Thermodepolymerization (making oil from anything!)

If we had nuclear fusion, we wouldn't need to burn fossil fuels for energy.
Actually we do. We need fossil fuels for our cars ands planes for example. We need oil in our machines and so on. Plus we don't want to have hippies drive around in cars with nuclear fusion cores.

I don't think fossil fuels are necessary for automobiles, and most oil lubricants can be filtered clean and recycled. For electric cars to be a reality, a lot more would have to change then just the cars. We'd need gas stations to be converted to sell energy cells. You'd trade in your drained energy cell for a full one every hundred miles, kind of like you do with your barbeque propane tanks.

Doesn't this alternative energy source require more input energy (oil, gas, whatever) than the final amount of product? If so, that's a waste and it's a pipedream.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization :
Working with turkey offal as the feedstock, the process proved to have yield efficiencies of approximately 85%; in other words, the energy required to process materials could be supplied by using 15% of the petroleum output. Alternately, one could consider the energy efficiency of the process to be 560% (85 units of energy produced for 15 units of energy consumed). Higher efficiencies may be possible with drier and more carbon-rich feedstocks, such as waste plastic.

By comparison, ethanol or biodiesel produced from agricultural processes have energy efficiencies in the 320% range when you consider the energy used to produce the raw material.

And also consider that this would reduce landfill/dumping...not a bad deal.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization :

And also consider that this would reduce landfill/dumping...not a bad deal.thank you for doing that so i didn't have to ;)

I hear we are moving ever closer to hot fusion. That is the next step.
Hardly. Fusion is useless unless we can get it to occur at reasonable temperatures.

Hardly. Fusion is useless unless we can get it to occur at reasonable temperatures.
That's not likely to ever happen.

That's not likely to ever happen.
And the world is flat. :p

Until recently the human process was not efficient enough to serve as a practical source of fuel - more energy was required than was produced. However, a new approach was developed by Illinois microbiologist Paul Baskis in the 1980s and refined over the next fifteen years that exceeded break-even. The technology was finally developed for commercial use in 1996 by Changing World Technologies. A demonstration plant was completed in 1999 in Philadelphia, and the first full-scale commercial plant was constructed in Carthage, Missouri, about 100 yards (100 m) from ConAgra Foods' massive Butterball Turkey plant, where it will process 200 tons of turkey waste a day.

^^^

And the world is flat. :p
Well good luck with your cold fusion plans there, Ixi.

Observing the geometry of our planet, and figuring out a way to fuse matter at the atomic level in order to harness energy, are two DRASTICALLY different subjects/concepts.

Observing the geometry of our planet, and figuring out a way to fuse matter at the atomic level in order to harness energy, are two DRASTICALLY different subjects/concepts.who says ;]

who says ;]
Let me clarify that.

... figuring out a way to fuse matter at the atomic level in order to harness energy, without destroying yourself and your planet in the process, contrary to practiced physics...

I remember reading about that guy last time around. He's in new jersey, right?

This tech has been around since the 50s, but before it's used more energy than it's made. He figured out how to make it use less than it makes.

He said we might hear something soon, when he gets like 10 plants going. He currently has 2.

Well good luck with your cold fusion plans there, Ixi.

Observing the geometry of our planet, and figuring out a way to fuse matter at the atomic level in order to harness energy, are two DRASTICALLY different subjects/concepts.
I think being able to fit 50 million transistors in the area of my thumb is pretty amazing too. But you're saying it can't be done just because it hasn't, which obviously is not too insightful considering human history.

I think being able to fit 50 million transistors in the area of my thumb is pretty amazing too. But you're saying it can't be done just because it hasn't, which obviously is not too insightful considering human history.
No, I'm not.

I'm saying it probably WON'T (read it again) be done, because the science doesn't support it.

Tell me your grand theory for bringing an energy source that currently only occurs in stars down to a practical level for our use.

Nuclear fusion is an interesting subject.

We are currently getting fantastic yeilds from current nuclear fission reactions, and with the new way of doing it "balls instead of rods", it is much safer and economical.

As for fusion well... we will pretty much need a way to control gravity before we can really go into applicable nuclear fusion. And if we can control gravity, then alot of things will change. ALOT.

Agreed.

And "a lot" is two words. ;)

No, I'm not.

I'm saying it probably WON'T (read it again) be done, because the science doesn't support it.

Tell me your grand theory for bringing an energy source that currently only occurs in stars down to a practical level for our use.
Ahh so science doesn't support something that doesn't exist yet. The logic there is sound. Perhaps we should revert back to greek mythology to explain the seasons and the stars, since it was the first form of science and it could not possibly be modified or improved upon. Regardless of whether or not it can or will be done, basing the probability of that happening on today's science is stupid.

G'night.

"a lot" is two words. ;)

Bullshit!

Ahh so science doesn't support something that doesn't exist yet. The logic there is sound. Perhaps we should revert back to greek mythology to explain the seasons and the stars, since it was the first form of science and it could not possibly be modified or improved upon. Regardless of whether or not it can or will be done, basing the probability of that happening on today's science is stupid.

G'night.
OK, you're just being silly now.

We're through here.