William.Mook@gmail.com writes

Have I?

Where?

OTOH you cannot resist ad hominems at the drop of a hat.

Which says something for the strength of your argument.

William.Mook@gmail.com wrote:

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:

The oil companies are in a more precarious position than people
realize.

Your statement ignores the need for the oil companies to sustain a
certain rate of sales. Once the rate of sales falls below a
sustainable level, they're out of business, and we as a nation are
screwed. Not by the oil companies. But by our total inability to
stand up to their interests in the larger national interest. This is
something they could work cooperatively toward - alternatives to
extracted oil - but they refused, just as the auto companies refused to
build smaller higher quality cars following WWII ceding that market to
the Japanese and Germans.

Oz,

What is your problem? lol.

Does it make you feel good saying vicious things about me?

How did you know about my car troubles! haha..

I think your concern is sweet.

Bill

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax gmail.com> writes

If so they can dream on. They can't force people to use oil, people can
and will move to a cheaper form. How fast they do this depends on the
capital cost for change and the cost savings of that change.

It wouldn't take a lot for people to start burning vegetable oil instead
of diesel for example.

LongmuirG aol.com> writes

Companies can and do change their source of profits.

This is often not hugely clear as its often done by a (partly or wholly
owned) subsidiary with a different name.

If you take the market cap of a mega-cap oil company and divide it by
reserves, you get around $31 per barrel, in the ground over the past
year. Over the past year oil sold between $55 per barrel. Assuming
the difference is their cost of refining, distribution, storage, and
profits, you have a 'cost' of $24 per barrel.

Making synthetic oil out of coal or carbon dioxide or biologicals would
ideally provide the same 'costs' to the market as the traditional oils
it replaces. I recently gave my reasoning to believe that the
unsubsidized cost of Fischer-Tropsch would be around $70 per barrel,
and unsubsidized cost of Bergius - with very low cost hydrogen - would
be around $30 per barrel.

Adding the $24 per barrel 'cost' for the oil companies, we have a
retail price of $94 as the price oil would have to be sustained at for
it to make sense for oil companies to make it (assuming the quality of
the oil is the same) and $54 per barrel for Bergius to be competitive
with very low-cost hydrogen ($200 per ton).

Tar sands produce about 3/4 barrel of oil for each ton of tar sands
processed. It costs around $350 per ton per year of capacity, 15%
maintenance and labor for that capacity, $52.50 per ton. Capital...

William.Mook@gmail.com writes

would anyone buy a second-hand car from this man?

1920s FARM MECHANICS and SUCCESSFUL FARMER (1927)

Some 1920s (and newer) farm magazines that already show a concern with
"modern" farm practices. Lots of stuff about horse drawn farming at the
time of transition to mechanized farming. Other articles (from the
table of contents on the listings) realte to sustainable farming today.

Also 26 issues of Gas Engine Magazine and 65 issues (1955-1970) of The
Iron-Men Album Magazine were listed on eBay. They are all listed
individually. According to the information on the first listing the
seller "decided to list them individually with the hope that
individual collectors will find that one speciaI issue that they've
been looking for or perhaps several to fill out a collection. This
auction might also appeal to the NEW COLLECTOR who would like to build
a library."

You can find it by typing in the first listing number (190006288402)
for the first issue and then find the rest by clicking on the link
"View seller's other items"

FARM MECHANICS from 1926 (#190004944763) & 1927, SUCCESSFUL FARMING
from 1927, GAS ENGINE MAGAZINES. The seller's ID is laquille

Dirk,

Any idea of the actual yeilds per ton of coal and the unsubsidized cost
of them? Sasol was heavily subsidized so real cost figures are hard to
come by. Any references beyond the ones I have would be appreciated.

Bill

* * *

You can *estimate* what yields might be by going through the process.
Fischer-Tropsch is a series of linked reactions. You produce syngas
through partial oxidation of coal with water. Then, you catalyze it to
produce hydrogen through the shift reaction. Finally, you hydrogenate
carbon with it to produce liquid hydrocarbons.

So you have;

2 C + O2 --> 2 CO
2 H2O(l) + heat --> 2 H2O(g)

This is syngas production through partial oxidation

Then,

2 CO + 2 H2O(g) --> 2 CO2 + 2 H2