kontiki wrote:
Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

There are methods for making oil from coal. Somewhere I read that the
process has been revived in China. If it's so uneconomical, why are
they doing it?

It's becoming ecomonically viable to do it in the west as well.



Exactly.... Especially when you build these plants so that
they use nuclear and/or solar to power the synthetic fuel
'refining' process. This is also true if you want a positive
payback in ethanol production.

Nuclear yes, solar no; solar is too expensive.

Just because sunlight is free doesn't mean the equipment to do the
conversion is.

Remember that oil is used in zillions of products, manufacturing
processes and machinery that we still use and will need to use,
probably forever. Yes, we can reduce our use of it but we are still
going to *need* it. Other countries seem to understand this and are
still exploring for and producing oil, if not for export but even
just for their own use. For us not to do the same thing is simply
foolish.

Exactly, the petrochemical industry uses lots of oil.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.