WHAT IS TOMORROW'S OIL?

Long back, people burned wood to get energy. Then they found coal. Next we switched to oil. Our transport system is mainly using oil as fuel even today. One fifth of the world's oil reserve is there in the middle east countries. Oil price rise disturbed world Economy thrice.

How long we will use oil? Is there alternative? Let us try to answer.

Many countries are moving towards nuclear energy. 'Radiation' risk is present in nuclear reactors.
Wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy are safe, clean and renewable. We are focusing on them now. Today, many trains have electric engines. We rarely see steam engines. Hybrid cars (petrol + electric) are beginning to appear. We require many charging stations on the road to fuel electric cars. First, we have to overcome this problem.

Electricity serves us everywhere as a clean energy. But the main matter is the source of electricity. It may be steam, water flow, Nuclear energy, solar power, chemical battery etc... We are still searching for efficient sources. In the transmission of electricity, there is loss due to liberation of heat. If we have zero resistance wire (super conductor), we will get zero transmission loss. But it is still a dream.

In energy sources like wood and petrol, the energy is stored in them. We can get the energy from them using a spark of fire at any moment. But transmitting their energy directly (without conversion) from one place to another is impossible.

In the case of electricity, transmission is very easy. But the storage is difficult. Today, using capacitor, super capacitor, battery, we are slowly increasing the storage capacity.

But still, oil is highly efficient fuel. Petrol bunks (gas stations) are being opened everywhere, even though the reserve is finite.
Oil (jet fuel) is still good fuel in aviation industry. It is highly power packed; cannot be replaced for now.

But we cannot underestimate the man's ingenuity. He will innovate and replace oil in the future. Necessity is the mother of invention.
In my humble opinion, tomorrow's energy economy will be mixed one. It will have renewable energy sources like, wind and solar energy; Non -renewable sources like fossil fuel (coal, oil) ; Nuclear energy and yet to find new sources of energy.

Discover, innovate, invent and live well.

Note: Some say, 'Digital data is the 'oil' of tomorrow'. Some others say, "water may get the status of oil in the future"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments

THE EARTH, A SUPER ORGANISM

JOIN MY COURSE: "Become a programmer in a day with python" A man called 'love lock' (what a name) proposed a theory called Gaia theory, named after Greek Goddess. It says, "Earth is a self-regulating organism like a human being. The organic life in it interacts with in-organic matter and maintains atmosphere, temperature and environment". Hence the earth is still suitable for the life to thrive. Imagine, in a particular place, there are lot of flowers. Some flowers are white and some are darkly coloured. We know, white reflects light and heat while dark absorbs the same. White flowers can thrive in hot climate. But dark flowers requires cold climate. The absorption and reflection balances and the environment reaches average, warm temperature at which both the flowers can co-exist. This is the essence of "Gaia" theory. On our earth, the oxygen constitute 20% of the atmosphere. The oxygen level is always mai

THE PARABOLA

A jet of water shooting from a hose pipe will follow a parabolic path. What is the so special about parabola. Y= x^2 Draw a graph for the above equation. It will result in a parabola. This parabola is also called unit parabola. Any equation involving square will yield a parabola. Example: Y = 2x^2 +3x+3 (also called quadratic equation) X= 2 and -2, both satisfies the equation 4 = X^2. Parabolic equations always have two solutions. Any motion taking place freely under gravity follows parabolic path. Examples: An object dropped from a moving train, A bomb dropped from flying plane, A ball kicked upwards. If a beam of light rays fall on the parabolic shaped mirror, they will be reflected and brought to focus on a point. This fact is made use of in Dish Antenna, Telescope mirrors, etc. Inverted parabola shape is used in the construction of buildings and bridges. Because the shape is able to bear more weight. A plane

DISORDER IS THE "ORDER OF THE DAY"

Imagine a balloon full of air. The air molecules are moving randomly inside the balloon. Let us pierce the balloon with a pin. The air rushes out. Why should not the air molecules stay inside the balloon safely and ignore the little hole? That is not the way the world works. The molecules always "want to occupy as many states as possible". Hence the air goes out in the open to occupy more volume. The things always goes into disorder (entropy) and the disorder increases with time. The above statement is what we call "second law of thermodynamics". Consider a cup of coffee on the table. Suppose the heat from entire room flows to your cup of coffee, the coffee will boil and the rest of the room will freeze. Freezing means bringing things to order and arrangement. It violates the second law. Hence it will never happen. Hence heat must flow from high temperature to low temperature and not the other way. The air molecules in y

sciencecapsules

Search This Blog