Are Oil Companies buying the patents to alternative fuel sources?

Question

I have to write a research paper about this topic and can't seem to find any sources that give cold facts about oil compaines buying the patents to alternative fuel sources. I need as many good sources as possible.

Answer 1

Yes, they bought the right to an engine that ran on water, just so they could stop it from becoming public.

Answer 2

First goto http://blog.myspace.com/gunnyrant, scroll down and read about the 100 MPG carburetor, then add this:

The oil companies are trying their best to squash two very viable sources of alternative fuels. The first and most important is based on Thermal Depolymerization (goto Google) whereby ANY organic substance, wood fibre, paper trash, kitchen scraps, old tires, can be simply and efficiently reduced to several basic chemical components, about 40% of which is a high grade oil suitable for diesel operation. This is a proven process, several pilot plants are now in existence... but you will never hear mention of it on the evening news (wonder why?)

The second is, again, using trash, wood fibre, and plant waste to create fuel pellets, just like for your pellet stove. These pellets can be burned in several type of steam generating devices, and be used to drive a vehicle. This is very old technology, and all existing, but with the addition of modern heat transfer and metallurgy technology, can easily compete with crude oil at it's current price.

The third, and possibly most important, is the recent breakthrough by The University of South Africa in the manufacture of photovoltaics. extremely efficient (70-80%) solar panels are now availabe at an 80% savings over current technology. They have a patent on the process but it is only good for 20 years... A person could use this for roofing on their house,

The real bottom line here is that no large corporations can control these technologies, they can be created in the average
fabrication shop by backyard engineers. There are no patents on these (2) processes.