MarkI-ZeroPoint <[email protected]> wrote: Although the largest uses for petroleum are energy/transportation, which > would be replaced by LENR, there are numerous other uses for petroleum > which will not be replaced by LENR, so there will always be some market for > it. >
The non-energy use of oil used to be about 10% of total production, including about 2% for plastic feedstock. Some natural gas is also used in nonenergy applications. With cold fusion, I expect most of this market can be met with synthetic hydrocarbons. This will be cheaper and safer. This is already being done with thermal depolymerization of sewage, garbage, plastic, agricultural waste and other organic waste to produce oil and fertilizer. This has the enormous advantage that the starting materials are not only free, people pay you to take them. You make money on both ends. There is nowhere near enough organic garbage to produce all of the oil we need for fuel, but there is enough to meet these other demands. Thermal depolymerization takes some energy, although not as much is you get from burning the fuel. With cold fusion it would not matter how much it takes. In the more distant future, I predict that people may use cold fusion produce huge quantities of synthetic coal or oil from CO2 and water, and from deadwood, in order to reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and reverse global warming. This oil and coal will be a useless waste product which will be sequestered deep underground. In other words, we will have reverse oil wells and coal mines. There are plenty of deep holes in which to put the coal. - Jed
