Energy For Automobiles / Ages Of Energy

 One of the best ways to look at energy is in terms of the five ages of energy.  They are:

 1.     The age of wood.

2.      The age of coal.

3.      The age of oil, which we are currently in.

4.      The age of methane, there are over 200 years of known methane reserves available or about 400 million trillion cubic feet.

5.      Finally will be the age of renewables.

These periods overlap of course and release CO2.  The CO2 can be sequestered as explained on this page.  There has been talk of harnessing the oil sands and tar sands in the far north of Canada, also the shale oil of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming which harbour a store equivalent to 2 trillion barrels of oil.  However harnessing these resources would cause massive pollution as a large amount of water would have to be used to extract the products.  Also large amounts of energy need to be used to extract this fuel.

There are problems with methane, it is a greenhouse gas.  So there is no simple solution to the problem.

 

Harnessing of oil sands and tar sands.

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