Non Oil-based economy tech

How does anyone think that the eventual changeover from oil to non-fossil fuel power supply will effect geostrategy?

For my own part, I think that, since somethingliek this is technology based and expensive and requires government promotion, it will start in the West, and lag in the third world. This means that the West will not have strong geostrategic ties to arabia, and thus have less interests there and eventually, I think, will pull out of the region entirely. It won't, I think, affect the importance of central asia tho.

I -do- think that the saudis and oil regimes like them however will still be able to profit from oil sales to developing countries, which, interestingly enough, may accelerate their pace of development with a drop in the price of oil. I'd at least think that there has to be a drop, because, without rich western countries that are able to buy high priced oil, they'll have to drop the price.

Now, what does that say about climate control? Industrialized nations expell more fossil fuel waste than non industrialized ones, but the ones the expel the most are -developing- or -industrializing- nations, who have nothing to benefit fromcontrollng emissions and much to gain from deregulation and allowing industry to grow on its own.

So I think that these oil producing countries will be in an unsual position, they will be the dominant power, selling products to poorer countries and being forced, ironically, to interfere with those countries regional policies and stability, the reverse of the current and former situation.

But, also, what would a shift in the strategic resources mean for the west? Are all alternative power technologies 'domestic'? Can tech advances allow them to be 'transmitted' internationally? Regulated by global bodies?

Any thoughts on any portion or all of the above should be interesting.

It's actually quite different than you think. Japan, Europe and possibly S.Korea are looking into alternatives and will more than likely beat the US to the fuel change. Other countries are using biogas for generators, cooking and heating. Japan's corperations are working to replace all autos with hybrids while the big 3 in the states are dangling 1 or 2. Of the 3, GM shows the most promise at producing more hybrids. I emailed Ford about adding Solor panels option to the escape, no answer. My guess is that they still have to cave to the oil cartels.

The key to replacing hydrocarbons is, finding a stable chemical that is loaded with hydrogen, cheap to produce, easy to crack for use in the fuel-cell or engine and does not use carbon atoms.

Brazil has been using alcohol and gasohol for years. They produce it throughout the country in small scale sugar fermenting farms.

Originally posted by AlabamaCajun
The key to replacing hydrocarbons is, finding a stable chemical that is loaded with hydrogen, cheap to produce, easy to crack for use in the fuel-cell or engine and does not use carbon atoms.

Have you heard of Aquafuel? Here is the link.

Aquafuel generator

And here are some quick snippets for peoplpe too lazy to click and read through links.

Conversion efficiency

We have tested our aquafuel generator to see the output power one can obtain using the gas output to drive a normal petrol generator. We have also tried to use the output from the electrical generator to drive the COH2 reactor and thus close the loop. The engine used was a Mitsubishi GM82, 80ml displacement, rated 2.4HP@3600RPM, 4cycle OHV type, coupled to a 1.2KW generator. It is very important to run dry the fuel carburateur reservoir before starting any measurements. These generators are able to run for about 3 minutes without their fuel tank by using fuel left in their reservoir. Voltage & current readings were taken at the aquafuel cell input as shown below:
Aquafuel engine run test
Voltage Current Power input Gas output Mixture output (1:5) Test result
35 V 40 A 1400 W 1.5 L/min 9 L/min Engine fails to start
34 V 60 A 2040 W 2.3 L/min 14 L/min Engine runs but rough idle
32 V 80 A 2560 W 3.1 L/min 18.6 L/min Engine runs at 1000rpm
30 V 120 A 3600 W 4.0 L/min 24 L/min Engine runs at 2000rpm
30 V 180 A 5400 W 6.5 L/min 40 L/min Engine runs at 3600rpm

And if you are interested in building one to test it yourself check this link out to a good starter project.

members.fortunecity.com...

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I think that the US will be hit much harder when severe oil shocks come, because we have lived under the misimpression we could squander it. Countries where oil is not a natural resource, such as Japan and Europe, are a good deal more frugal with it due to higher prices. For those same reasons they utilize other energy resources more readily.

Sometimes I think the US is like a big dumb cow chewing it's cud on the railroad tracks, with a locamotive bearing down on it. It just has no clue. And until the train hits it it will just stand there and moo it's objections to the noise. We may survive, but I suspect it could get very ugly.

I would not be totally suprised to see the US break up. It is a very large country and Washington seems completely divorced from local economies and interests.

We will be forced to turn immediately back to coal, and will probably be the late comers to new technologies.
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