Posted by GassyPilot on 8/5/2008, 2:17 pm
63.246.240.124
Green scientists have long hung onto the ideas that ethanol or hydrogen is the key to our energy economy problems. Methane, however, is more abundant, it is easily produced, it is more tranportable than hydrogen, and it is already incorporated into some systems.
Methane can be produced from tapping landfills, decomposing sewage waste in a "digester", produced from the massive amounts of manure produced by the agricultural industry, collected from the same reserves as oil in greater amounts, and also tapped from coal reserves where it exists as coal mine gas.
In other words, the powerful oil industry still makes money, coal is still a component in the power industry in this country, green research on reusing animal and trash products is developed and pursued with capital gains, and finally energy prices and costs will dip as a stable renewable fuel is developed and used nationally and even worldwide, easing reliance on foreign sources of oil and making green energy more palatable; as methane can be close to the same efficiency as gasoline but much greener in the amount of carbon it releases through it's combustion. (Gases will always burn more efficiently than vapors)
The most major aspect of this is that hundreds of thousands of cars must be produced that can accomodate compressed methane gas, and kits must be available for garages to cheaply convert existing cars to methane fueled combustion and storage. This means billions, if not trillions of dollars. If split across several industries, including those that benefit most (Oil industry, coal industry, the power industry, and the megasized portions of the agriculture industry... such as gigantic companies with more than a million head of cattle), this cost will be bearable. In five years capital growth will swallow up the costs entirely. In ten years we will have a total rebound in our economy, and all industries in the U.S. will have healthier economy as all energy costs will be down, and transportation, even the cost of beef will go down (as beef producers now will sell methane as a side industry.)
So why invest in less efficient or less economical "green" fuels, when methane is just the ticket to help everyone involved... and at less cost than most of the alternatives.
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