Posted on 11/04/2009 11:55:29 AM PST by decimon
Scientists in Washington, D.C. are reporting laboratory evidence supporting the possibility that some of Earth's oil and natural gas may have formed in a way much different than the traditional process described in science textbooks.
Their study is scheduled for Nov./Dec. issue of ACS' Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly publication. Anurag Sharma and colleagues note that the traditional process involves biology: Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth's surface. Some scientists, however, believe that oil and gas originated in other ways, including chemical reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen below Earth' surface.
The new study describes a test of that idea, which dates to at least 1877 and famous Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeelev. They combined ingredients for this so-called abiotic synthesis of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, in a diamond-anvil cell and monitored in-situ the progress of the reaction. The diamond anvils can generate high pressures and temperatures similar to those that occur deep below Earth's surface and allow for in-situ optical spectroscopy at the extreme environments. The results "strongly suggest" that some methane could form strictly from chemical reactions in a variety of chemical environments. This study further highlights the role of reaction pathways and fluid immiscibility in the extent of hydrocarbon formation at extreme conditions simulating deep subsurface.
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ARTICLE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "In Situ Diamond-Anvil Cell Observations of Methanogenesis at High Pressures and Temperatures"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/ef9006017
CONTACT: Anurag Sharma, Ph.D. Geophysical Laboratory Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, D.C. 20015 Phone: 202-478-7975 Fax: 202-478-8901 Email: asharma@ciw.edu
Past gas ping.
An endless supply of oil and gas would really piss off liberals. I sure hope its true.
Ruh roh raggy. You mean oil might not be biologically produced? might not be millions of years old? Might even be self-replenishing as a natural earth product? Thank You Lord for a wonderful source of energy from a bountiful planet.
I've always thought that's a heck of a lot of petroleum to be formed from plants.
Coal perhaps, but not gazzillions of barrels of oil.
One thing need not preclude another.
If you'd take the Amazon forest and INSTANTLY covered it, crushed it, and heated it, the trees and plants and animals would crush down to about a foot thick, not 1000's of feet.
I've read that oil wells, once thought dried up, are once again filling up with oil. Suggesting that oil creation might be a recurring process.
Jupiter’s atmosphere is composed of about 90% hydrogen and 10 % helium. There are only minute traces (0.07%) of methane (CH3), water, ammonia, and rock dust.
Since methane was one of those “biotic” materials under discussion, either there is life on Jupiter or methane is abiotic.
Could we use the outer gases planets as space gas stations to go farther out into space ?
I’ve always-since I heard of it-been a proponent of the Mendeleev Theory.
Another little-known fact is his work with Vodka, and his discovery of the “Three-Martini Lunch”.
I think oxygen would be a major requirement as far as fuel goes. I don’t recall seeing oxygen on the list of gases found “out there.”
I don't know the scientific arguments for biotic or abiotic origins for oil, gas, and coal. It doesn't seem to me that this would be an easy topic to resolve. If the origin in biological, one would expect to find remains of clearly biological origin, but perhaps heat and pressure could eradicate the evidence. If the origin is not biological, some biological “contamination” might still have occurred. Perhaps the “science” on this would still focus on the prevalence or relative absence of biological material, and the use of judgment.
The idea that our oil, gas and coal have a biological origin suggests to some that “we will run out.” Even that claim is not certain. A “finite” amount can still be a whole lot. In the Carter years the EPA did a study that concluded that, with a modest increase in price, there would be enough natural gas to last a few thousand years. That's finite, certainly not infinite, but still a lot.
Has anyone estimated how much oil, gas and coal should exist based upon the premise of biological origins? Maybe we have pumped more oil than should exist. Perhaps known discoveries of coal are more than should exist.
Forming methane, a known naturally occurring material found on multiple planets, is a far different than long string hydrocarbons found in oil.
It will be good to read it once it comes out, thanks for the ping.
Once again environmentalism is shown to be little more than hysteria combined with contempt for the human species. Put under extreme pressure these attitudes create liberalism, a toxic waste of no known use.
Makes sense.
Interesting!
I certainly don’t think that today’s oil is the result of prehistoric dinasaurs and plants - no friggin’ way!
The Earth produces oil the way the human body produces sweat. The ocean floor is constantly emitting oil.
Fossil fuels, the concept behind it, is not workable in today’s world. We know it isn’t.
H’mmm is this saying that the dinosaur’s didn’t die for our internal combustion engines?
I first heard of this abiotic thing from a guy named Thomas Gold.
It isn’t fully vetted yet, and there are some explanations for it, but the fact is that some capped wells, when uncapped, show an increase - sometimes significant - of oil, compared to when they were originally capped.
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