Real Life "Spice" Harvesting!

[Dragoon Knight]

Just checking out the BBC News website at work, and I stumbled across this news story.

The Great Alberta Oil Rush.

Frank Herbert may have been more of a visionary than first thought; I think it's more likely, though, that he knew about this a long time ago (i.e. when he first wrote the books) and anticipated the need for this type of operation. :)

For those of you that can't / won't click the link for any reason, it's basically a news report of how they've begun "harvesting" oil from desert areas in Alberta, Canada.  As strange as it may seem, oil that was once below the surface of the earth has managed cohese with the sand itself.  The only way to seperate the two is to steam-heat them, releasing the oil for commercial use.

The reason they're doing this is because in about 50 years or so (maximum), we're going to be totally out of oil.  And we're going to be really screwed before that.  Just like a human being only has to have his/her body temperature drop by a few degrees before he/she dies, the demand for oil only has to exceed the supply by around 5% to cause a crisis.  Don't believe me?  It's true. :-X

Of course, oil has no real known narcotic purposes, so it isn't a perfect simile of Spice and Dune... but I still find this exciting in a sort of geeky way. :D

Oh, and take a look at the first real-life "spice harvester", and the "dunes" it will be taken from.

:D

[nemafakei]

"Of course, oil has no real known narcotic purposes"

Well... indirectly. From fumes to methylated spirits to glue-sniffers, there are quite a few addictive substances loosely based on hydrocarbons.

[Davidu]

I really wonder what the oil companies are gonna tell us when we'll run out of oil:

"Don't worry everything is under control. If you don't have oil, it's the arabs' fault. We're invading them now. ALL of them. Even the iranians, which are not arabs, but who cares?"

The combustion engine is absolete for about 50-60 years. Do we have to run out of oil before we turn to other energy sources?

[Jack Leaf]

They aren't really making any real progress with fusion or any better alternate method of energy, so an oil crisis is very possible.

[Davidu]

There are cars that run on water, on gas, on some intricate system that makes gas from wood.

There are even cars that work on hydrogen instead of benzine drivates.

Not to talk about electric cars.

There are even cars that work on steam power. Wacky idea... but it works.

[alchemi2]

Bio-oil which runs present diezel engines  ;)

[Dragoon Knight]

It's not just fuel, though; oil is used for so much more (as Dante would point out, if he were here ;))  Oil is used for plastics, medicines, fertilisers, pesticides and - possibly most importantly - in the creation of the very 'alternate' power sources available to us.  Solar panels?  Need oil for making the glass / other components.  Wind farms?  Oil again.

So much of our society depends on it, and we're going to see an increase in oil wars in the next 20 years.  Read the website I linked - it doesn't paint a pretty picture. :(

[Procyon]

We have the oil-free technology today, but we don't use them, because those big oil corporations and its dirty money rule the world.

The end of the oil will create a new scientifical and technological environment-friendly era. Even today plastics, medicines, fertilisers, pesticides can be created using biotechnology. There is a project of plastic (some kind of polymere) made out from transgenic plants, used as biorreactors. This plastic will take 5 years to be degradated, instead of 100 of today's plastic.

If you need combustion (for making glass) you have the combustion of H2. H2 + O2 = H2O. Beatiful. Thats the way Hydrogen cars work.

Now the real problem is to have a very good source of energy.

We all know Fusion is cleaner than any other source and the nuclear fission. The problems are that Fusion requires a huge ammount of energy to initiate the reaction, plus when the reaction happens, a big quantity of caloric energy is liberated to the atmosphere, causing "physical contamination" to the environment. A possible solution (I don't know if somebody had this idea before) is to have the fusion reactors underground in zones with high geothermal activity. I hope there is a way to use that geothermal energy to produce the fussion reaction.

The Oil must die. I must sleep.

Oh, I forgot... For engines you can use anything organical for combustion. From tequila to cow shit. That mean ethanol and methane/ethane. The product is still CO2.

[Davidu]

Oh, yeah, I know. Here, in Romania we make/made a car named Dacia after a Renault model. The most interesting part is that the engine is so versatile and cheap to maintain, that some guy that ran out of gas on the way just poured one or two liters of vodka in it. And it worked  ;D

[Caid Ivik]

Last hit here is to use old frite oil instead of gas. Works perfectly, if clean  ;D  Some Czechs started with it not long time before, and now there is even a firm refining it in Austria...

[Kiyouta]

I heard there was a car powered by peanuts. Oh crap now I'm hungry...

[Davidu]

Cooking oil, right? Man, everything that burns can be put into a combustion engine.

Never heard of peantus... sorry. Can't they make cars work on bread? Or meat?

[alchemi2]

Apparently WATER will be the next major crisis not oil!!! we have been gearing in a small way towards the lack of oil in the future but not for a lack of fresh water. Accordingg to the BBC that is.  ;)

[Davidu]

oh, yes, that too.

DOOMSDAY IS COMING!!!

Do we, as a species worth living, actually? I mean really, waht is so special about us?

[TMA_1]

this is "spice" harvesting, my friend. ;-)

http://www.unodc.org/pakistan/en/report_1998-06-31_1_page005.html

[veK]

go watch "syriana" at a cinema near you.

:)