| Non-conventional Oil |
Website Links For Oil |
Information AboutNon-conventional Oil |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NON-CONVENTIONAL OIL | |
| peak oil | |
| petroleum production | |
|
TAR SANDS Main article: Tar sands (also known as oil sands or more accurately as Bituminous Sands ) occur world-wide, but the two most import deposits of this non-conventional oil are the Athabasca Tar Sands site in Alberta, Canada and the Orinoco deposit in Venezuela . It is estimated by oil companies that the Athabasca and Orinoco sites (both of similar size) have as much as two-thirds of total global oil deposits. However, they have only recently been considered proven reserves of oil as cost to extract the oil declined to less than $15 per barrel at the Suncor and Syncrude mines while world oil prices rose to over $60 during the Oil Price Increases Of 2005 And 2006 . Extracting a significant percentage of world oil production from tar sands will be difficult since the extraction process takes a great deal of Capital, Manpower And Land . Another major constraint is energy for Heat and Electricity Generation , currently coming from Natural Gas , itself in Short Supply . However, in the Canadian sands there are plans to build bitumen gasification facilities in the Fort McMurray area to supply Syngas to replace natural gas, and there are even proposals to build Nuclear Reactors using fuel from nearby Uranium City, Saskatchewan to supply steam and electricity. The Venezuelan deposits flow more readily and could be produced by cold-flow techniques, but the recovery rates would be less than the Canadian techniques (about 8% versus up to 90% for Surface Mining and 60% for Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage ) BITUMEN Main article: Bitumen is a substance found in asphalt and tar. Most crude oils naturally contain asphalt. Tar is generated through the Destructive Distillation of organic material such as Coal , and is mostly produced as a byproduct of Coke . While bitumen is impractical to use directly as a fuel due to its high Viscosity , it can be Cracked to produce fuel oil. Tar sands (above) contain bitumen, which is then turned into synthetic crude. For a description of this process, see the relevant section in the Tar Sands article. OIL SHALE Main article: Oil shale is a general term applied to a group of fine black to dark brown , Russia , Brazil , and China currently mine oil shale, however production is declining due to economic and environmental factors. BIOFUELS Biofuels such as Biodiesel and Ethanol are also Hydrocarbon fuels. There are non-hydrocarbon Biofuels as well such as anaerobic hydrogen producers. THERMAL DEPOLYMERIZATION Thermal Depolymerization (TDP) has the potential to recover a lot of energy from existing sources of waste as well as pre-existing waste deposits. Because energy output varies greatly based on feedstock, it is difficult to estimate potential energy production. COAL AND GAS CONVERSION The conversion of coal and natural gas has the potential to yield great quantities of non-conventional oil albeit at much lower net energy output. Because of the high cost of transporting natural gas, many known but remote fields are not being developed. Conversion can make this energy available even under present market conditions. Karrick process Main article: The Karrick LTC process is a low temperature carbonization (LTC) of coal, shale, lignite or any carbonaceous materials. These are heated at 680°F to 1380°F in the absence of air to distill out oil and gas. The process was the work of oil shale technologist Lewis C. Karrick at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Production works out at about $35 per barrel. Fischer-Tropsch Main article: The Fischer-Tropsch process operates on similar principle to the Karrick process, but is significantly less efficient, and is widely seen as uneconomic, because it waste too much of the energy content of the coal processed. SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|