Gas prices dropping

#76
#76
biodiesel from algae is the only practical alternative, if the U.S. chose to go that route (as opposed to electic cars, hydrogen cars, etc). Brazil made the conversion to ethanol work using sugar as a fuel source.

With Algae the feed source could be the runoff from wastewater treatment plants or the waste from harvesting fish from Tilapia or catfish farms.

Instead of using land that has agricultural use, creating the algae ponds in the desert southwest where the land has little agricultural use.

Its frustating to see billions and billions of dollars being spend in Iraq, while projects like this gets little attention. The lack of leadership in this area hurts everyone.
 
#77
#77
It could just as easily be said that the government has wasted trillions of dollars on a welfare state that has accomplished nothing since the day it was invoked by LBJ.

I'd much rather have private corporations leading the charge toward viable alternatives to fossil fuels. For their part, BP seems to have some good ideas.
 
#78
#78
MG1968 said:
It could just as easily be said that the government has wasted trillions of dollars on a welfare state that has accomplished nothing since the day it was invoked by LBJ.

I'd much rather have private corporations leading the charge toward viable alternatives to fossil fuels. For their part, BP seems to have some good ideas.
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BP and Shell are both seeking alternative energy sources fairly aggresively.
 
#79
#79
TennTradition said:
BP and Shell are both seeking alternative energy sources fairly aggresively.
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any solution they offer will be the most lucrative for them. not sure if they have the best interest of the consumer at heart, or the expertise to pull this off.
 
#84
#84
oklavol said:
any solution they offer will be the most lucrative for them. not sure if they have the best interest of the consumer at heart, or the expertise to pull this off.
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They have all the expertise they are willing to buy. These companies typically contract with research universities. I know that my group has several contracts with BP and another group within my department has a contract with Shell. That is just one research university and one department, but there are many many more projects. That is how they will approach this problem. There will be a solution, the problem is whether or not we will reach the scientifically/technologically best solution once the technological problem is optimized subject to political constraints...or in non-nerd speak...if the politicians don't screw it up.. :)
 
#85
#85
GAVol said:
Profit and innovation are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they usually go hand in hand.
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QFT! The innovation economy is the heart of America. Robert Sollow was onto something when he pegged the innovation capital factor...and that dude at Harvard, whose name I forget, correctly (in my opinion) identified that capital factor as human investment. Education + Innovation = strong economy.
 
#86
#86
TennTradition said:
They have all the expertise they are willing to buy. These companies typically contract with research universities. I know that my group has several contracts with BP and another group within my department has a contract with Shell. That is just one research university and one department, but there are many many more projects. That is how they will approach this problem. There will be a solution, the problem is whether or not we will reach the scientifically/technologically best solution once the technological problem is optimized subject to political constraints...or in non-nerd speak...if the politicians don't screw it up.. :)
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This is a big and growing part of the innovation machine. More and more, technology transfer out of research universities and other research institutions is what puts the R in R&D.

Mindsets on technology transfer have been slowly changing of the past 20 years or so and more and more university presidents are recognizing that both tech. transfer and contract research can provide sustainability for their institutions.
 
#87
#87
oklavol said:
any solution they offer will be the most lucrative for them. not sure if they have the best interest of the consumer at heart, or the expertise to pull this off.
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i'm fairly sure they are required by the govt to put a certain amount of money into alternative energy.
 
#88
#88
droski said:
i'm fairly sure they are required by the govt to put a certain amount of money into alternative energy.
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Which government? They're not US companies.....

Do they have to put a certain amount of the money they earn from selling products in the US back into alternative energy research?
 
#89
#89
TennTradition said:
Which government? They're not US companies.....

Do they have to put a certain amount of the money they earn from selling products in the US back into alternative energy research?
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they aren't US companies, but they have US refineries, many drill for oil/gas in the US, and they have US stations. I don't know exactly how it works. maybe i can google it, but they definetly had their hand forced a bit. edit: now that I think about it I believe that by getting offshore drilling rights they had to invest a % in alternative energy.
 
#90
#90
droski said:
they aren't US companies, but they have US refineries, many drill for oil/gas in the US, and they have US stations. I don't know exactly how it works. maybe i can google it, but they definetly had their hand forced a bit. edit: now that I think about it I believe that by getting offshore drilling rights they had to invest a % in alternative energy.
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thanks
 
#91
#91
I know Exxon has been buying up every graduate engineer they can find, masters or PhD.
 
#92
#92
Glad they´re going down for you guys. Here in Europe, we´re paying the equivalent of $5.43 for gas and diesel.
 
#95
#95
rwemyss said:
I'm not sure if they are looking for MIT quality... I would think so though.
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I find that some companies don't like hiring our grads, but the major oil companies tend to recruit some of our people. I work in a lab that has a fair amount of energy connections, so I think that when the time comes, if I decide to go into energy that would probably be my easiest path (besides...my project is an energy project too). My advisor worked for Exxon before he came here and he really liked the company....so I plan on giving them a look. Hopefully they will be willing to look back :).
 
#96
#96
They were recruiting HARD in Knoxville last year, so I'd say if you want it, there's a position that would be available to you. :rock:
 
#97
#97
allvol123 said:
I am not the one claiming billion dollar corporations don't have the expertise to find new solutions, that is YOU.
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No your the one claiming that "billion dollar corporations" who are making more money then they ever have in history are going to be interested in changing the status quo.
 
#99
#99
oklavol said:
No your the one claiming that "billion dollar corporations" who are making more money then they ever have in history are going to be interested in changing the status quo.
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I would think most global corporations that are more than 30 years old are making more money than they ever have. Also, I am sure these money grubbers would love to be the first to find a new successful energy source. There would be a lot of money in that.
 
#100
#100
allvol123 said:
I would think most global corporations that are more than 30 years old are making more money than they ever have. Also, I am sure these money grubbers would love to be the first to find a new successful energy source. There would be a lot of money in that.
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No corporation has had more profit then the oil companies have. Ever.

ExxonMobil (XOM) reported the largest annual profit in U.S. corporate history Monday, a $36.1 billion jackpot that included a record-setting fourth quarter.
Exxon earned $10.7 billion, or $116 million every 24 hours, in 2005's final quarter, up 27% from the same period one year earlier.
Quarterly revenue of $99.7 billion was 19.5% higher than last year's fourth quarter. For the year, Exxon took in $371 billion — equal to the total annual economic output of Argentina and Thailand.

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"They were hitting on all cylinders. ... It's good news for Exxon shareholders and likely to continue in '06," says Fadel Gheit, oil analyst at Oppenheimer.Higher oil prices drove Exxon's profit higher than Wall Street had expected.
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The big oil companies have existed for more then 80 yrs. I wonder why its taken them so long to come up with any alternatives?
 
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