have discovered the capacity to make synthetic oils - something that emulates the characteristics of a petroleum product.... why cant they come up with a synthetic gasoline? or something that has the burning characteristics of gasoline without being petroleum based?

discuss.

 

I think they have been working on that stuff for a while now. I think the problem is finding something that is cost effective (in both the production and in selling to the consumer) and passes all the safety laws and still contain all the properties of regular fuel.

But Im probably wrong.

 

anybody think we are heading in a direction where synthetic oils are CHEAPER than petroleum based oils?

seller: "yeah, ive taken good care of the car. i only run mobil1 full synthetic"
buyer: "so what, who doesnt, thats the cheaper sheit"

 

it's called ethanol and it's been around for many many many years... maight be labeled gasahol, i think it was put into production way back in the 70's or 80's... many gas stations will have a sign on their pumps showing you that their gas is 10% ethanol, or 15% ethanol

 

biodiesel is another one. it's made of soy (usually, but can be made of several types of foilage like algae, peanuts, coconuts, etc) and it works in any standard petro-diesel engine. It is actually a very cost effective alternative to petroleum products. Unfortunately, it was not included in the recent energy bill.

 

yeah i know about ethanol but i havent seen it since i left the midwest. in fact, nobody ive ever talked about it to in NY has know wtf i was talking about.

 

Something that should be considered is that the oil sector would lose profits if less petro and more bio oils were sold. A lot of that profit would go to the agriculture sector.

 

Synthetic just means that the oil is created through chemical synthesis as opposed to petroleum distillation. The chemicals used in the synthesis of organic molecules are also synthesized from petroleum. So really, there's no resource benefit to switch to synthetic gasoline.

Ethanol is not always compatible with seal material. Also, the energy required to make ethanol exceeds the amount of energy we can get back from the ethanol. Where would we get the energy to process ethanol from?

 

which is called "economic balance"

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energy to process ethanol? options like hydro, wind, nuclear power. to name a few.

 

But if we are to switch now? Mostly petroleum or coal then. The other option you listed generate <5% of our country's power currently.