[copious.abundance]

You are correct. I was going for a more well-known acronym in the title. Perhaps I shouldn't have.

[SeaGypsy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', 'H')ere she is.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bu ... etfuel.cnn

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '
')I wonder if any of the more mathematicaly inclined can do a guesstimate on how quickly we could burn up natural gas reserves when the Fischer- Tropsch method gets into full swing?

[cipi604]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shortonsense', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '
')I wonder if any of the more mathematicaly inclined can do a guesstimate on how quickly we could burn up natural gas reserves when the Fischer- Tropsch method gets into full swing?

[Tyler_JC]

Of course it helps offset the decline.

The world needs liquid transport fuel, GTL can help provide some of that fuel. Even the Hirsch report noted that GTL can mitigate some of the effects of peak oil.

One big concern with Peak Oil is the "jet problem."

Before this article, I'd never seen any realistic plan for replacing jet fuel with an alternative.

We now appear to have found one. Let's see if other airlines jump on the GTL bandwagon in order to determine the viability of this alternative jet fuel.

[Gerben]

GtL doesn't make sense from an energetic perspective, but it does economically. I use diesel fuel with GtL blended in occasionally in my car and it runs great on it. Shell sells it in the Netherlands as a premium fuel. GtL is only economical if you have a large source of 'stranded gas' where there are high cost to transport it to consumers. That stranded gas however can also be converted to LNG. If the price of oil continues to be high, international natural gas prices will recover. CNG and LNG are growing alternatives for oil products.
At higher NG prices GtL will no longer be an economic alternative because it takes too much NG to produce a given amount of fuel. But recovery of natural gas and LNG prices takes a while. For now Shell made the right choice.

[isgota]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '
')
Just did some reading on these guys. According to the wiki article (Fischer- Tropsch) the process produces 7 tonnes of CO2 per ton of liquid fuel produced BEFORE the fuel itself is burned. That means up to ten tonnes of carbon per ton of jet fuel. Just in case anyone was considering global warming?
It looks like there is no holding back our carbonisation of the apmosphere; the test is going ahead to see whether this will cause massive sea level rise; dead acidified oceans etc etc.
I wonder if any of the more mathematicaly inclined can do a guesstimate on how quickly we could burn up natural gas reserves when the Fischer- Tropsch method gets into full swing?

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cipi604', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shortonsense', '
')These peakers.....what the heck where they thinking when they invented this stuff?!

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gerben', 'G')tL doesn't make sense from an energetic perspective, but it does economically.

[Gerben]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '.').. GTL (gas to liquid, not GLT) is not new. No modern industrial society (much less an Amish farmstead) has ever run on this stuff. Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa had great hopes for Fischer- Tropsch but those social experiments went down in flames.

[isgota]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gerben', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '.').. GTL (gas to liquid, not GLT) is not new. No modern industrial society (much less an Amish farmstead) has ever run on this stuff. Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa had great hopes for Fischer- Tropsch but those social experiments went down in flames.

[isgota]

1998-2000? A bit outdated, don't you think?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CIA Factbook', 'S')outh Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that is 17th largest in the world; and modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. Growth was robust from 2004 to 2008 as South Africa reaped the benefits of macroeconomic stability and a global commodities boom, but began to slow in the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis' impact on commodity prices and demand. However, unemployment remains high and outdated infrastructure has constrained growth. At the end of 2007, South Africa began to experience an electricity crisis because state power supplier Eskom suffered supply problems with aged plants, necessitating "load-shedding" cuts to residents and businesses in the major cities. Daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups, and a shortage of public transportation. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic, focusing on controlling inflation, maintaining a budget surplus, and using state-owned enterprises to deliver basic services to low-income areas as a means to increase job growth and household income.

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Please, show us an energy-positive profitable program.

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gerben', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '.').. GTL (gas to liquid, not GLT) is not new. No modern industrial society (much less an Amish farmstead) has ever run on this stuff. Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa had great hopes for Fischer- Tropsch but those social experiments went down in flames.