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Hydrocarbons in the deep earth - (Renewable? Maybe..National Academy of Science weights in)
National Academy of Science ^ | April 11, 2011 | Leonardo Spanua, Davide Donadioa, Detlef Hohlc, Eric Schweglerd, and Giulia Gallia

Posted on 05/11/2011 11:03:03 AM PDT by dila813

A new computational study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how hydrocarbons may be formed from methane in deep Earth at extreme pressures and temperatures.

The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of hydrocarbons at high pressures and temperatures are important for understanding carbon reservoirs and fluxes in Earth.

The work provides a basis for understanding experiments that demonstrated polymerization of methane to form high hydrocarbons and earlier methane forming reactions under pressure.

Hydrocarbons (molecules composed of the elements hydrogen and carbon) are the main building block of crude oil and natural gas. Hydrocarbons contribute to the global carbon cycle (one of the most important cycles of the Earth that allows for carbon to be recycled and reused throughout the biosphere and all of its organisms).

(Excerpt) Read more at ornl.gov ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abiogenic; energy; hydrocarbon; natgas; oil; opec; thomasgold
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To: dila813

So how fast is it renewed? Even if it’s renewed in hundreds of years (a nothing in grand scale) that doesn’t help us.


41 posted on 05/11/2011 2:32:25 PM PDT by mewykwistmas (Lost your job as a birther under Obama? Become a 'deather'! Where's Bin Laden's death certificate?)
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To: dila813; Ernest_at_the_Beach

In case you missed this one.


42 posted on 05/11/2011 2:42:25 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle (Honor must be earned....Duncan Hunter Sr. for POTUS.)
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To: PapaBear3625

“rate of production” == that depends on man harvesting it ... doesn’t it?

What if we found out the quicker we harvest it, the more it produces?

The number one cause of peak oil theory is the EPA


43 posted on 05/11/2011 2:51:18 PM PDT by dila813
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To: thackney
From the excerpt: We show that for T ≥ 2,000 K and P ≥ 4 GPa HCs higher than methane are energetically favored

I wonder how many people understand what 4 giga pascal is in terms of pressure, not to mention 2000 degrees Kelvin?

Needless to say, that's a wee bit more pressure than even an 'overpressured' oil reservoir, and just a tad hotter...

44 posted on 05/11/2011 3:47:27 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: chuckles
Oil is being found in such numbers now that the numbers just don't add up

Let's clarify that a trifle. That 'found' oil is oil which is economical to extract. It has been where it is, we just lacked the technology to get it out of the ground and make money doing it. Even the USGS Bakken reserve estimates have been (significantly) revised upwards a couple of times, not because there is more oil there than there was 20 or 50 years ago, but because we can extract it, and in the process are learning how much was present in the first place.

Most "dry holes" have some oil or gas present, just not enough to pay for drilling and operating costs using the available technology. In light of technological changes and price increases, oil which was formerly not economical to produce has become so, especially if the wellbore already exists.

45 posted on 05/11/2011 3:54:48 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: dila813

“OIL IS RENEWABLE!”

Of course it is!

Although I don’t know if it renews as fast as we use it, at least in some places.


46 posted on 05/11/2011 3:55:11 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: pie_eater
I’ve always wondered how it’s possible for oil to be the residue of dinosaurs if it’s a few miles under the earth’s surface.

The oil-dinosaur connection is either being used jokingly or as a strawman, no scientist actually believes that. Most oil is ancient zooplankton and algae - which is one of the reasons algae fuel is surprisingly similar to petroleum (which has any number of chemical compounds in it and not just long chains of hydrocarbons).

If life on earth dates back only a billion or so years, that’s not enough time to have enough sedimentary rock laid down on top of the dead organic matter to pile up several miles deep.

Any number of factors plays a role where the oil actually ends up, from plate tectonics to the type of rock. Still, on the grand scale the location of large oil fields correlates well with the location of ancient oceans.

I think coal is mainly the remains of dead organic matter, but not oil.

The formation of coal can almost be watched: moors turn into peat and peat slowly turns into lignite, then hard coal.
47 posted on 05/11/2011 4:11:57 PM PDT by wolf78 (Inflation is a form of taxation, too. Cranky Libertarian - equal opportunity offender.)
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To: DallasDeb

I recall it was some Norwegian fellow who predicted a find of abiogenic oil in a place where traditional oil scientists said it would not be...and there it was. It’s not proof that oil is abiogenic, but it does indicate that oil can be found in more places than just where traditional experience expects it. Meaning we may have a lot more oil than was ever imagined.


48 posted on 05/11/2011 4:20:53 PM PDT by MeganC (NO WAR FOR OIL! ........except when a Democrat's in charge.)
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Thomas Gold keyword:
49 posted on 05/11/2011 5:21:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: dila813
If that is true, then the entire concept of peak oil is officially DEAD.

Indeed, thanks to gas injection (steam or CO2), special liquid detergent injection and the new rock craking methods used in places like the Bakken formation, we're discovering that the amount of recoverable crude oil is VASTLY larger than anyone anticipated. In short, modern oil extraction technology has WAY out-ran the naysayers who said we'll run out of oil soon. And that's not including research into oil-laden algae to make diesel fuel, heating oil, gasoline and kerosene, which could make these motor fuels effectively available forever.

50 posted on 05/11/2011 5:40:26 PM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: RayChuang88
It's always been dead, a dead lie, and they know it, but it's trotted out with every dog & pony show along with any 2 x 4 they can use to prop up the price.

It's working less & less though as more people become educated beyond the propaganda.

51 posted on 05/11/2011 5:55:22 PM PDT by de.rm ('Most people never believe anything you tell them unless it isn't true."-Groucho Marx)
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To: Colinsky

The earth also has tidal forces that generate a lot of heat.


52 posted on 05/11/2011 5:59:02 PM PDT by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: SunkenCiv

Wow, that’s quite a list.


53 posted on 05/11/2011 6:05:04 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FreedomPoster

Yup, FR is the place. :”)


54 posted on 05/11/2011 6:38:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: Smokin' Joe

4 GPa - a little over a half-million PSI.


55 posted on 05/11/2011 7:04:29 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: MeganC
I recall it was some Norwegian fellow who predicted a find of abiogenic oil in a place where traditional oil scientists said it would not be...and there it was. It’s not proof that oil is abiogenic, but it does indicate that oil can be found in more places than just where traditional experience expects it. Meaning we may have a lot more oil than was ever imagined.

If I remember correctly, there was a very small amount of petroleum substance found at or near the bottom that well. The concentrations of some key identifier compounds in that substance used to be posted on the web along of the concentrations of the same compounds from the kerogen in shallower conventional possible source beds in the area (i.e., probably samples from surface outcrops of thermally immature shales, i.e., potential source beds not heated long enough to have formed oil).

Conventional identifier, or fingerprint, compounds in the petroleum material found by the well correlated with the shallow surface rock samples suggesting that the oil might have come from those potential source beds. How can that be, you ask? How did material from those shallow beds end up at the bottom of the well?

Well, it turns out that the well was drilled into an ancient meteor crater in Sweden, a site selected because the underlying basement granite would have been cracked and fractured enough by the meteor to allow deep abiotic oil to seep from the mantle. The meteor would have also fractured the overlying shallow source beds and probably driven some of it or possibly vaporized kerogen from those shallow beds deep in the earth where it subsequently recondensed. If some of that shallow source rock material was driven below where the temperature was high enough to generate oil over geologic time, it could explain why the "oil" found in the well correlated with the shallow, thermally immature surface samples.

In any event, the dab of oil found in Thomas Gold's well wasn't enough to justify any commercial development, whatever the source of the oil. Sweden did not follow up with further drilling in what was theoretically a great place to find abiotic oil welling up from below.

I looked at those identifier compounds from the well and surrounding overlying beds long, long ago. They could have indicated that the bottom oil was consistent with having come from a marine algae source bed, but it was so long ago I do not remember for sure. Sorry.

56 posted on 05/11/2011 8:30:55 PM PDT by rustbucket
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To: crusty old prospector
“.....oil eventually makes it to the surface if it is not trapped.”

Yes - The La Brea tar pits, the oil sands in Canada, and oil shale in Utah are all examples.

Off the top of my head, I recall that an astounding percentage - like 80% - of the earth's permeable oil has already reached the surface.

Most of it has dissolved, evaporated, or been consumed by micro organisms.

57 posted on 05/11/2011 8:43:52 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: dila813

The Russians have been saying this for a while, we are just starting to catch on:

http://www.gasresources.net/index.htm


58 posted on 05/11/2011 9:07:33 PM PDT by SFC Chromey (We are at war with Islamofascists inside and outside our borders, now ACT LIKE IT!)
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To: SunkenCiv

save


59 posted on 05/12/2011 6:11:13 AM PDT by Rumplemeyer
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To: zeestephen

The oil shale in Utah and Colorado (Green River Formation) is a little different in that it is the remains of a fresh water lake. Something similar to the Great Salt Lake but larger. The organic matter was laid down in yearly cycles like a tree ring such that you can count the layers and determine that it took about six million years to fill in. It is famous for its fossils and I have several fish in my office from there.


60 posted on 05/12/2011 6:25:39 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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