Frederick Sparber wrote:
I said Help Out, Jed. Almost all of the farm wastes that undergo anerobic
bacterial digestion end up adding to the methane/CO2 burden of the
atmosphere. Why not get the energy from it (Bio Gas) . . .
Sure! This is a great idea and we should do it anyway to remediate the
pollution. However, my point is that this can only supply a few percent of
the energy we need. You said that the solar hydrogen production seems "less
impressive" compared to biogas. I disagree. The solar approach could
produce all the energy we consume in North America, with plenty left over
for export. That is more impressive than biogas. It is a large-scale,
comprehensive solution.
As a practical matter, it would be a good idea to produce bio-gas plus
solar-generated hydrogen, and in other locations, electricity generated
from wind, hydroelectricity, nuclear fission and even natural gas. The only
kind of energy I would like to see phased out gradually are oil and coal,
because they cost too much, they pollute too much, oil causes political
instability, and both of them probably cause global warming.
At this stage we have no winner-take-all alternative. When something like
that emerges, the free market will select it, and competing energy systems
will gradually fade away. In the long term, I doubt it will be economical
to support more than two or three primary sources of energy. This goes back
to Robert Cringley's "two standards at most" rule. This limitation is
mainly imposed by people's abilities. A guy who installs home heating
systems can master gas furnaces and heat pumps, and maybe one more type of
furnace, but he cannot juggle six radically different types.
If cold fusion emerges, I predict it will produce nearly all primary energy
within a few decades. We may still have liquid fuel for some specialized
purposes, but the fuel will be synthesized starting with cold fusion
energy. We may have some biogas because we have to clean up the manure
anyway. Naturally we will need carbon fuel (coke) for blast furnaces. There
may be a few other specialized energy sources. People will not throw away
all of the hydroelectric dams 20 years after cold fusion becomes
universally applied. They will find some use for the electricity --
probably close to the dam. On the other hand I doubt there will be any dams
left in operation 200 years from now.
I hope that 30 to 50 years from now we will not have a huge burden of
manure to deal with anymore. I hope that meat can be synthesized.
- Jed
