Peak Oil: Meet the Heat that Spells Your Doom

With plentiful process heat provided at temperatures between 700 C and 950 C, a person could kill peak oil and have plenty of energy left to power industry and a broad spectrum of industrial processes.   Specifically, one could:

1. Unlock the trillions of barrels oil equivalent in oil sands (PDF)


2. Unlock the trillions of barrels oil equivalent in coal to liquids and gas to liquids (PDF)


3. Unlock the trillions of barrels oil equivalent in oil shale kerogens 


4. Provide abundant industrial process heat for production of fertilisers, refining fuels, making plastics, etc 


5. Split CO2 into CO to use as a hydrogen carrier 


6. Overturn conventional fears of EROEI and Peak Oil 

Those things, and many more, will be accomplished by next generation gas-cooled high temperature nuclear reactors. Helium gas coolant will run gas turbine generators at high temperatures, which provides electrical power at higher efficiencies than older steam cycle generation systems. And as mentioned above, the higher temperature process heat will find a wide range of practical uses in industrial processes and energy production.

Conventional fears about EROEI and peak oil will be overturned since the energy used to produce hydrocarbon fuels, fertilisers, plastics, and other products of industry and energy, will come from the high temperature heat effluent of nuclear reactions -- of which there is no conceivable near term shortage.

The "green dream" of modern faux environmentalism is a dysfunctional fantasy that will lead to the energy starvation of industry and commerce, and an ongoing widescale economic hardship. Greens have pushed governments away from most forms of reliable energy -- out of deeply felt carbon hysteria and nuclear phobia. The green rainbow fantasy love affair with wind and solar is eating away at European economies, and any other economic entity that comes to rely on those inherently unreliable sources of power.

Don't let your government lead your society down that ruinous primrose path.

Adapted from an article originally published at Al Fin, The Next Level, and cross-posted to Al Fin Energy