There will likely always be a
need for liquid fuels for heavy transport outside of the rail network, and this may be a good source of that.
The global
demand for liquid fuels increases by 13 million barrels per day, reaching 109 million barrels per day by 2040.
Obviously wind power was not an immediate
substitute for liquid fuels to drive motor vehicles, but as petroleum shortages began to manifest themselves, many utility and industrial users who were using coal or natural gas, began to seriously consider wind power as a substitute.
But untangling the complex chains of these polymers into components, which can be
useful for liquid fuel and other applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to plastics, has presented an ongoing challenge to science and industry.
It's still rather stunning to consider how a single pinprick in the seabed — a tiny part of the global effort to slake humanity's rising
thirst for liquid fuels, and profit from it, of course — could create such a mess.
That means that we'll need to convert the underlying electric grid — which now depends on fossil fuels to run turbines — to clean sources, which will be hard, but not as hard as figuring out some other low - carbon
replacement for liquid fuels.
In this context EROI is less important, and in any case you put your finger on an important problem with EROI calculations, establishing boundary conditions - should roads be included in the
EROI for liquid fuels?
Question asked: «What ideas are out there for shaping transportation choices as China, India, Mexico, and other countries race toward prosperity so they avoid the traps of sprawl, of ever - growing
demand for liquid fuels, of the insulation from community that comes when you're camped alone on a congested freeway?»
But we have plenty of ways to use non-liquid energy sources as
substitutes for liquid fuels and our ability to do that substitution will improve as assorted technologies advance.
But unlike old Jaguars with two gas caps, one is
for liquid fuel, the other for electrons.
For liquid fuels, the threats to watch are tar sands, oil shale, and — the gigatonne gorilla — coal to liquids.
By 2040, global demand
for liquid fuels is expected to grow to approximately 115 million barrels of oil ‑ equivalent per day, an increase of almost 30 percent from 2010.
For a liquid fuel that will fit in the current transportation infrastructure, I don't think sugarcane ethanol can be beaten with existing technology.
China, India, and other countries in Asian are areas with increasing demand
for liquid fuels.
«While it is important to analyze the climate change consequences of differing energy strategies, we must all remember where we are today, how world demand
for liquid fuels is growing, and what the realistic alternatives are to meet those growing demands,» said Bob Dineen, the group's director, in a statement following the Science reports» release.
As Koval points out, even though use of hydrogen in fuel cells is growing, the biggest need is
for liquid fuel to run cars, trucks, trains and planes.
By establishing distinct mandates - for Buildings, for Vehicles, for Industry, for Electric Power,
for Liquid Fuels, for Direct Heat, and for Efficiency, we draw attention to all the parallel tracks that have to be addressed.
Do you acknowledge that the original 10 % claim - especially since it was
for all liquid fuels - is a gross exaggeration?
China's demand
for liquid fuel is growing fantastically.