Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: E-CAT and oil price

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Master of useless knowledge Senior Member Kitten Shooting Champion, Eskiv Champion Ironside's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Sweden
    Posts
    4,902

    Default Re: E-CAT and oil price

    Quote Originally Posted by Gilrandir View Post
    Seeing the speed at which modern technologies develop one is likely to consider that it may take a lot less time than you predict.
    The limiter is scale rather than tech. Replacing oil with say hydrogen, which would probably be the easiest way with this tech. It would require replacing the entire carpark, thousands of electrolysis facilities to produce the hydrogen, thousands of cold fusion plants to produce the eletricity, rebuilding all gas stations, rebuild the entire logistic chain for oil to hydrogen instead. It would also require a lot of rare earth minerals to be mined.

    That takes a while.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tiaexz View Post
    I thought the issue with ITER was the damage caused by the fusion/stray plasma streams, which caused problems which needed a technological workaround, not the fact it doesn't supply surplus power.
    I haven't red about the current issues with ITER, but yeah net gain has been reached years ago. I don't think they can take care of that energy properly and can only run for a very short while atm though.
    Last edited by Ironside; 12-19-2014 at 17:14.
    We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?

    Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7
    Activity Recorded M.Y. 2302.22467
    TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED

  2. #2
    Mr Self Important Senior Member Beskar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Albion
    Posts
    15,930
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: E-CAT and oil price

    Quote Originally Posted by Ironside View Post
    I haven't red about the current issues with ITER, but yeah net gain has been reached years ago. I don't think they can take care of that energy properly and can only run for a very short while atm though.
    I think it is 1000 seconds or so and they are aiming for a tenfold return. I just did some updating and the one currently in France is going to be the main 'test-bed' replacing JET in the UK. Looking at 2020 for it to be operational, with 2030-40 being commercial application. Biggest issue is the temperature can reach like 33 million degrees.

    Having the plasma at far less temperatures (1300'c) as the OP suggests would make the process revolutionary.
    Days since the Apocalypse began
    "We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
    "Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."

  3. #3
    The Black Senior Member Papewaio's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    15,677

    Default Re: E-CAT and oil price

    There are a few caveats with that.

    1) We have positive fusion in a lab. We don't have it as a power source (yet). Plenty of things can be created in the lab that do not go on to become commercially viable. So at the moment it's more like we can make an oil lamp, we just cannot harness it into a combustion engine.

    2) ITER is still being built and will have to prove its chops.

    =][=
    However.

    Fusion has always been stated as being ready to go "fifty years" from now. If you ever read science reports and they say it will be commercially available in fifty years it means they have no idea the timeline other then a long time. Its the scientific equivalent of the biblical forty days and forty nights.

    The promising part is that the over the horizon time line has dropped by over half with the ITER and reached zero with the NIF breakthrough.

    So even with the stated caveats and quite a few more as a trend it is looking more and more possible that we will see commercial fusion within fifty years. It does depend on the total energy cost to create the device, fire it, recover the energy and rebuild it. It might be that the current designs are too much like the space shuttle which was supposed to be used multiple times, but in essence was stripped down and rebuilt for each mission.

    The world would change dramatically if fusion was achieved at a cheap enough price point. Every oil barrel dictator would suddenly lose their revenue base and would not be able to have hired guns run rough shod over their populace or pay for extremist religious schools or more sinister funding.
    Our genes maybe in the basement but it does not stop us chosing our point of view from the top.
    Quote Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
    Pape for global overlord!!
    Quote Originally Posted by English assassin
    Squid sources report that scientists taste "sort of like chicken"
    Quote Originally Posted by frogbeastegg View Post
    The rest is either as average as advertised or, in the case of the missionary, disappointing.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO