POWER SUPPLIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22825, 9 March 1936, Page 12

POWER SUPPLIES

ENOUGH FOR 24.000 YEARS

The human race will not lack power to carry on ! its activities for at least the next 24,000 years. This -is • the optimistic message from Dr Gustav ■ Eglolt, an authority on power, oil and. physical chemistry. He sees no lack of fuels' or various kinds to supply all the energy we need pending such time.as we release atomic energy. Among the fuels available to : .ue" ire coal, oil, natural gas, wood, peat, oil shale, alcohol. ..Other sources of energy include water power, wind, solar energy, the internal heat of the earth, the .tides and different temperatures of ocean.-'water. Some of these sources are individually sufficient to supply all, of man's power requirements. ■ The internal heat of the earth is an almost inexhaustible eouice of power that can be made available anywhere by reaching about two miles.below the surface. Solar energy is another such source, with a million horse-power available for every horse-power we are how getting from water power. Our oil supply, if we depend upon present methods of very limited in amount and. will last for only 15 years at our present rate.of consump tion. The supply in sight is about 13 000.000,000 barrels. With > the .use ot improved methods of production enoug U crude oil could be'produced to last 100 >e What the actual : oil supply in the ground is Dr Egloff could not estimate, but pointed out that for every acre of oilproducing land already exploded there are 500 a>es of potential oil-bearmg land He estimates that in the United States alone the potential oil-bearing lands cover 1,110,000,000 acres, with but 2.000,000 acres of it actually producmir oi Since the beginning of the oil industry about 26 billion barrels of oil have been produced throughout the world, an arnonnt that would fall short by a wide margin of filling a hole a mile deep and a mile Bq oTi e shale, a sendimentary deposit in which hydrocarbons are tightlylocked in the rock structure, . contain an oil reserve of 800 billion barrels, equivalent o a 200,years.; supply. .. ing to Dr Egloff, produce enough gasolme lo nm all tie motor cars in the world fO pe 4 a o t° Ss'hes another Reserve tvom which 100 .billion barrels, of tar ] could be produced, and from which could bei.ob tained a 35 per cent, production of gaboS, sufficient for 75 y e^ n ßupP T V her l the present rate °f consumption, ll*re is sufficient natural gas available to last for 50 vears at the present rate. . . After all of these supplies' have been exhaust in the next 50C.years have another source of oil for fuel, or motor Sower. Our coal supply can be rnvert&ily into oil by hydrogenaFoAlSn 3000 ft of the earths surface Xch could be converted into enough oil to supply the needs of the, whole world for 2 P 4,000 years. England, .winch Tacks oil supplies,' is now producing large nuantit es of it from her coal deposits Indirect „ se of solar energy by utilising theprocesses of photosyntW or the building up of woody fibres, by plants, would furnish a large fuel supply through he growing trees. This process also would make%lcohol available for Powell Water power could be developed to tie extent of 250 billion horse-power, while direct solar energy holds enormems po-i----bilities for power development. ine chie*f difficulty with sun power is; that it is intermittent, and a way must b found for storing the. energy until needed.. £3Hil^iurSr^n^ an c region! of Italy. CaMWm£«J Alaska. The steaming crevices are caused by underground rivers coming m contact with volcanic fires. w , DVPr L* These sources of. power, however are infinitesimal compared to the: vast_ re gervoir of power beneath the eartna crust The vast bulk of the interior of he earth is at so high a temperature tAt the iron core and rocks would be quid if it were not for the high pre*. X under which they exist . The outer crust gets hotter as.the distance below the surface increases. "A recent well drilled at Palestine, Texas. 9000 feet deep, showed a bottom temperature of 225 degrees Fahrenheit. A deep well in the Kettleman Hills regions in California produced water at the-rata of 5000 barrels a day at a temperatuie of 200 degrees," Dr Egloff reported......It should not be a difficult enßineering problem to bring this heat of the depth* to the surface. The underground temperature varies. In some wells it averages about one decree, for every 65 feet of depth. At this rate, if- the surface temperature is taken as 55 ■ degrees, it should be necessary to go down about 10 000 feet to strike a temperature of Lit degrees, the boiling point of water. A •n-eater distance would have to be reached to allow for heat losses in •• getting, the steam to the surface, and the. pressure conditions at the great depths. The supply of power would remain constant as long as heat was not drawn from the underground source faster than it could' bo transmitted from the surrounding rocks.