New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: This forum is accepting new registrations by emailing newmarsmember * gmail.com become a registered member. Read the Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topic in Meta New Mars for other information for this process.

#476 2022-05-01 20:13:23

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Saturday bought fuel at 3.99 a gallon and woke up this morning to find it was now 4.17 at the same station.

Offline

#477 2022-05-03 05:40:50

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

World conventional oil production looks as if it peaked back in 2016.  It has been on the slide for six years now.  The people that run the Peak Oil Barrel site are communist wankers, but they know more than most people when it comes to oil production.
https://peakoilbarrel.com/decline-in-wo … -peak-oil/

From now on, any increases in global oil production and with it diesel and gasoline production, must be made up using unconventional resources - tight oil (shale), oil sands, biofuels.  These are more expensive to produce, both financially and environmentally.  There are bottlenecks that limit unconventional oil expansion.  Natural gas is needed for cracking.  Steam heating is needed to extract deep tar sands.  These oils must be blended before they can be refined.

Demand destruction due to Chinese lockdowns appear to be the only thing delaying an oil supply crisis.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gene … risis.html

OPEC may lack the capacity to substantially increase supply.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News … acity.html

Diesel prices are reaching record highs, with shortages anticipated.  Whereas gasoline shortages would ground a lot of drivers, diesel shortages would be a more severe threat to the economy.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News … cords.html

In the US, refined product stocks are declining.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News … plies.html

How exactly this all going to play out, I do not know.  But I doubt that the results will be pretty.  The world has dealt with supply shortfalls before.  High prices usually precede recession, because they tend to result in inflation that ends up being squashed by rising interest rates.  But the situation we are facing now is different.  We are coming up against limits to pumping capacity that have their roots in geology.  This means that the only way to squash high prices is to crush demand.  That implies prices high enough to either bankrupt some users or force them to explore options for demand reduction.  Warren Buffet appears to have seen the writing on the wall.  It is a good time to invest in oil & gas companies that still have reserves.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/B … tocks.html

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-03 06:51:23)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#478 2022-05-04 13:14:26

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Two excellent articles written by Tim Watkins.  They discuss the stagflationary crisis and the likely great depression that we are heading into, from a UK perspective.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2022 … eck-ahead/
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2022 … t-violins/

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-04 13:16:13)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#479 2022-05-04 19:38:15

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Big surprise again as the price was adjusted again upward to 4.25 a gallon at the usual location.

Offline

#480 2022-05-05 20:03:32

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Seems like the price has not stabilized as its gone up once more to 4.35. Granted I do not need any fuel for tomorrows journey to work and back but will most likely by Sunday.

Offline

#481 2022-05-07 22:02:11

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

I think that I am getting use to seeing the price higher than the day before as its 4.41 today when I needed to get some fuel to keep using the Prius.

Offline

#482 2022-05-08 20:21:58

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Not sure where the article is talking about but will check the pump price tomorrow.

Gasoline Prices Drop as Biden Takes Further Steps

Last week, the Biden administration issued an emergency fuel waiver to combat the high price of gas. This waiver allows E15 gasoline -- fuel made with a 15% ethanol blend -- to be sold in the United States.

Normally a winter additive for the north but it really does not help the mileage as it burns poorly.

Offline

#483 2022-05-10 06:44:26

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,455

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/u-re … 56380.html

Highlight: Diesel fuel reached a record of $5.45 per gallon at the pump this week.

Reuters
U.S. retail gasoline prices hit new record, as refiners struggle to meet demand

A gas pump is seen in a car at a Shell gas station in Washington

Tue, May 10, 2022, 3:40 AM
By Laura Sanicola

(Reuters) - Retail gasoline prices in the United States rose on Tuesday and hit another all-time record, surpassing one set in March, as global refineries grappled with a bottleneck that has sent prices soaring ahead of driving season.

The average cost of a retail gallon of gasoline hit $4.374 early Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association, surpassing the former record of $4.331.

Since March 30, Brent crude futures have lost 7%, but gasoline futures are up 9.4%, and hit a record on Friday of $3.7590 per gallon before selling off on Monday.

Refinery closures due to both scheduled maintenance and unplanned upsets have boosted fuel prices even as the United States and other nations have taken steps to boost worldwide crude supply. Global fuel stockpiles are dwindling as demand has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Supplies tightened further following the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on Russia from the United States and allies.

The world has lost 1 million barrels of refining capacity and 1.5 million barrels of oil supply since the pandemic, estimated Mike Jennings, chief executive officer at HF Sinclair Corp in an earnings call on Monday.

"That's 2.5% of world consumption...it's a big number," said Jennings.

In the spring, refiners prioritize gasoline output ahead of warmer weather when driving picks up. But in recent weeks, they have increased distillate output to meet jet fuel and diesel demand in Europe, Latin America and the United States, as Western sanctions on Moscow curtailed Russia's exports.

"On the refinery earnings calls, they're talking about making sure they run at full steam - refinery utilization is going to stay very high throughout the year," said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at Tradition Energy.

Diesel fuel reached a record of $5.45 per gallon at the pump this week.

Still, fuel prices in the United States remain substantially lower than in other major consumers like the UK, Japan and France, where higher taxes increase the cost of fuel.

"I don't see this resolving itself until 2023 at the earliest, when more refining capacity comes online in the Middle East and Asia," said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

The price of U.S. crude oil, the largest input cost for refiners, has fallen nearly $20 from highs reached in March, with supplies boosted by the release of millions of crude barrels from U.S. strategic reserves and demand dented by coronavirus lockdowns in China.

However, product inventories are still falling. U.S. gasoline inventories are down 3% year-on-year to 228.6 million barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The 3-2-1 crack spread, a proxy for refining margins, reached $54.34 on Monday, nearly 150% higher than at this time a year ago.

"I think that we can expect, assuming the economies stay reasonably strong, that commodity prices and, particularly prices of our products, are going to be relatively high," Jennings said.

Refining margins surge in topsy-turvy market https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/c … 786260.png

(Reporting by Laura Sanicola)

(th)

Offline

#484 2022-05-10 08:52:08

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

The only likely respite is a recession that leads to demand destruction.  Unfortunately 'demand destruction' involves people going broke and not being able to afford as much energy and energy products.  So it isn't really anything to look forward to.

The problem that the world is facing is that there isn't any price that is both tolerable for consumers and sufficiently high to entice new unconventional oil production.  At a price high enough to develop marginal resources, many marginal consumers would go broke, which would force prices down again.  This points to the underlying energy dynamic of the economy.  It takes certain amount of energy in the form of liquid fuels, heat and power, to produce real goods and services that people value.  If the cost of the energy is too high, then the wealth generating system breaks down.  This is the problem with a lot of alternative energy schemes.  And it is ultimately the reason why battery electric is unlikely to come to the rescue of our declining fossil fuel based economy.

The systems that we use cease to function when EROI of energy sources falls too low.  We are seeing that happen in real time in the US shale sector.  Oil prices are sky high and you would think that this would motivate a lot more drilling and surging production.  Instead production looks pretty flat.  How can that be?  Because the materials and labour needed to bring additional reserves on line, have grown more expensive as oil price has risen.  As energy gets more expensive, so do all of the inputs needed to bring more energy production on line.  If EROI is high, then the gap between production costs and price, will widen as oil price increases.  Logically, there must be a critical EROI value for oil resources, beneath which the cost of production of new resources rises more rapidly than the price of oil.  Much of the remaining US shale resources appear to be beneath that critical EROI limit.  This suggests that a large part of what we presently consider to be fossil fuel resources will never leave the ground.  They will never generate enough net energy for it to be worthwhile mining them.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-10 09:04:38)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#485 2022-05-10 09:16:33

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,455

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For Calliban ...

In the most recent NewMars Zoom, kbd512 mused about setting up a plant to make diesel fuel from CO2 and sea water.

Meanwhile, a member of the North Houston chapter of NSS participated by email, with history of US investigation of that very concept.

As I understand the email, the company that did the research was persuaded to discontinue the activity due to objections by their customers (this was in Texas).

The price of diesel is reported to be rising along with gasoline.

My question to you is ... can you imagine a price point where manufactured diesel is competitive with fossil diesel?

I am asking this question because of your closing line in the post (#484) ... I see oil that stays in the ground as worthy competition for a manufacturing facility.

If the source of energy is solar, as kbd512 was considering in his musings, then the supply should be fairly stable from the standpoint of the customer.

If the customer is a 'large' one (such as a megafarm), then the initial cost of the supply facility could be spread over a number of years, and the fluctuations of diesel fuel price would be eliminated if the supplier is captured.

(th)

Offline

#486 2022-05-10 09:44:12

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

I don't know is the honest answer.  The low power density of sunlight is a serious obstacle.  But direct thermochemical conversion of water in H2/O2 is an efficient use of concentrated heat that cuts out a lot of the cost that would otherwise be incurred if heat were converted to electric power and used for electrolysis.  The concentrated CO2 dissolved in sea water is a more efficient source than attempting to absorb it from the air into hydroxide ponds and then bake it out with high heat.

CO2 can be reduced to CO thusly:

CO2 + H2 = CO + H2O

Which then forms methanol:

2H2 + CO = CH3OH

Methanol then forms dimethyl ether by condensation reaction.

2CH3OH = H3C-O-CH3 + H20

Dimethyl ether is a good diesel substitute.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-10 09:53:10)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#487 2022-05-10 11:18:15

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,455

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For Calliban re #406

Thanks for taking up the question, and for providing (what I interpret as) such a simple, easy-to-follow explanation of the process.

The solar power facility under discussion is a trough-heater design.  There are some who consider it obsolete, but there are others who consider it reliable and effective.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this idea progresses.

There would appear to be a market, and that market would appear to be growing, while at the same time supply is under significant pressure.

All investors have to accept risk.

The risks in ** this ** situation are significant.

(th)

Offline

#488 2022-05-10 15:31:11

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

TH, much depends upon whether we need a solution that simultaneously solves the diesel supply and climate problems.  If we assume that we do, then hydrogen reduction of CO2 from sea water is a way of producing carbon neutral fuels.  Sea water is available to most countries and can be harvested using a pump.  CO2 can be removed from solution by warming the sea water in a rough vacuum.  But making complex carbon based molecules in this way is relatively energy intensive because we must first reduce CO2 to CO using hydrogen over a catalyst bed.

Another option which may be cheaper energetically is to start with biomass and use renewable or nuclear energy to upgrade it into biofuels.  Flash pyrolysis is one way of achieving this.  It involves rapidly heating finely chopped biomass. We would do this by dropping it down a tube that is externally heated to a temperature arouhd 1000°C.  Something like 60% of the energy content of the biomass is captured in light oils, which could presumably be mixed with diesel to provide a compatible fuel for compression ignition engines.  The char that is left over could be further reacted with hydrogen to produce other hydrocarbons.  Or it could be ground into powder and returned to the soil as biochar.  This option may be preferable, as solid carbon within soils acts like an activated surface, locking ionic compunds into the soil, allowing absorption by plant roots.  Doing this can reduce the amount of nitrate needed to achieve soil fertility.

Some people maintain that CO2 induced climate change is a hoax.  I am sceptical of that viewpoint.  But if it is true, then the world has vast quantities of low grade fossil fuels that could be upgraded into oils, using hydrogen and nuclear heat.  Heavy oils and tar sands could be directly cracked into diesel and fuel oil by using hot hydrogen to break long hydrocarbon chains.  Nuclear waste heat could be injected into the ground to reduce viscosity of heavy oil allowing it to be withdrawn from wells.  The same reactor woukd generate electricity that would produce the hydrogen needed for cracking.  Kerogen rich rocks would need to be ground and their organic components separated by gravity.  We would then crack the kerogen into hydrocarbons by first heating it and then passing hot hydrogen through it.  Coal can be upgraded in much the same way.  Using nuclear or solar heat and hydrogen, allows us to upgrade relatively poor solud resources into energy dense liquids.  A technically easy way to get liquid fuel from coal is to heat it.  The result will be coke, coal gas and combustible liquids.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-10 15:45:58)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#489 2022-05-10 18:19:52

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,862

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

tahanson43206,

When the trucks stop running because the diesel becomes unaffordable, then you'll know that we made a mistake.  There are no electric trucks ready to replace them.  All the world's known Lithium reserves are woefully insufficient to supply the farming tractors or the delivery trucks.  Extraction of Lithium from sea water is enormously energy intensive without producing liquid hydrocarbon energy to extract the Lithium over time.  The electric-everything technology is not ready.  That is the truth.  It doesn't matter if we don't like it.  That's reality.  We can pretend that the problem isn't real, but that won't change reality.  We can't eat fanciful ideas associated with "futurism".

Offline

#490 2022-05-10 18:25:09

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,455

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For Calliban re #480 and business outlook for diesel specifically

Mars_B4_Moon's post here:http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=194403#p194403

Contains a link about Chinese making long carbon chains from CO2 (sugar is mentioned)

Thank you for the inclusive overview, including mention of alternatives.

The issue immediately at hand is to try to retire uncertainty by selecting choices from the nearly infinite possibilities.

As it happens (and is NOT a criticism of your analysis) the political climate for nuclear fission power in Texas is poor.

I was surprised to learn this, but kbd512 is a resident, and he patiently helped me to understand the situation.

it is for that reason that kbd512 was contemplating using solar thermal power.  Fortunately, as I understand your analysis, solar thermal power is a plausible mechanism to make diesel, and you have shown at least one and quite possibly more pathways to that result.

The business analysts we might hope to enlist would have to determine (as well as possible under the circumstances) if the foreseeable circumstances in Texas in particular would give a better than 50:50 chance of success.

A lot would have to go exactly right for a business venture to succeed (in any case) but in ** this ** case especially.

Thank you again for your analysis!

Added thought .... there is a large and well developed chemical industry in Texas ... It seems possible (if not likely) that potential business partners may be available to smooth the path toward success.

Producing a steady supply of diesel in Texas would seem to be in everyone's interest.

Doing so ** without ** invoking unwelcome power sources is ** also ** in everyone's interest.

(th)

Offline

#491 2022-05-10 19:16:41

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

from post 483 onward covers diesel fuels and shipping of which the shipping was already an issue long before this latest price rise due to over demand of goods not shipped during the pandemic.

Thought that I remembered that Dimethyl ether was a bio diesel additive.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 0418311920

Diethyl ether is used as additive with ternary blends of biodiesel and diesel. Ether concentration has been varied in the proportion of 5%, 7.5%, 10% and 12.5% on volume basis. Ether shows improved efficiency with less fuel consumption for lower fractions. Addition of ether reduces the oxides of the nitrogen emissions.

Of course that means from the longer chains we can make synthetic diesel but at what cost.

Offline

#492 2022-05-11 02:37:01

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Sodium sulphur batteries have energy density comparable to lithium ion batteries.  Sodium and sulphur are commonly available ingredients.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium% … ur_battery

Beyond the hype that surrouhds Li-ion batteries, sodium sulphur are a more scalable technology.

The problems: (1) Effective work-energy density is one twentieth that of diesel; (2) Sodium sulphur batteries work at temperatures of 350°C and are prone to catching fire.  They tend to be used for stationary applications.

In the long term, this technology may have applications as power source for short range delivery vehicles.  But as we have seen, it would be equally as useless as Li-ion batteries for farm equipment and long range trucks.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-11 02:57:48)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#493 2022-05-11 04:16:02

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Global diesel shortages are unlikely to abate anytime soon and are one of the main drivers behind high inflation.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gene … onomy.html

We need both short and long term solutions.  Presently, the world's goods transportation runs almost exclusively on diesel.  Could we make better use of rail infrastructure and inland waterways and reduce fuel costs that way?  Could we run trucks on gasoline or LPG?  Could this be blended into diesel innsmall quantities?  Could we retrofit diesel engines to mix small quantites of compressed natural gas with intake air, thereby reducing the amount of diesel consumed per mile?  Are there options for improving fuel efficiency of trucks, such as hydraulic hybrid braking energy recovery?

There needs to be serious discussion around practical measures for mitigating the diesel supply problem.  Unfortunately, these discussions do not appear to be taking place in official circles.

This technology could reduce fuel consumption by 10% in large container ships.  Could it be applied to trucks and trains as well?
http://marineengineering.co.za/technica … covery.pdf

If we are applying hybrid engine steam systems to vehicles, then a gas turbine steam hybrid would give better power-weight.  It is also easier to adapt to flexible fuelling arrangements by changing burners.  On rail vehicles, diesel engines are usually coupled with electric generators and wheels are electrically driven.  DC electric motors provide far more torque at low speeds than diesel engines.  This is why acceleration can be ridiculously high for electric vehicles.  By coupling with an electric drive train, the engine does not need to be oversized to overcome static friction.  This improves fuel consumption, as the engine is able to operate closer to its peak performance.  A steam generating system would take longer to run up to power because of thermal inertia and the need to avoid thermal shock.  So a an electric or hydraulic drive train would work better than a direct mechanical drive.

The discussions on CO/O2 got me thinking.  During WW2 and the great depression, wood gas burners were used to provide fuel gas for spark ignition engines.  This wasn't an ideal solution.  Engine power was low, high sulphur in the gas corroded the engine and it was difficult to keep the burner stoked from within the car.  However, gas turbines are much more suited for burning low energy density fuel gases.  Could we power large trucks using char produced from crop residues and woody materials like forestry wastes?  Charcoal could be maintained at high temperatures in an insulated retort.  It would be fed with air using a blower and oxygen would react with the carbon producing a CO rich feed gas.  This would be burned in the gas turbine and waste heat would power a separate steam generator.  Both generators woukd charge the hydraulic reservoir.

The advantage is that char can be produced almost anywhere.  Char can be produced from any biomass material.  It can also be produced from coal.  Heating coal will produce gas, liquid fuels and char, which is commonly known as coke.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-11 06:44:54)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#494 2022-05-11 06:27:24

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,455

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For Calliban re 493

This observation is intended to (try to) add to the comprehensive list of concerns regarding diesel - near term and farther...

Hydrogen is a practical fuel for large vehicles, and development is reported to be advancing rapidly.... It has many advantages, along with some disadvantages.

What I did NOT see listed (and for which I was looking) was additive manufacture of diesel by making long hydrocarbon chains in great quantity.

We have not discussed the possibility of obtaining concentrated CO2 by capturing the output of fossil fuel burners.... The first choice would be power plants because they are stationary, and there are a ** lot ** of them around the world.

It would take energy to capture and cool/liquefy all that CO2 but the effort would pay off immediately in terms of reducing the CO2 burden carried by the atmosphere.

A strong business plan would (?surely?) include CO2 capture as part of the process for additive diesel manufacture.

The energy would come from the Sun.  It has for billions of years, and (hopefully) it will continue for a while longer.

(th)

Offline

#495 2022-05-11 07:09:37

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

tahanson43206 wrote:

For Calliban re 493

This observation is intended to (try to) add to the comprehensive list of concerns regarding diesel - near term and farther...

Hydrogen is a practical fuel for large vehicles, and development is reported to be advancing rapidly.... It has many advantages, along with some disadvantages.

What I did NOT see listed (and for which I was looking) was additive manufacture of diesel by making long hydrocarbon chains in great quantity.

We have not discussed the possibility of obtaining concentrated CO2 by capturing the output of fossil fuel burners.... The first choice would be power plants because they are stationary, and there are a ** lot ** of them around the world.

It would take energy to capture and cool/liquefy all that CO2 but the effort would pay off immediately in terms of reducing the CO2 burden carried by the atmosphere.

A strong business plan would (?surely?) include CO2 capture as part of the process for additive diesel manufacture.

The energy would come from the Sun.  It has for billions of years, and (hopefully) it will continue for a while longer.

(th)

It is plausible to construct an engine that will liquefy the CO2 from its own exhaust gases.  This would work much better though if the fuel for the engine is cryogenic.  That way, we preheat the fuel and evaporate it and chill the CO2 rich exhaust gases simultaneously.  At temperatures beneath 31°C, CO2 can be liquefied by compression.  However, the colder it is, the less compressor work needed to liquefy it.  That compressor work is subtracted directly from the engine power.  If an engine can be powered by stored fuel and liquid oxygen, it would be much easier to liquefy CO2 effluent.  A large fraction of the power produced by any engine is used to compress the air charge.  Using LOX eliminates this requirement, increasing the efficiency of the engine.  But carrying LOX reduces the effective energy density of propellant.  For CO2 capture, oxy-fuel combustion greatly reduces the mass of waste gas that needs to be compressed, as it eliminates nitrogen from the oxygen supply.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-11 07:10:45)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#496 2022-05-11 08:37:37

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 19,455

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For Calliban Re #495

Every so often, you publish an idea that is similar to the 'last piece" in a complex puzzle... You drop it out for consideration, your readers twirl it a bit, and ** presto! ** it pops into place!

That happened (to me for sure) with post #495

I hope it happened (will happen) to other readers in coming days....

The idea/suggestion you published was to pre-cool the oxidizer to be fed into fossil fuel power plants, so that the CO2 coming out of the plant could be collected and liquefied to be fed into a solar powered diesel manufacturing plant, where it would be combined with Hydrogen to make long chains in great quantity.

Now, it is well known that solar power can compress air, and the energy released by the compression process can be used or disposed of as appropriate.

My question of you is ... is there a difference between compressing air ahead of a fossil fuel plant intake, to make liquid air, and doing the same but discarding the nitrogen and delivering liquid oxygen?  Clearly it would be advantageous to eliminate the Nitrogen from the oxidizer mixture, because it would have to be removed later when the CO2 is to be fed into a diesel manufacturing plant.

It would seem (to me at first glance) that solar power can be used before and after the operation of a fossil fuel plant, to allow the fossil fuel plant to continue operating for as long as necessary, while at the same time:

1) Removing CO2 that would otherwise go into the atmosphere and
2) Setting up conditions favorable for making diesel

If this idea/suggestion is practical, then (all of a sudden) coal could be accepted as a fossil fuel once again, because the poisons would all be captured.

The fossil fuel lovers (of whom we have a great number) would be happy, and the rest of the population would be less unhappy.

In particular, the need for coal miners would increase, and politicians who depend upon the favor of their constituents would be able to tout their policies.

If this happens, I would like to see coal mining changed from humans on site to remote controlled systems (teleoperation) in the depths of the mines.

(th)

Offline

#497 2022-05-11 10:36:57

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,862

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

tahanson43206,

It's not that we "fossil fuel lovers" have some undying affection for the technology, apart from the fact that it's delivering all aspects of modern civilization that you enjoy- to include the use of the computer you're using to share your thoughts, it's that the "battery lovers" have yet to come up with a viable battery technology with the energy density and scalability required to actually replace fossil fuels.  The one thing all of our "green energy" fetishists have in common is that they're greatly enamored with attempting to solve problems using impractical, if not entirely unworkable, so-called "solutions".  Those of us who can still count, because our counting skills have not been disabled by an ideology that professes to believe in science but abhors basic math, know that these people are not doing themselves or the planet any favors.  If, during the course of our great crusade to "save the planet", more than half of the people end up starving to death in service to an immoral ideology that puts "no ice melt" above "nobody starves to death", then what have you actually accomplished?

Removing CO2 from the atmosphere can be most easily accomplished by removing it from the oceans.  Sea water absorbs and concentrates CO2, doing all that work that would otherwise require loads of power, for us.  See what I mean?  Every time there's a simple and practical solution that actually works, you guys reach right for the near-impossible.  Look what I did, I spent a bunch of money to concoct a perfectly impractical solution to an otherwise mundane problem that someone already solved in a practical and affordable manner.  Aren't I "smart"?  Well, in what sense of the word?  I think it's great that you found some utterly impractical but scientifically interesting way to do something, but you realize you created a Rube Goldberg solution, rather than admitting that wheels don't require "re-invention".  Stop re-inventing the wheel and put the wheels we have on a machine, so we can "make it go".  That's the actual problem, not "solving wheels".  That "wheel problem" has been solved well enough already.

Offline

#498 2022-05-11 19:42:06

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

repost

kbd512 wrote:

tahanson43206,

CO2 concentration in air (1atm, 450ppm) is 810.004 mg/m^3.

PPM to MG/M^3 Converter

CO2 concentration in sea water (near-surface variety) is 90mg/kg.

SeaFriends.org - Dissolved gases in seawater

Sea water is 1,023.6kg/m^3.

1,023.6 * 90 = 92,124mg/m^3.

92,124mg / 810.004 = 113.7 TIMES more CO2 in a cubic meter of sea water than in a cubic meter of sea level atmosphere.

If we also include the dissolved carbonates, then there's a lot more CO2 than that.  There's also Carbonic Acid in sea water.

Offline

#499 2022-05-13 20:01:41

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,433

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Late on the 11th the price of gas went up to $4.51 a gallon

Offline

#500 2022-05-15 12:59:30

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,798

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Our problem is that the only oil production that is capable of increasing supply (tight oil, arctic, deep offshore) would require sustained high prices of circa $150/barrel to entice producers to drill.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022 … il-prices/

Unfortunately, oil prices this high would induce recession, which would crash the oil price.  Producers are well aware that present prices ($110/barrel) are sufficient to undermine demand growth.  So there is no incentive for them to bring on line production that will only be profitable at higher prices. 

It is this problem that will hamper efforts to sustain fuel production.  Almost all of the undeveloped oil resources are more expensive to extract than the conventional oil that they replace and there is a limit beyond which fuel prices are unsustainable because they induce recession.  The economy doesn't just need oil to grow.  It needs cheap oil.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-05-15 13:04:33)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB