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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ Diesel engines can have their injectors modified to make the engine run using nothing but SVO (straight vegetable oil) for fuel. In cold climates, you'll need to warm the oil up before starting the engine. Ethanol can be used in a typical gasoline fueled engine. Based on this, I think Trioxidane's answer is quite reasonable. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 8:49
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    $\begingroup$ Presumably the terraforming deliberately included plants that could be refined into substitutes for fossil "fuels", including substituting for coal in manufacture of steel (as noted in o.m.'s answer). The big difference between Earth today and this world is that with no ancient energy "savings" to use up, much greater areas of arable land must be devoted to growing "fuel". Therefore less land to grow food, therefore lower supportable population than Earth today. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 10:12
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    $\begingroup$ "Electrical boats are a big step in efficiency": if you don't mind that your ships are biggg, with very low carying capacity and very very slow. Efficient, maybe, in a very narrow sense. Useful, no. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 10:58
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    $\begingroup$ @AlexP your mindset is still firmly in our time. In an age where there's no fossil fuels and all oil is agricultural it can make sense. In addition, all research and development has gone to making electrical boats better instead of relying on oul products. That is the whole premise of the answer. They might have a great hydrogen solution thanks to the oil restriction. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 15:00
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    $\begingroup$ @Trioxidane There's a distinction to be drawn between using electricity as the transmission (quite efficient) and using electricity as the power source (not efficient, because batteries are heavy and delicate). There's some improvement to be made in batteries but they have a long, long hill to climb before they can challenge liquid fuels for energy density. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 23, 2022 at 23:11