I wrote:
> The cost of extracting or synthesizing the liquids, then transporting, > storing and pumping them would be far greater than the extra cost of a cold > fusion engine. > Let me explain what I mean by that. Liquid or gasoline fuel would presumably be either synthetic gasoline, liquid hydrogen or some synthetic hydrocarbon. This would have to be synthesized at a central location and distributed to gas stations the way gasoline is today. It might actually be ordinary gasoline derived from oil extracted from the earth. Even if the cost of oil plummets or if synthetic hydrocarbon fuel is much cheaper than the natural product, there will still be considerable expense involved in synthesizing, distributing, setting up gas stations, paying gas station employees and all the rest. A person driving a liquid fueled automobile will have to pay these costs. Perhaps they will add up to ~$0.50 a gallon for gasoline equivalent. I do not think the fuel cost can fall much more than that because that is approximately how much a gas station makes, to cover things like the location rent, maintenance, and employee pay. You have to make that much even if even if the gasoline itself is free. For example if it is synthesized on-site at a gas station from water and carbon dioxide with cold fusion energy. I do not think that would be practical in a facility as small as a gas station. Whatever the cost is, over the life of the car it will be far higher than the premium you pay for a cold fusion motor. The cold fusion motor may consist of a cold fusion cell, steam turbine, condenser, generator, batteries and electric drive motors. This equipment is not cheap but it is probably not going to be much more expensive than today's Prius engine. Prototype cold fusion vehicles will cost billions to develop. They will sell at a hefty premium at first. But, once the technology matures there is no reason to think the premium for a cold fusion car will be any greater than the premium we now pay for a Prius. If you drive long distances a Prius at 50 mpg pays for itself in a short time. If the Prius did not use any gasoline at all it would pay for itself in a few months -- as I said, even if the cost of gasoline fell to $0.50. As cold fusion continues to mature, the cost of a cold fusion car will continue to fall until it is considerably less than any gasoline powered vehicle ever was. This is because cold fusion requires fewer add-on systems such as the gas tank, gasoline safety, the catalytic converter and other pollution control, and so on. Regarding the use of oil as feedstock, for things like plastics, this is only about 20% of the market. It will soon be made obsolete by synthetic hydrocarbon production on site, on demand. This will be cheaper and safer than transporting oil over any distance. Oil companies will never synthesize oil and sell it. People who need hydrocarbons will synthesize them as needed. - Jed
