[dila813]

The Study: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/04/04/1014804108.full.pdf+html?sid=98416857-96a4-4487-847a-4617eca0a016

Determining the thermochemical properties of hydrocarbons (HCs) at high pressure and temperature is a key step toward understanding carbon reservoirs and fluxes in the deep Earth. The stability of carbon-hydrogen systems at depths greater than a few thousand meters is poorly understood and the extent of abiogenic HCs in the Earth mantle remains controversial. We report ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations aimed at investigating the formation of higher HCs from dissociation of pure methane, and in the presence of carbon surfaces and transition metals, for pressures of 2 to 30 GPa and temperatures of 800 to 4,000 K. We show that for T ≥ 2,000 K and P ≥ 4 GPa HCs higher than methane are energetically favored. Our results indicate that higher HCs become more stable between 1,000 and 2,000 K and P ≥ 4 GPa. The interaction of methane with a transition metal facilitates the formation of these HCs in a range of temperature where otherwise pure methane would be metastable. Our results provide a unified interpretation of several recent experiments and a detailed microscopic model of methane dissociation and polymerization at high pressure and temperature.

Refreshing that we are finally applying some of these science resources to understanding the source of energy of modern industry.

That would be a shocking discovery.....OIL IS RENEWABLE!

[Red Badger]

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....

If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....

This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....

[Red Badger]

OIL has always been renewable..........it never wears out...............

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[DallasDeb]

Swedish scientists have also stated that oil supplies do not deplete permanently (about a year ago, I think)—that they are renewable.

[vanilla swirl]

shocking!

[redgolum]

Mass balances have hinted at this for a long time. In short, either there was A LOT more plant life that got wiped out in a cataclysmic event, or something else is going on.

We know you can make oil from dead plants, and that you can make hydrocarbons from methane. We are even fairly sure that a lot of the oils came from (in part) dead things. But it hints at a lot of it came from somewhere else. The Russians have suspected so for a long time.

[Noumenon]

Deep Hot Biosphere ping. Dr. Gold was right. Too bad that conflicts with wooden-headed Luddites and eco-nutjob types view of the world.

[from occupied ga]

I've always wondered aobut oil being a "fossil" fuel as defined by being the residue of earlier biological activity. There isn't any doubt about coal, but hydrocarbons were part of the solar nebula and doubtless condensed into the planets in varying degrees. Oil may be the result of geological activity on primal hydrocarbons that condensed when the planet did.

I believe some geologist sold one of the scandanavian countries on the theory that there were a lot of deep hydrocarbons, and they ran a really deep well. Found some methane, but not enough to make it worth drilling the hole.

[tbpiper]

OIL IS RENEWABLE!

For a long time I have had the opinion that petroleum was not a 'fossil' fuel. Look at the world oil consumption and try to figure out how many dinosaurs would have to die to supply that much oil.

At one time, I had taken the amount of oil rendered from the largest baleen whale on record and had come up with a 'baleen equivalent' number for the world oil consumption. Seem like it was in the neighborhood of 275,000 large baleen whales would have to die every day to supply the worlds oil consumption.

[crusty old prospector]

Unfortunately, there is no porosity or permeability for it to be stored or to flow through, except fractures. Think granite or concrete with a hairline crack in it.

[fso301]

Geologists and geochemists believe that nearly all (more than 99 percent) of the hydrocarbons in commercially produced crude oil and natural gas are formed by the decomposition of the remains of living organisms, which were buried under layers of sediments in the Earth's crust, a region approximately 5-10 miles below the Earth's surface.

[GreyFriar]

H’mmmm, oil as a renewable resource. Naw, greenies will get a consensus that it isn’t.

[zeugma]

Oil is not a “fossil” fuel. Evidence for its abiotic generation has been known of for quite some time now.

[Carry_Okie]

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.

LOL! This has been known for over a DECADE. The "fossil fuels" model was dropped by the Russians in favor of "abiotic oil" long ago. See The Deep Hot Biosphere (1998).

[Madam Theophilus]

Russian scientists have believed this for a long time, haven’t they?

[1010RD]

No, it's even better.

The hydrocarbon economy is SUSTAINABLE!

[wastedyears]

Methane I hear...

[PapaBear3625]

It doesn't matter if oil is renewable.

What matters is the rate of renewal versus the rate of consumption. If the rate of renewal is much less than the rate of consumption, then we will very soon need to cut back sharply on our usage.

We can be very sure that the rate of production over the last few hundred million years is much less than the rate of consumption over the last 100 years -- otherwise we would have had oceans of oil to deal with.

[iceskater]

bump for later

[djf]

These guys are obviously wrong.

I buried a carp in my back yard.

Any day now, I should be able to top off my tank...

;-)