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Page added on November 11, 2013
Science Fiction? Or Will This Fuel Really Power Future Generations?
I’m a firm believer that America’s fuel of the future is already here. That fuel, in my opinion, is natural gas. It’s clean, abundant, cheap and made right here in the good ole U.S.A.
Auto makers like Ford and General Motors are starting to catch on and are building more vehicles that will run on natural gas. That’s why sales of Ford’s popular F-150 could soon be fueled by natural gas. Likewise, General Motors’ latest move has it looking to leap past Ford by selling its fleet footed Chevy Impala with the option of running on natural gas.
This isn’t to say that electric vehicles like Tesla’s Model S or even General Motors’ Chevy Volt or Spark EV won’t have a place. In fact, Tesla’s bold goal to produce half a million EVs per year would actually be a good thing for our electric grid. That said, I still see natural gas playing a huge future role in fueling our country. Even if it’s not directly fueling all of our automobiles, it will fuel an increasing number of power plants that will then be used to power electric cars.
I am, however, no fool (note the small f) to think that natural gas will last forever. Current estimates suggest that we have about a hundred year supply. That’s why natural gas is at best our bridge fuel until something better comes along.
Maybe that something better is electric vehicles that are one day powered by solar or even hydrogen fuel cells. However, I read something the other day that made me dream about what might really be our next generation fuel. The article detailed the possibility that thorium might one day fuel our future.
Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man. Because of this, it has the potential to produce phenomenal amounts of heat. This in theory could enable a car to be built that would only have to be fueled once per century. Sounds like science fiction, but the science behind it is real. In fact, in 2009 a Cadillac Thorium Fuel Concept Car was developed, and today a private company is looking to develop a mass-market thorium powered car.
Thorium actually has much wider, and probably more realistic applications. It could be the long-term solution to the issues we have with nuclear power as it wouldn’t meltdown, since it cannot sustain a nuclear reaction. The U.S. government actually was developing thorium reactors shortly after the Second World War, but that project was mothballed thanks to the onset of the Cold War. It’s possible that we will once again attempt to harness the power of thorium in our battle against diminishing natural resources and worries of climate change.
It’s still anyone’s guess what will be fueling our future in the decades ahead. No one saw the current natural gas boom coming as just a few short years ago we thought we were running out of the stuff. Instead, American energy companies have unlocked vast resources that are at the very least the near-term solution to our energy issues. So, while its fun to dream, we can only profitably invest in the here and now.
11 Comments on "Science Fiction? Or Will This Fuel Really Power Future Generations?"
BillT on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 12:55 am
As if more energy is the answer to everything. I believe that less is better and soon!
AWB on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 2:36 am
This “fool” doesn’t know what the #$@% he’s talking about. Thorium reactors for each car and truck. Why is this BS getting published. Where’s the fact checking?
GregT on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 2:49 am
We have 16 years left to abandon fossil fuels completely, to give us a 50/50 chance of averting catastrophic runaway climate change. Last time I checked, natural gas was still a fossil fuel.
I can’t help but wonder; is fool.com really run by a bunch of fools?
Kenz300 on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 4:53 am
Wind and solar once installed have no monthly fuel costs………. When oil, coal and nuclear prices keep rising the price of wind and solar are dropping……
Natural gas is a bridge fuel….. less harmful to the environment than oil, and coal………
DC on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 9:08 am
Thorium car ROFL!
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Corvega
Which itself, was inspired by this>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon
Too funny…
BillT on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 9:29 am
Kenz, yes, ‘once installed’ the cost is spread out for a few years until the batteries go and them they are replaced by more batteries made with oil energy and at higher costs than the originals.
Nothing stays the same including your ‘renewables’.
Batteries = 5-8 year life span.
Converters = 10-15 years, maybe.
Panels = 20-25 years (if nothing damages them in the meantime, like a hail storm or maybe a cat 5 hurricane that rips them and the roof off of the house.) You may get ‘free’ electric for a few years, but factor in the original costs, maintenance and replacement and you will find that it is still expensive and always will be.
The cost of renewables is about to hit bottom and start back up as tech bottoms out and the cost of materials and labor skyrockets. Think supply and demand. What happens to the cost when they can make 1 million panels per year and there is a demand for 3 million? Why, the cost increases to decrease demand to production levels and to increase profits. That is how a capitalist system works. Buy now and avoid the rush! ^_^
gordianus on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 9:34 am
From the article:
“Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man. Because of this, it has the potential to produce phenomenal amounts of heat.”
So, what is the connection between a material’s density and its ability to ‘produce heat’. More importantly, what mechanism is used to generate the heat?
Apparently it is a thorium-powered laser! I couldn’t find any explanation of the chemical/physical processes used to make it work. Nor could this guy:
http://granades.com/2011/09/16/in-which-i-use-scientific-reasoning-to-doubt-the-thorium-powered-car/
Also from the article: “in 2009 a Cadillac Thorium Fuel Concept Car was developed”. A Google search quickly shows this to be false: a concept was dreamed up and possibly even a plastic model car was made, but it was certainly not ‘developed’.
So, apparently the writer at fool.com has no insight into physics or engineering and is incapable of critical thinking and analysis.
I guess we should file this one with the flying cars.
J-Gav on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 9:58 am
Somebody at PO has a wicked sense of humor.
action on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 1:42 pm
It’s proven, because they can measure the data in ice, that carbon dioxide levels exactly correlate with temperature, and they fluctuate within a natural range. They can also measure, through data collection and ice sampling in Antarctica, carbon dioxide levels all the way back to around 700,000 years ago. If you want scary PROOF of global warming, look up how far above the natural carbon dioxide fluctuations we’re at now, caused by the last 100 years. There is NO debate, and it’s rising exponentially. The earth has become Darth Vader, mechanical and sick from the dark side of human ignorance, the only freedom from this point on, like Darth Vader, will be death.
GregT on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 7:39 pm
Kenz300,
If natural gas is a bridge fuel, why not just skip it and go directly to what it is the bridge to? I know you won’t respond to my question, so I’ll answer it for you.
It is not a ‘bridge fuel’ because there is nothing on the other side of the bridge. Natural gas is nothing more than a continuation of doing the same that we are already doing. Burning fossil fuels. Natural gas is a contributor to climate change. Just because it does so LESS than oil, or coal, does not mean that it is helping our situation.
Natural gas is part of the problem, it is not part of the solution.
bobinget on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 8:05 pm
A bridge fuel to Hydrogen, since you asked.
Just over the bridge we see Hydrogen being synthesized using ONLY sunlight.
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_production_delivery.html
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/doe_h2_production.pdf