15:54

80deg16minW - 7/4/2015 12:50

LOL. Do you really think that we grow enough corn to power the world?

It is a good use of waste though.

Actually, the numbers suggest we could grow enough to replace fossil fuels in vehicles - but it then ignores the problem how what water resources we'd need to do it...

The day is coming when fossil fuel use will start shrinking year on year.

Completely agree on that last statement. We are in the VHS vs Beta stage though.

 

[Spursex]

80deg16minW - 7/4/2015 16:05

Spursex - 7/4/2015 15:54

80deg16minW - 7/4/2015 12:50

LOL. Do you really think that we grow enough corn to power the world?

It is a good use of waste though.

Actually, the numbers suggest we could grow enough to replace fossil fuels in vehicles - but it then ignores the problem how what water resources we'd need to do it...

The day is coming when fossil fuel use will start shrinking year on year.

Completely agree on that last statement. We are in the VHS vs Beta stage though.

Just invest in the picks and spade companies; not the end assemblers.

By the way, now is the time to take a punt on Bitcoin..!

 

[spurdon]

Please God it is.

 

[Spursex]

spurdon - 9/4/2015 11:13

Please God it is.

having just pronounced that, today they're reporting a potential country economy changing 100 billion barrel find in Gatwick of all places!

 

[Departed]

Spursex - 9/4/2015 11:19

spurdon - 9/4/2015 11:13

Please God it is.

having just pronounced that, today they're reporting a potential country economy changing 100 billion barrel find in Gatwick of all places!

Frack off.

 

[Spursex]

80deg16minW - 9/4/2015 12:29

Spursex - 9/4/2015 11:19

spurdon - 9/4/2015 11:13

Please God it is.

having just pronounced that, today they're reporting a potential country economy changing 100 billion barrel find in Gatwick of all places!

Frack off.

Agreed, no need for fracking at all now :17:

 

[Departed]

Not at $40 a barrel there isn't.

Apparently the Saudis need $83.00 a barrel to break even on their overall economy. Every year they hold it down drives that number up $3-$5. The countries around them and Venezuela are in a similar situation.

There are various theories about the current price some of which are probably partly true.

Whatever the reason this will be good for Canada in the long term. This has happened before to us and we diversified. We will have to do it again but the manufacturing we have lost will not likely return except where high quality issues are involved.

The revisitation of existing mines searching for materials that now have a use is big business. Hopefully it will go beyond digging them out of the ground or bindipping through the gangue and refining.

 

[Spurfect11]

great! more pummeling of the ozone layer!

 

[Departed]

Spurfect11 - 9/4/2015 14:32

great! more pummeling of the ozone layer!

?????

It's just the opposite.

 

[Departed]

Why a vicious Saudi price war against North American oil producers is doomed to fail

Claudia Cattaneo | April 9, 2015 | Last Updated: Apr 9 3:10 PM ET

The Saudi strategy to quickly push prices to uneconomic levels was typical of what we have come to expect from the Middle East: brutal, uncompromising, shocking. It’s been a painful price war.

Canada, the up-and-coming oil superpower, has long had a complex relationship with Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. In the early days of the commercial oilsands, the Saudis, with the world’s largest oil reserves, looked upon Canada, with the third-largest, as a high-cost nuisance. As oil prices increased, and Canada’s production grew, the Saudis encouraged it to become a member of its oil cartel. If Canada decides to join, “We say welcome,” Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, said in 2007.

Of course, Canada, with its market-based economy, didn’t. Instead, its innovation-driven oil production growth continued, and Canada pushed out Saudi Arabia as the main oil supplier to the United States. By 2011, the Saudis had lost their cool with Canada over an advertising campaign by EthicalOil.org, a tiny grassroots organization based in Toronto, that encouraged consumers to favour “ethical” oil from Canada over “conflict” oil from undemocratic regimes. The Saudis hired lawyers to suppress commercials and put pressure on Canadian oil companies to not support the campaign. Even so, investors and energy consumers, from Asia to Europe, continued to favour Canadian production as an alternative to oil from despotic regimes.

By last November, Canada and Saudi Arabia were at opposite ends of a price war. The Saudis led OPEC to keep production unchanged rather than cut excess supplies in the face of sluggish world economic growth. The goal was to protect Saudi Arabia’s oil market share from two growing threats: shale oil in the U.S. and the oilsands in Canada. OPEC’s forecasts showed production from the U.S. and Canada was headed for 20 million barrels a day by 2020, from 15.2 million barrels a day in 2013. North American unconventional supplies, driven by technological advances, were becoming the “primary driver of recent non-OPEC output growth,” the cartel said in its 2014 Outlook.

Related
The coming showdown between Canadian and Saudi oil producers on the U.S. Gulf Coast
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The Saudi strategy to quickly push prices to uneconomic levels was typical of what we have come to expect from the Middle East: brutal, uncompromising, shocking.

It’s been a painful price war.

A supply glut of about one to two million barrels of oil a day, on top of daily demand of about 91 million barrels around the world, has crushed oil prices by 60%. Hundreds of billions of dollars in value have been lost as energy consumers buy oil for less than it costs to replace it.

Investment in future projects has ground to a halt. Oil-dependent governments are struggling to balance the books. Thousands of previously hard-to-find skilled workers are out of work. In Canada’s oilsands, where operating costs are among the world’s highest, cash flows are expected to fall by $23 billion in 2015 and 2016 and peak volumes of four million barrels a day have been pushed back by four years to 2024, predicts Callan McMahon, principal analyst for oil consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

But it’s highly unlikely that the drilling innovations that are enabling production of unconventional oil reserves will be put on the shelf. Indeed, lower oil prices may even accelerate the drive to improve, making non-OPEC supplies harder to push around. “We are using this time to challenge the organization to find new ways to further reduce our already low operating, sustaining and maintenance costs, and also to look at how we can grow this business utilizing less capital and continue that growth during periods of low commodity prices,” said Bill McCaffrey, CEO and president of oilsands producer MEG Energy Corp.

OPEC is scheduled to meet again in early June to assess whether its policy shift has helped rebalance the market in its favour. It will be an appropriate time for self-assessment, too, particularly by the Saudis. This latest oil shock highlighted the harshness of their ways, and is one reason Canada’s oil will continue to be favoured at their expense.

http://business.financialpost.com/financial-post-magazine/why-a-vicious-saudi-price-war-against-north-american-oil-producers-is-doomed-to-fail?__lsa=f2d7-ec7e