Angelica, help me sharpen my thinking on growth and de-growth. I backed into this whole discussion from the POV of the mining industry. I never considered myself to be anything like a de-growther at all. I do observe that Diesel Fuel / Jet Fuel are limiting factors for Civilization because of:
1. the efficiency of the Diesel and Jet Engines;
2. because we source almost all fuel for these from crude oil;
3. only a tiny fraction of crude oil makes diesel/jet fuel; and
4. making diesel/jet fuel produces about 2x or more gasoline for each unit of heavy fuel.
Solely because of the above, Civilization's current growth is limited. It's foolish to abandon our two best engines. Therefore, the best path to abundance and growth is to focus attention on manufacturing heavy oil e-fuels via nuclear power using any feedstock other than crude oil. I also note that the petroleum industry is the world's largest consumer of process heat.
My argument is all about using nuclear power for non-electrical energy applications to attack Civilization's current growth limiting factor: Abundant, cheap, low-cost, Diesel and Jet fuel so we can have plenty of food and afford a vacation.
In my mind, this is a growth plan. We need to stop limiting nuclear power to electrical energy (which should be 100% NP but is only 15% of world energy). 500C to 1000C is best applied to the industrial sector, which is 85% of all energy.
Angelica, help me sharpen my thinking on growth and de-growth. I backed into this whole discussion from the POV of the mining industry. I never considered myself to be anything like a de-growther at all. I do observe that Diesel Fuel / Jet Fuel are limiting factors for Civilization because of:
1. the efficiency of the Diesel and Jet Engines;
2. because we source almost all fuel for these from crude oil;
3. only a tiny fraction of crude oil makes diesel/jet fuel; and
4. making diesel/jet fuel produces about 2x or more gasoline for each unit of heavy fuel.
Solely because of the above, Civilization's current growth is limited. It's foolish to abandon our two best engines. Therefore, the best path to abundance and growth is to focus attention on manufacturing heavy oil e-fuels via nuclear power using any feedstock other than crude oil. I also note that the petroleum industry is the world's largest consumer of process heat.
My argument is all about using nuclear power for non-electrical energy applications to attack Civilization's current growth limiting factor: Abundant, cheap, low-cost, Diesel and Jet fuel so we can have plenty of food and afford a vacation.
In my mind, this is a growth plan. We need to stop limiting nuclear power to electrical energy (which should be 100% NP but is only 15% of world energy). 500C to 1000C is best applied to the industrial sector, which is 85% of all energy.
I am interested in feedback.
Well said! 💚 🥃