Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on a 1000-mile road trip

Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by mrtksn on Monday January 02, 2023 @09:26AM (#34218167)

Well, it's kind of obvious that the supplies of oil aren't infinite, isn't it? Is there even a theory that the oil is infinite? The peak oil is about timing and and cost, maybe it didn't happen according to the predictions but it will definitely happen. Besides the environmental concerns it also seems wasteful to burn away the stuff that is used for so many more things.

The synthetic stuff is interesting because it may actually be practically infinite thanks to the fusion reactor in the skies. That is because storing the energy from wind and solar in form of chemical energy solves the storage problem of the renewables. If extracting energy from that storage without polluting the environment becomes viable it can be huge.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by enkid on Monday January 02, 2023 @09:41AM (#34218327)

The proven oil reserves have steadily increased for the last decade, even as consumption has increased. This means that we are discovering oil faster than we are burning it. The Earth obviously can't have infinite oil, but we don't know how long until we run out, and it's likely well over fifty years from now.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by marcosdumay on Monday January 02, 2023 @10:21AM (#34218818)

> This means that we are discovering oil faster than we are burning it.

Nope. All this means is that oil is getting more expensive.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by enkid on Monday January 02, 2023 @11:55AM (#34220165)

I don't understand. Can you explain?

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by marcosdumay on Monday January 02, 2023 @01:26PM (#34221590)

Reserves are defined by economic viability. When the thing gets more expensive, they grow.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by theshrike79 on Monday January 02, 2023 @04:25PM (#34223879)

Yes, we have known, untapped, oil reserves.

The problem with those is that Someone needs to front the billions to get them pumping - and with the current state of the world it's not guaranteed that they'll get their money back.

It's better for business to raise the price of existing oil production. C-staff gets their bonuses and stocks go up.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by riku_iki on Monday January 02, 2023 @06:42PM (#34225361)

newly discovered reserves are more expensive to recover, otherwise oil price would fall.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by krona on Monday January 02, 2023 @09:37AM (#34218285)

> Is there even a theory that the oil is infinite?

Not quite infinite, but renewable: https://edu.rsc.org/news/treasure-from-the-earths-mantle/202...

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by kryptiskt on Monday January 02, 2023 @09:50AM (#34218435)

There is such a theory, Thomas Gold thought that hydrocarbons came from underneath and then was processed by the metabolism of bacteria living far beneath the surface. He later wrote a book about the theory called "The Deep Hot Biosphere". He turned out to have been right about deep life at least.

Here is a retrospective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5502609/

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by someweirdperson on Monday January 02, 2023 @10:01AM (#34218574)

There's probably as much combustible matetial as there's oxygen to burn it. If we burn too much, it will be difficult to breathe.

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Re:Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on... by vpribish on Monday January 02, 2023 @12:15PM (#34220487)

oil supplies are so vast that they are practically infinite : we must stop using it because of the emissions. peak oil has always been junk science and clickbait news.

synthetic hydrocarbons as energy storage is interesting, but all about the economics.

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