The fuel of the Future

[corozin 0]

The future of fuel may be artificial petrol.

Start praying they make this work folks : article here

[Andy665 0]

Exciting from the point of view of an unlimited supply of fuel - not exciting at all from a cost perspective.

 

One or both of these things will happen:

 

1. Technology will be acquired by an oil company and shelved until such time as it suits them to use it

 

2. Government will slap duty on the fuel that will ensure its no cheaper than conventional petrol - in fact it will be more expensive due to its "environmental credentials"

[Big'G' 0]

Exciting from the point of view of an unlimited supply of fuel - not exciting at all from a cost perspective.

 

One or both of these things will happen:

 

1. Technology will be acquired by an oil company and shelved until such time as it suits them to use it

 

2. Government will slap duty on the fuel that will ensure its no cheaper than conventional petrol - in fact it will be more expensive due to its "environmental credentials"

 

 

 

That's just typical of people consumed by greed. Just when things are looking up for the planet and our wallets.......

[Wullie 1]

Exciting from the point of view of an unlimited supply of fuel - not exciting at all from a cost perspective.

 

One or both of these things will happen:

 

1. Technology will be acquired by an oil company and shelved until such time as it suits them to use it

 

2. Government will slap duty on the fuel that will ensure its no cheaper than conventional petrol - in fact it will be more expensive due to its "environmental credentials"

 

 

 

That's just typical of people consumed by greed. Just when things are looking up for the planet and our wallets.......

Especially the Government As the AA mention in the last paragraph.

 

But AA president Edmund King warned: ‘The fact the hydrogen is cheaper now doesn’t mean it always will be because the Government would soon get its hands on it and increase the tax.’

[Critical_Mass 10]

Sounds the way forward and despite the governments extra charges on it, it def IS the way forward in regards to oil supplys and the environment. But i do agree that i cant see it being any cheaper then 'regular' petrol. To be honest all this petrol going up due to cost per barrel of oil or cost of production i think is a cover for the government to increase the price for their own benefit.

 

Still.... a new fuel is going to be needed, so putting the governments agenda to one side, this is still a good thing.

[Critical_Mass 10]

Also i'll add that, cars are taxed based on engine size etc and generally on their emissions. But i cant see the tax dropping either despite cars become effectively enviromentally friendly.

[Joe M 0]

I reckon we will all be running around in cars powered by steam engines, water will be heated to steam using a mini fusion reactor. Top up the water every few days, then about every 6 months remove a copper bar and replace with nickel, as well as pressurising a small hydrogen tank. (The nickel and hydrogen fuse to create copper.)

[boost monkey 0]

Or you could just get one of these:

 

 

but then, where he's going you don't need...roads *flicks futuristic sunglasses down* :D :D :D :D :D :D

[dragon green 4]

Why not put more money into using alcohol !

engines run cooler,cheap to make,and it can be made out of nearly anything !

people could distill there own using food wastes,

[Andy665 0]

Indeed. the majority of vehicles sold in Brazil run on ethanol produced mainly from sugar cane

[Critical_Mass 10]

Or you could just get one of these:

 

 

but then, where he's going you don't need...roads *flicks futuristic sunglasses down* :D :D :D :D :D :D

 

and no more land fills :clap: :clap:

[corozin 0]

Well despite the article first appearing the the Daily Mail (that bastion of serious honest reporting) it would be nice to think that the eggheads may have discovered a realistic alternative fuel that (unlike electric) won't involve recharging every 90 miles.

 

But Andy665 makes some good points. The potential breakthrough in technology gives real cause for hope, but potentially has a lot of political and lobbying interests up against it. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, the process of turning into fuel is not simple, but it's genuinely encouraging to think that there could be a genuinely clean fuel out there which could be used in existing engines.

 

But over the past 30 years Governments all across the western world have become more and more dependent on petrol taxes, and in the past 10 years the dramatic increase in fuel taxes have been hypothocated on the basis that they are encouraging us to use less fuel and pollute the world less. Stripped of that argument how will our Governments look to defend thier tax income? How will the public react if a Government set taxes for the new fuel at least the same level?

 

But thinking ahead one positive benefit of this new fuel (if it can be made to work and produced in commercial quantities) is that we may be able to stop pandering to the whims of the OPEC nations in the far east and be fuel independant again. We could bring our troops home, and let the Arabs get get on with fighting each other without needing to defend oil interests out there. We could also be freed of the need to run environmentally risky deep water oil drilling operations like the deep water horizon - again a real benefit.

[OSV 0]

If it truly becomes feasible both economically and environmentally, handled correctly it could guarantee the future wealth and viability of the company/country involved in developing/licensing/owning it. Fuel here neededn't be expensive if we all benefitted from the wealth generated. That said some greedy or incompetant fools will no doubt spoil the opportunity.

[Critical_Mass 10]

Some good point here, this is a very interesting thread.

 

Putting the taxes aside and the fact we could still be charged as much for the new fuel then petrol - as corozin said governments have become dependant on the taxes against fuel. Bringing the taxes down for the new clean fuel will have to be made up somewhere else, surely.

 

Even if we were still taxed what we already are (maybe slightly less), if it meant having a clean fuel, bringing the troops home and not being so focused on the oil producing countries, i think that alone would make it all worthwhile.

[dr_mat 0]

And when Hydrogen starts to get difficult to produce? Diversity is what we need, not a new single source..

Admittedly there's a butt load of hydrogen in the universe, but it's not always in a convenient form..