So this is where the "Peak Oil" thread went. I wasn't much interested in WVO, so I didn't follow it here until now.
I see Darren is knocking heads over here too. I like you Darren, but you seem over invested in New Age Holistic Save Mother Earth from the Conspiricy theories. You believe in unrealistic solutions to energy problems due to a lack of scale perspective. You seem willing to be responsible for your future, and have a willing desire to do the right thing, you just don't really know what that's going to be when the time comes. None of us really do, but you hold forth like you DO know. I knew everything once, then I grew up and my dad seemed alot smarter too.
By the way, I don't think many of us believe that oil is Mother Earth's lubricant for the earth's tectonic plate system.
I presonally believe that the true value of oil is about $400 per Bbl, (not from me, an oil services banker opined thus, and said something is wrong when bottled water costs more per pint than oil) and we are depleting it too fast. Oil is a complex hydrocarbon glop that can be used for so many important things. Burning it for heat seems stupid. It takes so long to make. The problem with oil has been the ease of getting it, heck, it used to squirt out of the ground! Then it is so easy to transport, store and use! During the steam era, you just sprayed it into the boiler furnace intead of shovelling coal in. Much cleaner too. Oil made internal cumbustion engines possible. I know you read that Dr Diesel wanted to use VO, but that's because Germany did'nt have any petroleum. Look for the realistic aspect of this. He tried coal because Germany has alot of it. But Dr. Diesel did not invent the Internal Combustion Compression Ignited Heat Enigne. He incrumentally improved the fuel delivery system that helped lift IC from Semi-diesel to the engine we know today. Early Hot bulb engine were sometimes called crude oil engines, because the low compression ratio and various proprietary combinations of fuel delivery, water injection, hot bulbs, torches, spark system, externat combustion chambers etc. allowed the use of locally available, unrefined oil to be used.
I once read a book about power generation that was published in 1918. What an eye opener. That was before the Petroleum industry got a near monopoly. Every mill, mine, powerhouse etc. derived power from the cheapest available source, and there were many! That is where we are headed in the future. This is NO mistery, because it has happened before.
Alot of guys posting here are OLD. They have seen alot over the years, and accumulated alot of engineering knowledge. Some of us have developed some erronious conclusions along the way. It's to be expected. But generally our perspective is pretty long. I'm willing to bet that your a Democrat and you think Al Gore is right on about the environment.
I think he's certifiably insane. But we still have a challenge ahead as we evlove to another power source, even if we disagree about global warming or an ice age. So we have common ground here.
Oil was handy when we needed it. Now I think we will be 'deversifying our power portfolio' with new sources blending in as oil gets more expensive. Will your Lister be able to use the new fuels in a cost effective way? I just read about fuel costs of diesel, VS WVO + overhaul costs. This is a realistic calculation that GuyFawks does not wat to get into. That old book of power was very much into those kinds of decisions. That's what power engineering is all about. Cost, Availability, Time. Scale and Proportion. Unintended consequences. Will we make mistakes in the future? Yes. Will we live with the result? Yes. Will we find solutions? Yes. Nature is self adjusting, and the super high standard of living in the USA cannot be sustained in a global economy unless we are actually that much more productive. Eh, Ubermench?
About the power of the atom: Jimmy Carter defunded fusion research, the literal birth of clean atom power. That man really went out of his way to ruin this country. (my rant)
Scott E