Section 5:

Unconventional

Fossil fuels and Technologies

31. Vast quantities of oil and gas are held in deposits where they cannot be produced by conventional drilling.

When the world price of oil is high, what becomes more profitable? - to find ways of exploiting unconventional fossil fuel resources.

This hand full of tar sands needs to be cooked to become crude oil

http://w

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erican_oil.html

32. What are tar sands? deposits of heavy oil that are too thick, or viscous, to flowWhat does viscous mean? Thick

These deposits form in the same manner as conventional deposits of oil, but microbes at shallow depths break down the light fraction of the oil.

How do energy developers extract oil from tar sands? by injecting hot steam, which heats the sands and makes the tar less viscous so that it can be pumped outWhen are tar sands economically viable to extract? only when oil prices are high Why? Because generating the steam consumes large amounts of energyWhere is the largest tar sand deposits in the world? in the Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada

Location of the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River oil sands in Alberta with regulatory boundaries.

Oil sands consist of bitumen (soluble organic matter, solid at room temperature) and host sediment, with associated minerals, and excluding any related natural gas.

http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/energy/oilsands/

http://tarsandssolutions.org/tar-sands

Mining trucks carry loads of oil-laden sand in Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Jeff Mcintosh/AP

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/23/eu-tar-sands-vote

33. What are oil shales? tight source rocks that are not permeable

enough to pump the oils out directly What are the potential technologies for extracting shale oil? fracturing and igniting the shales, causing the

kerogen to mature and migrating the light oil fraction to pumping stations

United States has huge reserves of shale oil, which could extend our national oil supply by decades to a century if what?

if technologies are developed to harvest them economically

typical lake basin

typical lake basin showing the resulting oil shale as a sequence of layer groups

http://phelpsrussia.blogspot.com/2010/05/eastern-europe-seeks-to-diversify.html

Oil shale, also known as kerogen shale, is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen. Oil shale is flammable.

34. Natural gas can be extracted from coal ,typically by pumping the gas directly from subsurface coal deposits . Alternatively, coal can be processed to produce syngas which can also be used as a source of energy.

What is another name for coal gasification? Syngas Why does coal gasification offer a tremendous promise as a future energy source? it offers an opportunity to tap our domestic coal reserves because pollutants and carbon dioxide can be removed from the gas before it is burned

Why has gasification technology not been pursued for energy to date? because it is more expensive than using coal directly as fuel. What would make coal a more environmentally acceptable energy source? if it included the capacity to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions

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http://www.netl.doe.gov/research/coal/energy-systems/fuels/hydrogen-rd

35. What occurs trapped in ice within shallow sediments, both in permafrost and deep undersea environments?

huge reserves of gas Why have these not been harvested?

no affordable technology has been developed yet What is another name for methane hydrates? clathratesWhat are (2) reasons why these may prove to be an important energy source? (1) because of their abundance (2) because natural gas burns more cleanly than

other fossil fuelsWhat is the problem with methane from these deposits being vented into the atmosphere? methane is a powerful greenhouse gas

http://metalsworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/methane-hydrates-future-energy-wildcard/

http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2007/paull-plfs-xsection-350.jpg

Methane hydrates trapped beneath the ice in Alaska and beneath the U.S. Gulf Coast could be a major energy source.

http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/oceans/images/hydrate.gif

http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/oceans/images/hydrate.gif