what is the alternatives to natural gas, oil and petrolium as and energy source?
475066
Sugar, water, wind, sunlight.  Brazil is currently making fuel out of sugar for vehicles.  Iceland will be running all of their vehicles on hydrogen, in the next 20 years, and all of their energy sources are currently being harnessed on natural water sources such as thermo-heated water sources that drives massive turbines.  In Palm Springs, CA. they use wind farms to generate electricity.  And solar power could be harnessed cheaply by most nations on Earth to supply energy.
1114274
Tough question, however Solar and Wind are viable sources of energy where available.  BioMass and utilization of human waste are also viable sources of future energy.  There's some speculation about technology to harness the energy contained in Ocean Water (currents) though I am not an engineer and don't understand it at all.  Finally, eliminating wastefulness and extending the usefulness of exsiting fuel types will assure at least in the short term enough for all (this is particularly aimed at the USA as the largest consumer of existing fuels per capata in the World, the question is why)
1107450
Hardly. Methane, ethanol (not yet for cars but already viable for power plants), vegetable oil etc.  If we really had to stop burning fossil fuel, the current service stations could distribute the new fuel.  One of the problems with bringing out alternate fuels is that in order to 'compete' with gasoline, it has to be reasonably available to people driving across the country.  Distribution is a tough issue for some of the products.
249468
Solar is the most efficient, available, reliable, and simple form of alternative energy at about .37/kwh. but it has one big disadvantage... You can't put it in your gas tank.
320789
It won't be there, and there is no satisfactory alternative.  Biofuels are a fantasy.  Try running your car on wind, coal or nuclear power.  \n\nGone is gone.  It's like money in the bank.  After you spend it all, there ain't no more.
395165
Thats really vague, there are millions of methods. But one that fascinates me is synthesizing natural resources. We have all thought at one time or another that gas could only come from oil but thats false. In WWII the germans got their gas using carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and some other chemicals. Since the 80's New Zealand and South Africa have been using ethanol and the zeolite (porous rock) ZSM-5 to make their gas.\n\nOther good methods involve recycling, but doing it in an energy conserving manner. Which some say ours are not. \n\nThe ultimate goal would be to "use our waste as our resouces". A good example being using the carbon monoxide that comes from car exahaust to synthesize gas. Imagine, being able to do that kind of chemistry with every one of our resources. Thats the ultimate preservation and conservation around!
420546
natural gas is organic matter, and sure it is a source of energy
677148
I used to buy a product from Exxon called Varsol.  You can use gasoline also.
601243
Nuclear, beyond any shadow of a doubt. \n\nThe US has appreciable Uranium reserves itself, and major Uranium producing nations such as Australia are already favored trading partners and stable western democracies.\n\nForget corn. It takes more oil to produce ethanol than the ethanol replaces. I. other words using corn for energy means we have to use MORE oil. We currently produce corn ethanol as an economic subsidy for corn growers. If we didn't make ethanol we would have to dump that corn in the ocean. But Corn ethanol is NOT a fuel source. See the first article below.\n\nHydrogen is iffy. We can only obtain hydrogen by splitting water using massive amounts of electricity. That electricity has to be obtained using normal power stations, usually coal. As a result hydrogen is like ethanol: it takes far more fossil fuel to produce than it actually replaces. That makes it a possible oil substitute but very unwise WRT greenhouse gas emissions unless coupled with lots of nuclear power stations.\n\nSolar and wind are never going to be major players. There simply isn't enough land available to make more than a minor contribution and because the supplies are erratic we would still need other power stations to make up the regular shortfalls. See the second article below.\n\nNucelar is the only real solution.
398827
Hybrid is such a waste of time, being that it still uses massive amounts of gas while just prolonging the inevitable. \n\nThe only reason we're not investing everything we have into creating an alternative to oil, is that Bush and his cronies make massive amounts of money when oil is used.
1071855
The previous posted is confused.\n\n"Solar power is still the best alternative energy source, and it is because of that that it's still decades away from being fully researched and employed in our everyday lives"\n  --Solar energy is used with great success in the western US were large areas of land are available to be used for solar projects. \n\n"why,..because the Big oil barrons would be out of a job,...plain and simple"\n   --It is inefficient use as a large power source.  An overcast day can hinder generation from the sites, plus the large amount of area required focusing enough light to heat water cells or even PV cells.  Let's not count out nighttime.  \n\n"It's now 2006,.. Over 30 years since the oil and gas embargo of the 70's and we still have not learned our lessions, Oil company's and big business have effectively lobbied our lawmakers into doing nothing and here we are,.. now paying $ 3.00 and more . per gallon, $ 70.00 a barrel for oil, ask your parents about the gas embargo of the 70's,...then ask them why nothng has changed"\n   --Then why are cars getting more and more fuel efficient??  I'm all for driving big block Chevy's, but they seemed to have been taken off the market until most recently.  Why is that??  If the rate of inflation was applied to the cost of gasoline since 1970, the current price per gallon would be well over $5.00.  Oil has been somewhat stable up until the mid to late 1990's.\n\nOh, and don't forget to subtract the taxes your lawmakers have placed on each gallon of gas since 1970.
16072
A synthetic gasoline product that we already have. Etyhenol (Spelling). I would also say that we could use some type of GeoThermal energy solution (like steam etc...)
744587
Hydrogen powered autos is the way to go. The sun's energy can be used to separate Hydrogen from Oxygen, so you definitely have something environmentally friendly.
118034
I agree with you, unfortunately the oil industry has a lot of money and well you know how that goes. Currently there are several research and development programs going on relating to alternative energy sources. Examples are Methane, ethanol, and hydrogen.  Keep you fingers crossed that one of these experimental energy resources hits pay dirt.
70676
Natural gas is a very good source for energy, but it is non-renewable with our current technology. \n\nHydro-electric is a viable energy source for electricty. It will always be available unless the water cycle ends.\n\nCoal is a good source for heat and power, but it does have some polluting characteristics in its natural state.\n\nNuclear is good for electricity production, steam generation and heat (from steam), it does leave residual waste, that is more concentrated radioactivity than what occurs naturally.\n\nFuel cells require power to produce but they work very well. They use readily available materials and can be scaled to the power output that is needed.\n\nGeothermal is good for heating houses and on a large scale in some areas for producing electricity. It is also a renewable power source.\n\nWind and solar are two more options that are becoming readily available for the end user. They are generally coupled with a battery system for calm periods of weather and night time.
148104
Well, Yes i agree with the rest about reducing our dependency on crude oil, and start finding some clean technology  to produce energy, the solution lies in various methods.\n\na) developed countries should promote industries or companies with incentives to  switch over to solar energy or wind power.\n\nb) countries must make optimum  use of tidal energy( energy created through tides at seashores) to produce energy in a industrial level.\n\nc)hydro electric although is second most exploited source, the full potential is not fully tapped yet, countries around the world should utilise it to the optimum level.\n\nd) Developed countries as well as developing countries must set aside a certain percentage of thier budget to set up clean energy such as setting up wind mills,to generate power\n\ne) Nuclear energy is still a disputed energy as it involves  potential risk of exposure to radiation, and its high cost o f operations,Yet the energy produced outweight all odds, it \nproduces enormous energy with little fuel.\n \nf) Countries should fast track the process  of finding an efficient alternative to Petrol(gasoline) or Diesel as Automobile fuel, right now the research is on hydrogen fuel cells , which seems promising, Yet the research lacks impetus from most of the developed nations.\ne) Countries (developed& developing) should start untilizing the Bio-deisel extraction process in massive scale,( that is extraction of Ethenol which can be got extracted from certain plants and certain seeds). The use of Ethenol will ease the stress on crude oil.
182564
Some resources we use are renewable and some are not. True renewables include energy sources like wind and solar. Sort-of renewables include water, food and firewood. Although these can be tapped or grown to satisfy demand, aquifer draw-down and soil erosion can limit how great a load can be sustained. All material resources need to be used wisely, not wastefully, since most resource use usually entails waste products, expense and disposal of unused material. Nonrenewables can be either reclaimable, like metals, or expendable (nonreclaimable) like petroleum. A reason for special care in consumption of expendables is that the supply is limited. Once used up, they're gone for good. \nReclaimables: In the 4.5 billion years of earth's existence, seismic and erosive action changed the distribution of materials in it; many valuable minerals became concentrated into a small number of areas, making them far more practical to extract than if they were more uniformly distributed. This fortunate situation is a one-time happening; if we throw them away they become widely dispersed, so when the concentrated sources run out, we either lose them or we have to collect them some time later at great expense. This is is why we need to recycle aluminum and many other metals including copper, lead, zinc, titanium and even iron. You'd think we'd keep pretty careful control of the more expensive stuff like gold, silver and platinum, but surprisingly a little of that still gets tossed (but less than used to be). Actually aluminum is abundant and not hard to find, but it takes a lot of energy to extract it from its ore, so reclaiming it pays too. \nExpendables: The petroleum we are using up today took many millions of years to form. At the current consumption rate we will use up all the petroleum we can get in 45 years (ref.). After that, we have to have figured out an alternative or we are in deep muck. Currently we have no practical alternative, especially for mobile, "go anywhere anytime" uses like cars. Hydrogen sounds good on the surface, but the only practical way to mass-produce it is from petroleum, losing energy as we do! So if we can postpone that moment of awful truth by conserving fuel now, we have a better chance of developing a true alternative. I hope you're on the side of the future. Your children will thank you.