Direct Conversion of Biomass to Gasoline & Diesel: GTI Hydropyrolysis

All Images via EERE (PDF)
The Gas Technoloogy Institute (GTI) is developing an advanced hydropyrolysis method for directly converting a wide range of biomass types directly to gasoline, diesel, and other high value fuels and hydrocarbons. The method is designated IH2, and utilises hydrogen scavenged from the biomass itself.  IH2 product is very low in water and oxygen, and claimed to contain 3X the heating value of standard fast pyrolysis oils.

GTI’s Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion (IH2) technology, which converts biomass directly into cellulosic gasoline and diesel hydrocarbon blendstocks

GTI’s IH2 technology is an advanced pyrolysis technology which utilizes low pressure hydrogen together with a proprietary catalyst to remove virtually all of the oxygen present in the starting biomass. (During the pilot IH2 project, CRI/Criterion supplied the IH2 catalyst.)

Features of the process include:

Feedstock flexible;
Fast biomass heat up maximizes liquid yield;
Hydroconversion with catalysts produces low-oxygen, low-acidity liquids;
Polynuclear aromatic components are not formed;
Self-sufficient process requires no supplemental water or hydrogen; and
High-quality renewable gasoline and diesel products are produced.

GTI says that renewable gasoline (RG) produced by the IH2 process results in more than 90% lower greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum-based fuels.

Compared to conventional pyrolysis processes this efficient, balanced approach optimizes the energy used to convert a range of non-food feedstocks into renewable transportation fuels or chemicals, according to GTI. As a result, the technology is highly flexible and is economical for both small- and large-scale applications. _GCC

The table above compares the IH2 process with two competing pyrolysis approaches for biomass to fuels.

The diagram above provides a rough scheme for hydrogen flow in the system.  The table below gives a brief step by step recipe for how the process aims to become self sufficient for hydrogen.   The project is still firmly within R&D stages.

In the race to renewable fuels-from-biomass, it appears that the thermochemical approaches of gasification and pyrolysis have roughly a 10 year head start on microbial fuels -- in terms of achieving potential to scale up to compete with petroleum infrastructure. If GTI's approach provides all the benefits promised, and is ready for scale-up in 3 years, one can almost see the price ceiling descending over the liquid fuels landscape.

Pyrolysis and gasification are much faster and simpler than most biomass to energy processes -- except direct combustion of compressed or torrefied biomass. The GTI process appears to be an important advance over standard fast pyrolysis.  GTI provides a time-to-market of roughly 3 years. That is not really such a long time to wait, given the promise.

More at EERE (PDF)

Diesel-from-Algae at $1.25 a Gallon, 10,000 Gallons an Acre?

Cost of the firm’s algal based diesel fuel is said to be $1.25/gal which permits retail pricing at or below petroleum diesel without subsidies.

Photon8 has demonstrated photobioreactor production rate equal to 1.5 gal/square meter/yr and is on its way to an expected rate of 22,000 gal per 2.5 acre/yr then to best economic units of 5 acres. It believes further development may bring it close to 10,000 gal/acre/yr as a basis for planning large production systems, according to Brad Bartilson, President & CEO, Photon, Inc, Brownsville, TX. _Ai-Online_via_BiofuelsDigest

Photon8 is a new Texas algal fuels startup, based on technology developed at UT Brownsville. The company utilises "genetically enhanced" algae, and intends to produce a "drop-in" diesel fuel which requires no blending with petro-diesel. Photon 8 claims a number of unique technologies with patents pending.

Brad Bartilson is the president and CEO of Photon8 and seems to at least talk a very good game.

Brad Bartilson, Photon8’s president and CEO, says the Traveling Wave Tube technology boosts algae growth by 500 percent, representing a major advance in the profitable conversion of algae to biofuel — "profitable" being the key word...

...He invented his own patent-pending "photo-bio reactor" in order to slash production costs. Now, Traveling Wave Tube promises to cut costs further by dispensing with limits normally imposed on algae-to-biofuel production during "degassing" and the addition of carbon to the algae. In a nutshell, algae "broth" is exposed to sunlight in order to produce oily "lipids" — the more the better. The lipids are harvested for biodiesel production.

...Photon8 has discovered how to coax more lipids out of individual algae cells through genetic manipulation...Photon8’s team has figured out a short cut, Bartilson says.

"If you’re in production what you care about is how much oil (the cells) produce a day." he says. "Now we have confirmation that these cells are producing lipids at twice the rate of a wild cell."

Despite the breakthroughs, Bartilson finds himself struggling against a perception in the algae-biofuel industry that some problems are insurmountable — including the ones Photon8 claims to have surmounted.

"It’s so frustrating for me," he says. "I feel like were fighting town hall to some extent. Those that came out first are now being looked at as the ‘forefathers.’ The mantra from these folks is nobody has solved the confounding issues — (they say) we don’t have algae that can produce at the rate we need, and second there is no growth system that can have profitability. We have those, so we have to make believers." _BrownsvilleHerald

One of the UTB professors who has been involved in the underlying academic research is Tamara Pease. Dr. Pease appears to have an eye on some critical issues involved in the production of photosynthetic organisms to fuels -- both on an immediate time scale and on a geologic time scale.

Something tells me that Dr. Pease would be reluctant to make the same claims about Photon8's "mutant algae" that Mr. Bartilson is making. It is much easier to talk about breakthroughs and "10,000 gallons an acre production" than it is to actually produce an algal based diesel-equivalent that is cost-competitive with petro-diesel.

All the same, if Photon8 can bring their fuel to market within the next 10 years, Al Fin energy analysts will be quite impressed.

More algal energy news: OriginOil is focusing more narrowly on its algae extraction process -- moving toward a continuous separation process called "Live Extraction" which preserves the viability of the algae cells after "milking", for further lipids production.
OriginOil is a a better established company than Photon8, but in a wide-open field such as algal fuels -- still in its infancy -- it is far too early to predict ultimate winners and losers.

OriginOil Extracts Oil from Algae Timelapse from OriginOil on Vimeo.

Huge Venezuelan Oil Reserves Suffer Political Peak Oil

BitToothEnergy

Jorge Pinon, an energy expert at Florida International University in Miami, said that Venezuela's state oil company has suffered from a lack of adequate technology and investment, hurting oil output in recent years.

"You can be sitting on the world's largest oil reserves but if you do not have ... capital, technology, know-how, and most important, stewardship of the enterprise," Pinon said, "they are worthless." _AP

Venezuela is sitting on over one trillion barrels of oil equivalent in heavy oils, in the Orinoco Belt. These oils can be difficult to extract, transport, and refine, but significant profits still remain to be made -- if the dull-witted dictator of Venezuela does not kill his golden-egg-laying goose.

Venezuela in the same situation as Canada, as conventional production of oil diminishes, so the rise in oil prices is making it more practical to produce the heavier oils of the Orinoco Basin, although almost all the oil from Venezuela is both heavy and sour. _BitTooth

BitToothEnergy

The largest supply of oil remaining in Venezuela is that in the Orinoco Belt, which the USGS has estimated holds a reserve of some 513 billion barrels. (Which, for reference is about twice the size of the Saudi Arabian reported reserve.) _BitTooth

BTE

These resources were known to be enormous: close to 1,200 billion barrels of oil originally in situ (between 80 and 210 billion barrels of recoverable resources, depending on the recovery factor one chooses to believe). However, they were of very poor quality, at less than 10o API (indicating low gravity/high viscosity) and a high content of sulfur and heavy metals. _PetroleumWorld

No one knows how large the Orinoco Belt resource may turn out to be. As the technology for recovering and refining heavy oils improves, the reserves are likely to grow ever larger.

Unfortunately for Venezuela, Hugo Chavez' interminable reign of error is likely to continue to alienate most foreign partners. Indigenous Venezuelan expertise under Chavez is particularly inept, so foreign assistance is virtually mandatory if the nation is ever to get a handle on the great wealth it is sitting on.

Unless Chavez is ejected, it is likely that energy technologies globally will progress to the point that most of Orinoco will never be developed.

Oil Shale Mining and Research Picking Up Steam

Estonia's largest oil shale mining company, Eesti Energia, reported the largest oil shale production figures in 18 years for 2010 - 17 million tons, up 3 million tons from the year before.

The bulk of the national power company Eesti Energia's mining subsidiary's production is used in the furnaces of the Narva power plants, which have significantly geared up electricity production due to a sharp decline in imports after the closure of Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear plant. _ERRNews

The short quote above illustrates several points. First, Estonia is using its own oil shale resources to generate electrical power -- by burning oil shale (kerogen) in furnaces to drive steam turbines -- similar to one of the ways that coal is used to generate electrical power. Second, the EU's misguided drive to shut down European nuclear plants will have the effect of increasing the use of fossil fuels use. Third, oil shale kerogens are located all over the world. Most countries are not burdened by an Obama-style energy starvation regime. They will use their fossil fuel resources if they must.

Oil shale is reported from nearly 40 countries, with the largest deposits being located in the United States, Russia and China. Middle Eastern and North African resources also are large in aggregate.

Active commercial shale oil production occurs in Estonia, Brazil and China, with total global production of shale oil about 20,000 barrels per day. Informal current and future production numbers (figure 1) indicate that shale oil is unlikely to be a significant part of global production for a decade or more.

China has set aggressive goals for production over the next two decades, and the figures for the United States could be conservative, depending on the political environment.

The United States, Jordan, Israel and Morocco are nonproducing areas likely to see future shale oil production.

The United States, with over half the estimated world resources of oil shale, remains a central focus. The current political environment encourages caution, and companies are still conducting research, development and demonstration (RD&D). _AAPG

In the US, companies can find it difficult to get permits for even the most rudimentary research into improved methods of oil shales in situ production or mining. As long as that is the case, energy producers will find it slow going to develop cleaner and more efficient methods of producing a more environmentally friendly shale oil product. In other words, should it become necessary to use this resource, we will use far more environmentally destructive processes -- thanks to the faux environmental regime of Obama - Salazar and its constraints on basic energy research.

Gigantic unconventional reserves lie virtually untapped across the planet. But the massive amounts of energy needed to get at them -- and hence, the greenhouse gases released -- is a thought that makes environmentalists bolt awake at night.

...The American Petroleum Institute right now is wracking its members' brains to figure out how to blast a substance called Kerogen from solid rock in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. If this modern-day alchemy proves commercially viable, the United States could begin exploiting crude oil reserves three times the size of Saudi Arabia's. Just never mind that turning Kerogen into fuel requires massive energy inputs -- code for greenhouse gases -- and up to 3.2 barrels of water for each barrel of shale oil.

That hasn't stopped the parched Middle Eastern country of Jordan from signing two major project agreements in the past three years. And recent reports indicate a third is coming soon. _Tyee

Yes, Jordan is another country besides Estonia that will not hesitate to use its oil shale kerogens in whatever way will help the country survive and prosper.

...Jordan, where Royal Dutch Shell is thinking so far out it has signed a contract with the authorities that has the potential, given contract renewals and so on, to last more than 100 years, according to Mr Shaw. The contract, signed in 2009, grants Shell exclusive oil shale exploration rights to a concession area, where it already is drilling for oil shale samples, analyzing them and developing a geological model of Jordan’s deep oil shale resources. Shell says, “There is still a lot to be learnt about the geology and nature of the Jordan oil shale resources” before a decision on a commercial project can be taken.

That is true, as it is about oil shale resources globally. Nonetheless, it already seems clear why the majors have never gotten caught up in the peak oil arguments. Given all the potential source rocks out there, and the industry’s record of technologial advancements, they are a long way from pronouncing the last drop of oil has been produced. _GWPF

A Series of articles on Oil Shale from Bit Tooth Energy

A set of papers covering various symposia on Colorado Oil Shale by the Colorado Energy Research Institute

Kerogens are simply precursors to petroleum which have not been sufficiently heat and pressure treated to make the conversion to crude oil and gas. But the use of nuclear reactor heat -- to finish the job -- for in situ oil shale extraction is likely to make a big difference in global hydrocarbon resources within the next 30 years. The coming wave of small modular reactors are likely to boost oil sands production in Canada, heavy oils in Venezuela, and oil shales in the US and elsewhere -- if the energy starvationists can ever be removed from positions of power and influence.

Biomass to Butyl Esters and γ-Valerolactone (GVL)

...we have described an integrated biorefining strategy for the production of butyl esters and GVL starting from cellulose and utilizing reactive extraction of levulinic and formic acids with butene. This strategy simplifies the recovery and recycle of sulfuric acid for cellulose deconstruction and enables downstream catalytic processing in the absence of sulfur. The mixture of levulinic and formic esters, along with residual levulinic and formic acids, can be converted to an aqueous solution of GVL and 2-butanol in a single step over a dual-catalyst- bed consisting of Pd/C followed by Ru/C, in which H2 generated from FA and its ester over Pd/C is used for the reduction of LA and its ester to GVL over Ru/C.
—Gürbüz et al _GCC

GCC
Chemical engineering has barely begun to work on the problem of lignocellulosic biomass-to-energy. Up until now, the price of oil has not been consistently high enough to justify the research costs. But that is beginning to change. A team at UW-Madison is working on an approach to streamline a biomass to butene process.

The new process relies on the use of butene—produced by the decarboxylation of GVL during the process—as an extracting solvent in lieu of using alcohols, as proposed in other work. The new biorefining strategy simplifies earlier processes, is adaptable to various extraction conditions, and potentially advances the cost-effective production of alkenes from renewable lignocellulosic resources, the researchers say.

In the hunt for cost-effective, high-yield ways to convert biomass into renewable liquid hydrocarbons, one attractive approach is the controlled reduction of the oxygen content in the feedstock to produce platform chemicals that retain sufficient functionality for upgrading to a variety of useful end products (biorefining). Levulinic acid (LA) is an attractive platform molecule that can be converted to, among others, GVL.

...The new process comprises the following steps:
Production of an aqueous solution containing equimolar concentrations of LA and formic acid (FA) by hydrolysis of cellulose at 423 K (150 °C) using sulfuric acid (0.5m);

Some of the water and the FA co-product are then removed by an evaporation step to obtain a more concentrated solution of LA and sulfuric acid, containing residual amounts of water and FA.

The FA product in water is retained for downstream hydrogen production in a dual-catalyst-bed system, and the concentrated LA product is contacted with butene, generating sec-butyl levulinate (BL) and sec-butyl formate (BF) esters as major and minor products, respectively, using H2SO4 as a catalyst. The team has demonstrated that high yields, 85%, of the levulinate ester can be attained at moderate temperatures (<373 K, 100 °C) and short contact times (<120 min). Excess butene is recovered by vaporization, and the concentrated ester product is then contacted with water, during which the hydrophobic ester separates spontaneously from the aqueous phase, the latter of which retains 99% of the sulfuric acid to be recycled for use in biomass deconstruction. The BL and BF esters are subsequently processed in combination with the aqueous FA product stream (obtained from the evaporation step) using a dual-catalyst-bed in a single reactor to produce GVL in nearly quantitative yields with 2-butanol and CO2 as coproducts. The liquid effluent from this reactor, consisting of an aqueous solution of GVL and 2-butanol, can undergo decarboxylation and dehydration (of GVL and butanol, respectively) over a catalyst to obtain butene and CO2. _GCC

As more engineers, microbiologists, nanotechnologists, plant scientists, and thermodynamics experts become involved in the problem of creating renewable liquid fuels, expect to see significant progress.

The economics will take longer to catch up with the science and engineering.

In a rational energy climate, there would be more than enough coal, gas, and unconventional hydrocarbons, and nuclear energy to ride out the current storm of "political peak oil." Lacking a rational energy climate, we must hope that the energy starvation regime of Obama and company gets tangled in its own intrigues.

Marginal Lands Available to Grow Half World's Liquid Fuel Needs

GCC
Using marginal lands not suitable for food crops, 50% of the world's liquid fuels can be produced, according to U. of Illinois scientists.

Published in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology, the study led by civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai identified land around the globe available to produce grass crops for biofuels, with minimal impact on agriculture or the environment.

Under any of the projections, Africa has more than one third, and Africa and South America have more than half of the total land available for biofuel production. Thus, the locations of biofuel production potential and demand are not consistent, given that larger fuel demands exist in the US, Europe, China, and India. The transportation of this fuel between continents will cause additional energy consumption.
—Cai et al.

Many studies on biofuel crop viability focus on biomass yield, or how productive a crop can be regionally. There has been relatively little research on land availability, one of the key constraints of biofuel development. Of special concern is whether the world could even produce enough biofuel to meet demand without compromising food production.

The questions we’re trying to address are, what kind of land could be used for biofuel crops? If we have land, where is it, and what is the current land cover?
—Ximing Cai

_GCC

The study does not look at possible genetic improvements in bioenergy crops or microbes. It particularly does not look at the use of oceans -- 70% of Earth's surface area -- to grow seaweed. Seaweed is a particularly prolific biomass crop which is well suited for several types of biofuels production.

But this is all beside the point. There is no need to produce 50% or more of the planet's liquid fuels from biomass. Imagine the impact on liquid fuels supplies if a mere 15% or 20% of liquid fuels were economically derived from biomass. The entire geopolitical balance of the planet would be shifted by such a renewable supply of liquid fuels.

Among policy-makers and pundits, there is a surfeit of "magic bullet" thinking -- the desire to solve huge problems with a single, top-down solution. No wonder the world is in such a mess.

Bioenergy solutions are best implemented incrementally, with minimal expectations. Any revolution that occurs is likely to be best observed by looking backward in time, after the fact.

More: Biopolymers that heal cracks

"Biofuels" Doesn't Mean Just Corn Ethanol Any More

When most bloggers think of biofuels, they are thinking of 5 year old studies that use 10 year old data to look at efficiencies for producing corn ethanol and soy biodiesel. But a ten year runup in oil prices is pushing more money and creative individuals into the bioenergy and biofuels field. This ain't your father's biofuel world any longer.

Some of the most intriguing possibilities for reducing reliance on petroleum using biofuels, come from addition / blending -- not total substitution. Bio-additives to liquid fuels hold enormous potential for reducing petroleum transportation fuels and heating oil use. Bio-additives to solid fuels -- as in co-firing with coal -- likewise present a very good way to reduce solid fossil fuel use.

Consider various blends that can be used with diesel:
Biodiesel is commonly blended with petrodiesel.
Ethanol can also be blended with diesel up to 10%.
Ethanol + Biodiesel (PDF) can be an effective additive to petrodiesel.
Butanol isomers can be blended with diesel.
Di-methyl ether (PDF) makes a good diesel additive.
"Hydro-treated" vegetable oil can make a good combination with diesel
Furfural derivatives can make great diesel blends
Fischer-Tropsch biofuels (PDF) can be blended nicely with diesel
And so on. Butanol also blends with gasoline much better than does ethanol, as do some of the other bio-derived fuels mentioned above.

Bio-syngas can be used as a substitute for natural gas, or can be blended with natural gas if appropriate adjustments and precautions are made.

ImageSource

Various forms of biomass -- including torrefied biomass -- can be co-fired with coal.

Interestingly, lignocellulosic biomass can produce multiple biofuels products, including ethanol or butanol from C6 saccharides, furfural from C5 saccharides, and F-T biofuels from lignin

Bio-acetic acid can be converted to ethanol

Farnesenes from biomass can be feedstock to produce polymers, lubricants, and biofuels

Bio-succinic acid can be substituted for petroleum feedstocks for certain industrial processes

In the long run, microbial fuels -- followed by advanced acellular nano-catalytic fuels -- should outstrip most current bioenergy schemes.

And so it goes. Little by little, slow but sure, the process of economic blending and partial substitution of bio-fuels for fossil fuels is driven by high oil prices. Clearly bioenergy is not ready to take the place of petroleum, and will not be ready for decades to come. But thanks to the shale gas bonanza and the improvement of oil sands technologies, the bio-derived feedstocks can remain in the R&D phase for a while longer without causing significant shortfalls of fuel supplies.

It would be nice if the US Obama regime were not stonewalling safe, clean, abundant, new-gen nuclear reactor designs and SMRs. An enlightened nuclear energy policy would further relieve any strains from political constriction of fossil fuel supplies. But incompetence and ideological suicide such as Obama's regime displays, eventually becomes obvious to voters, and auto-remedied at the voting booths.

Nuclear Energy Expanding Worldwide

Japan offers its help to Saudi Arabia in building nuclear power plants

France offers to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey

India is building its indigenous capacity for re-cycling and re-processing nuclear fuel

Brown's Ferry Reactor #3 in Alabama has come online, raising US nuclear power production by 0.6%. Brown's Ferry was fortunate in getting almost all of its critical third-reactor work done before the Obama regime of energy starvation took office.

Unfortunately, another US power plant was blocked by Obama's NRC from adding a third reactor. This is what we can expect from an Obama NRC: an ongoing policy of energy starvation.

Here is a short excerpt from the 34th Carnival of Nuclear Energy at NextBigFuture:

4. Dan Yurman has a Fuel Cycle Week article China is now reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. It is a beginning, but it is not a breakthrough. The country must also develop MOX fuel fabrication and fast breeder reactors to achieve its ambitious goals.

5. ANS Nuclear Cafe has The Russians are coming to India and so are the French

India has the second most ambitious program to build nuclear new nuclear reactors, overshadowed only by China’s recently announced plans to build two-to-four times that amount in the same decade. A key factor in acquiring new reactors is India’s reliance on Russian technology and, to a smaller degree, on similar offerings from France. In this entry, Dan Yurman sets the stage for India's nuclear expansion and examines barriers for U.S. firms and others seeking to enter the Indian nuclear market.

6. China is targeting 48.5 GWe of nuclear power by 2015.

So 2020 would be about 85-86GWe if the second half of the decade only kept

pace with the 38GWe of addition they plan for the first half. Clearly if they can hit 48.5 GWe by the end of 2015 then some continued acceleration would make the 112 GWe or other such targets for 2020 look pretty achievable. If they hit it they will be almost in a tie with Japan for third after France and the USA.

7. US Nuclear generation for 2010 will probably be 801.8 to 805 TWH. It will just be short of the highest years in 2007 (806.5 TWH) and 2008 (809 TWH). _NBF

Nuclear power is a crucial foundation on which to build regional, national, and international power grids. Any nation -- such as the US under Obama -- that intentionally cripples its ability to adopt new safe, clean, and abundant generations of nuclear energy, is guilty of serious crimes against its own people.

Of course, we know that members of the ruling classes are rarely held to ordinary standards of law which common citizens are generally held to.

US Desperately Needs a Better Energy Administration

Wood MacKenzie Energy Access StudyThe current US energy administration has adopted an official policy of energy starvation, directed against US industry and the US economy overall. Presumably this policy has been adopted with political -- rather than economic -- goals in mind. Persons with less political and more economic concerns are likely to increasingly take issue with the current US energy administration's approach.

If we were really serious about fueling the recovery, we'd be at least as interested in promoting abundant, low-cost energy at a scale suitable for the needs of a $14 trillion economy, and for which employment gains in the energy industry didn't come at the expense of productivity. A study on the trade-offs between resource access and new taxes on the oil & gas industry that was prepared in conjunction with the release yesterday of API's "State of American Energy" report provides a case in point.

An international energy consultancy analyzed the potential production and employment gains associated with expanded access to the domestic resources that are currently off limits in places like the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They also looked at the federal revenue and employment impact of higher taxes on the US oil & gas industry, along the lines of a series of proposals from the administration and Congress in the last two years. They found that access to off-limits oil and gas could yield up to an extra 2.8 million barrels per day of oil and gas liquids and 6.6 billion cubic feet per day of gas by 2025, with direct and indirect gains in employment of more than 500,000 workers. By contrast, increasing taxes on the industry would not only reduce production and employment, as domestic opportunities become less attractive than those elsewhere, but also reduce total federal revenues from taxes, royalties and leasing, following a brief uptick in the initial period after their introduction. _GeoffreyStyles

Wood Mackenzie Energy Access Study

The industry supports more than $1 trillion in annual
contributions to the U.S. economy, or 7.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP);
The industry has invested $1.66 trillion in U.S. capital projects in the last decade;
4 The industry paid $95.6 billion in 2008 income taxes alone;
4 The industry paid more than $178 billion to the U.S. government in rent, royalty and bonus payments from 1982 through 2009; and
4 Increased access to U.S. oil and natural gas resources currently off-limits could generate an additional $1.7 trillion in government revenue over the life of the resources creating jobs

4 The oil and natural gas industry supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs;
6
4 Developing U.S. oil and natural gas resources currently off-limits in the
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Rockies could create 160,000 new jobs by 2030;
4 Expanding Marcellus Shale natural gas development could add 280,000 jobs
over the next decade;
4 Greater Canadian oil sands production could create more than 340,000 new jobs in the United States alone; and
4 Many other opportunities exist to create jobs through increased energy production in the United States.


4 The United States will require more energy of all types, including oil and natural gas, to meet future energy demands—a challenge and opportunity that will be met through continued industry investments in technology and innovation;
4 The industry has invested $194 billion since 1990 toward improving the
environmental performance of its products, facilities and operations; and
4 The industry has invested $58.4 billion in low-and zero-carbon emissions
technologies from 2000 to 2008—more than either the federal government or all
other U.S.-based private industries combined.
5 _API

Energy should not be a political plaything for dilettantes and fools in high places. It is a matter of life or death for communities, societies, and civilisations.

Stuart Staniford Serves Barbecue of Crow at The Oil Drum

Brian Wang points to a recent post by Stuart Staniford: New High of Liquid Fuel Production, at The Oil Drum. Given that "peak oil" was supposed to have occurred in either 2005 or 2006 (take your pick), more recent peaking in 2008 and 2010 could be seen as something of an embarassment.

Of course, true believers in peak oil will protest: "We were talking about crude oil, not all liquids and condensates!!!" Fair enough, I suppose, if a bit irrelevant to the doomer argument. After all, if alternatives can fill the gap, what is all the hoopla over "peak oil doom?"

Regardless, Brian Wang thinks that with the build-up of Iraqi oil, plus new non-OPEC oil, crude oil production itself may experience another peak before long. That would call for a double-crow bbq at TOD. Oh, but then the true believers would claim they had been talking about Saudi Arabian crude oil peaking, not global crude production. And so it goes, ad infinitum....

Here's the thing: With the steady buildup in unconventional fuels such as CTL, BTL, GTL, etc., "peak crude oil" starts to lose its sense of threat, and one wonders what all the peak oil societies, associations, conventions, and doomer dieoff clubs are all about.

Blowing Bubbles in Oil, Commodities?

Right now, the printing of trillions of dollars by the Federal Reserve is creating another financial bubble. It is supported only by deficit spending, borrowing, and money-printing. Nothing else is supporting the stock or bond market. Everyone knowledgeable person knows this, but many who are benefitting from the scam choose to deny it. The intent of this bubble is, obviously, to provide cheap capital to the biggest debtors in the world, and to juice stock and bond prices. That helps those who are have obligations and assets created during the previous bubble that went out of control, because it is allowing them to escape before the system blows up, one final time. Meanwhile, many non-connected financial institutions and individual investors are being conned into buying into the bubble through the extensive Orwellian Newspeak that we hear on radio, television and in the business press.

No bubble expands forever. The balloon must eventually pop if too much air is pumped in. The same is true of a financial bubble. If the Federal Reserve keeps pumping funny-money dollars into the current bubble, it will continue to expand for a while, until it finally pops into hyperinflation. On the other hand, if the Federal Reserve stops pumping in the dollars, the balloon will deflate quickly. We may end up in a Greater Depression, but coupled with inflated prices because of what was done. _SeekingAlpha

WSJ
Commodities have rallied across the board, and large numbers of insitutional investors are betting that the rally will continue through the next several years.

One of the commodity prices followed closely by energy analysts is the price of crude oil. Recent surges in oil prices have prompted many analysts to predict oil prices between US $100 and US $150 a barrel over the next year or two. But is that a sure bet?

Oil bulls risk mistaking tax-driven changes in crude inventories and a temporary rise in heating demand for a lasting transformation in the outlook.

The recent rally, which has seen spot oil prices rise almost $20 (28 per cent) since August 2010, has been driven more by expectations about future tightness than current fundamentals.

Market participants are convinced strong demand growth in emerging markets, coupled with recovery in the United States, cheap money policies and Saudi Arabia's refusal to raise output, will work down excess inventories and tighten the supply-demand balance in 2011.

But inventories of crude and refined products remain comfortably above five-year averages. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members hold 5 million barrels per day (bpd) of spare capacity. Non-OPEC production is growing briskly. Refiners have plenty of spare capacity. And there is a good balance between product demand and available crude oil inputs. _CalgaryHerald

If institutional investors catch wind of a deflating bull bubble-stink, prices could fall abrubply.

Crude may decline to as low as $82 or $80 a barrel if hedge funds and other speculators decide to take profits by selling contracts, Petromatrix’s Managing Director Olivier Jakob said in the report. It last traded at $88.52 a barrel in New York as of 12:22 p.m. London time.

“If there is some genuine profit taking from large speculators then we need to consider the risk for further downside,” Jakob said. _Bloomberg

Oil dictatorships like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran tend to be particularly belligerent when oil prices are high -- and are expected to go even higher.

Big investors who help to drive oil prices higher than fundamentals could do, are also feeding political instability and despotism in the third world, and economic uncertainty in their home countries. The smart ones are able to profit from such uncertain and instable conditions, if they move fast enough on the shifts.

The Obama administration has taken a lot of steps to shut down US production of coal and oil. Obama's EPA is working to clamp down on Canadian oil sand imports and on US production of shale oil. But political peak oil -- and the resulting artificial oil price bubble -- a la Obama will not affect the US' neighbors.

Cuba is diving into the offshore oil drilling game -- hoping to cash in on Obama's ongoing de facto Gulf of Mexico oil moratorium. Cutting corners on safety and environmental protections, Cuba's Venezuelan, Spanish, Norwegian, Brazilian, Indian, and Chinese partners are not particularly concerned about the environmental fallout along the Eastern US coast and fisheries, in the event of a massive spill. Certainly Mr. Obama is not likely to complain very loudly -- even if the environmental damage from a Cuban spill is orders of magnitude larger than from the BP spill. In the event of a Cuban spill, Obama is likely to turn against US oil companies to make it even harder for them to drill in US offshore areas.

Politically contrived bubbles in commodity prices abound. Bubbles within bubbles. And although human stupidity may be forever, individual bubbles always burst.

Nuclear Energy -- Costs, Carnivals, Endless Fuel Supplies

NuclearGreen
Costs for nuclear are likely to drop with new technologies capable of unlocking most of the energy in uranium fuels. Rod Adams and Dan Yurman take a look at China's announced fuel re-processing plans which promise to extract 60 times as much energy from nuclear fuel, and to provide China with a 3,000 year energy resource.

The 33rd Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival contains some interesting links to blog articles. Excerpt:

Gail Marcus sums up the achievements of the year in her blog post Year End Reflections at Nuke Power Talk. She points out that more and more of the "nuclear" blog posts seem to be about alternative energy, as wind becomes the darling of people opposed to nuclear power. On another topic, Marcus was pleased to see the NRC "Principles of Good Regulation" being adopted world-wide. She was a member of the group that developed those principals.

Also, Marcus is pleased with the reception of her book Nuclear First, Milestones on the Road to Nuclear Power Development. The book is an important achievement, since so many "nuclear history" books focus on weapons.

Meanwhile, Brian Wang at Next Big Future has two posts about the nuclear renaissance in Asia, where it is moving along at a great clip. In India, Russia is planning to build 18 reactors, and will work on Fast Reactors with Indian scientists. Further east, China's AP 1000 is still on track to operate in 2013, and Japan has a fourth MOX fueled reactor. Areva, building China's reactor, discusses what they need to do in order to compete with Asian reactor builders.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Steve Aplin of Canadian Energy Issues tackles the big question of proliferation in his post Filthy lucre and nuclear non-proliferation: what keeps them apart. As Aplin points out: Shutting down the nuclear industry will spur proliferation. It is the nuclear industry that ultimately pays for international safeguards, which are the best bulwark against the spread of nuclear weapons. The information in this post is a short, clear answer to accusations that power reactors enable bomb-making.

More at the carnival.

The biggest problem with modern nuclear power is its need for sophisticated human oversight and control. Third world nations are unable to supply competent oversight without bringing in outside expertise -- which is expensive.

Newer generations of nuclear technology -- as well as down-sized, sealed reactors -- are likely to reduce the need for constant advanced supervision. Even so, the third world as it now exists is not the best location for any form of nuclear power. Charter cities within the third world -- resembling Singapore -- are a different matter altogether. Such cities are likely to contain multiple modular nuclear reactors.

Airlines Team with Solena Group for Fischer-Tropsch Jet Fuels

First British Airways, and now Qantas are teaming with the Solena Group to build commercial plasma gasification and Fischer-Tropsch plants to create synthetic jet fuel from carbonaceous biomass waste.

Solena's joint venture with Qantas – which could be announced within the next fortnight – follows a tie-up with British Airways, signed in February last year, to build the world's first commercial-scale biojet fuel plant in London, creating up to 1,200 jobs.

Once operational in 2014, the London plant, costing £200m to build, will convert up to 500,000 tonnes of waste a year into 16m gallons of green jet fuel, which BA said would be enough to power 2% of its aircraft at its main base at Heathrow. The waste will come from food scraps and other household material such as grass and tree cuttings, agricultural and industrial waste. It is thought the Qantas plant, to be built in Australia, will be similar.

Solena uses technology based on the Fischer-Tropsch process, which manufactures synthetic liquid fuel using oil substitutes. Germany relied on this technology during the second world war to make fuel for its tanks and planes because it did not have access to oil supplies.

Airlines have been using synthetic fuel made in this way from coal for years, but this results in high carbon emissions.

The use of biomass – which does not produce any extra emissions – as an oil substitute has more recently been pioneered by Solena. The privately owned company says that planes can run on this green synthetic fuel, without it having to be mixed with kerosene-based jet fuel. In the UK and US, regulators allow only a maximum 50% blend, and the fuel was only recently certified for use by the UK authorities. BA is understood to be exploring the possibility of using 100% biojet fuel, once it is approved as expected.

Airlines including Virgin Atlantic have also been testing biofuels – made mostly from crops, which are converted into fuel – by blending them with kerosene-based jet fuel. But experts say these blends have to have a low level of biofuels to ensure that engine safety and performance are maintained. In February 2008, Virgin became the first airline in the world to operate a commercial aircraft on a biofuel blend, but this was only 20% and through just one of the plane's four engines.

The use of conventional, crop-based biofuels is controversial. Some environmentalists are concerned that an increase in the farming of crops and trees for biofuels could take up too much agricultural land and hit food production. But Solena plans to make its biojet fuel using waste, not crops.

Industry experts say that, in the future, biojet fuel will work out cheaper than kerosene-based fuel as oil prices rise. Producers such as Solena could also earn subsidies by using waste materials that may otherwise have to be sent to landfill. The Germany airline Lufthansa is also understood to be interested in a joint venture with Solena. But with each plant costing £200m to build, it will take time to roll out the technology.

One challenge faced by Solena is securing a supply of biomass waste for its new plants. Ideally, facilities will be located in or near cities, where most of the waste will be sourced, and near airlines' bases. The bioenergy producer will face competition from other companies planning to build incinerators, which also need to use waste to generate subsidised electricity. _Guardian_via_GCC

Of course the supply of biomass waste will present a problem for the world's airlines, if they intend to fly on cellulosic fuels from waste. Naturally, they will eventually have to look to biomass farms -- whether seawater aquatic farms of seaweed, forestry farms of fast-growing woody crops, or designed high-yield grasses such as Giant King Grass.

The idea of maintaining a high volume fuel industry on waste scraps is laughable. But the climate of carbon hysteria will drive corporate PR departments to ridiculous lengths in order to paint their companies green.

Much better to move quickly beyond cosmetic efforts and to get serious about advanced cellulosic fuels. If Qantas, British Airlines, Virgin, etc. want to use biomass jet fuel, they need to spend money to solve the energy density problem of biomass fuels. It is a solvable problem. But instead they add fuel to the idiotic "foods vs. fuels" non-debate.

Grow up and grow a pair, airlines spokespersons. Perhaps then you will be taken seriously.

Improved Gasification and Fischer-Tropsch for Age of Liquid Fuels

It is good to be realistic at the beginning of a new year. One dose of realism which energy observers must force themselves to swallow, is that the near-term electrification of transportation has been over-hyped. Which means that we will need to find as many sources of liquid fuels as we can -- just in case the US ever gets rid of the Obama regime so as to allow the necessary economic re-structuring for a global economy.

Gasification of coal and biomass hold a vast potential for new liquid fuels. So any improvement in gasification of F-T technology should be welcome in an energy-starved environment.

In a paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels, Zhang et al. note that in current major commercial gasification technologies, the series of mutually interactive reactions are fully coupled in a singe gasification reactor. The proposed decoupling gasification (DCG) facilitates or suppresses the interactive effects between the separated and other reactions. The paper generalizes the decoupling approach into two types: isolating and synergizing.

The decoupled reactions can be arranged into two isolated reactors to separate their products to realize polygeneration and also suppress the intereffects between the products of the decoupled reactions. This kind of decoupling approach is called “isolating” decoupling, and the resulting technology integrates usually two reactors, thus calling it “dual-bed” technology.

Another approach of decoupling is termed as “synergizing” decoupling...In this method, the decoupled reactions are rearranged to facilitate the beneficial interactions or to suppress the undesired interactions between the linked reactions (for example, the effect of the products from one reaction on the other reaction). Via this kind of decoupling, it is expected to lower pollutant formation, enable high product quality and high conversion efficiency, and/or enhance the fuel adaptability of the technology.
—Zhang et al. _GCC

More efficient catalytic synthesis of high value fuels would also make a big difference in the economics of new liquid fuels production.

A team from Shiraz University in Iran is proposing a novel reactor configuration for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) that utilizes a fixed-bed water perm-selective membrane reactor followed by a fluidized-bed hydrogen perm-selective membrane reactor. The concept (FMFMDR) produces gasoline from synthesis gas.

The walls of the tubes of a fixed-bed reactor (water-cooled reactor) in a FMFMDR configuration are coated by a high water perm-selective membrane layer. In this configuration, two membrane reactors instead of one membrane reactor are developed for FTS reactions.

The researchers used a one-dimensional heterogeneous model to investigate the performance of FMFMDR. A paper on their work is in press in the journal Energy. _GCC

2010 was supposed to be the year of the electric car, but in fact California itself gulped ever more liquid fuels in 2010 and looks to swallow even more gasoline and diesel in 2011.

All of the lefty-Luddite "cures" for energy shortages are nothing but Austrian wall-paper meant to cover the worsening problems, to keep the public complacent in their cattle-cars until time to open the doors on the great human die-off, the ultimate goal of the leftist greens.

Change the Genes, Change the Rules

Biofuel derived from crops such as switchgrass certainly holds promise, although some critics maintain that such crops use up too much agricultural land – land that could otherwise be used for growing food crops. A genetic discovery announced this Tuesday, however, reportedly allows individual plants to produce more biomass. This means that biofuel crops could have higher yields, without increasing their agricultural footprint. _Gizmag

GizmagA simple gene deletion in the plant arabidopsis results in stems with denser biomass -- more lignin, more cellulose/hemicellulose. More biomass density means more energy density -- which for biomass energy is a very big deal.

"This is a significant breakthrough for those developing improved plants to address pressing societal needs," said Richard Dixon, D. Phil., director of the Noble Foundation's Plant Biology Division. "This discovery opens up new possibilities for harnessing and increasing the potential of crops by expanding their ranges of use. These plants will be part of the next generation of agriculture which not only impacts food, but many other vital industries as well."

Huanzhong Wang, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Dixon's lab, found a gene that controls the production of lignin in the central portions of the stems of Arabidopsis and Medicago truncatula, species commonly used as models for the study of plant genetic processes. Lignin is a compound that helps provide strength to plant cell walls, basically giving the plant the ability to stand upright. When the newly discovered gene is removed, there is a dramatic increase in the production of biomass, including lignin, throughout the stem.

Research targeting plants that are grazed by animals has historically focused on reducing lignin production within the plant. However, increasing lignin in non-food crops, such as switchgrass, may be desirable for increasing the density of the biomass and producing more feedstock per plant and, therefore, more per acre.

"In switchgrass, as the plant matures, the stem becomes hollow like bamboo," Dixon said. "Imagine if you use this discovery to fill that hollow portion with lignin. The potential increase in biomass in these new plants could be dramatic. This technology could make plants better suited to serve as renewable energy sources or as renewable feedstocks to produce advanced composite materials that consumers depend on every day."

Additionally, further research with collaborators at the University of Georgia revealed that removal of the gene also can increase the production of carbohydrate-rich cellulose and hemicellulose material in portions of the plant stem. These are the components of a plant that are converted to sugars to create advanced biofuels, such as cellulosic-derived ethanol or butanol. More celluloses and hemicelluloses mean more sugars to use for carbohydrate-based energy production.

"Science often progresses in increments," Dixon said. "Every once in a while, though, you have a significant breakthrough that helps redefine the research. This is certainly one of those moments for our advanced feedstock program." _PRNewswire

Advances in plant genetics are likely to take us to an entirely different plane of bio-energy production. Denser biomass is a useful result -- particularly for fast growing biomass crops. Later, we will have engineered plants which directly produce high value chemicals and their precursors in bulk.

Lefty-Luddites are deathly afraid of genetic engineering -- for good reason. The mastery of constructive uses of plant genetics could spell the end of all of the leftist pornographic fantasies of widespread resource scarcity and human dieoff.

Turning Old Carpets Into Oil: Garbage to Energy

Four billion pounds of carpet enter waste streams in the U.S. each year, says CEO Ron Simonetti. Five pounds of oil go into a single pound of nylon, so annually the U.S. could curb oil exports by millions of barrels via recycling. _GTM

GreenTechMedia
US companies are scrambling to find economical ways to use garbage and waste profitably. From municipal solid waste to sewage to discarded tyres and carpets to farm and forest waste, the US is endowed with plentiful waste materials. The key is devising economical processes to convert and recycle the waste to valuable products.

The key to MCR’s technology is a precipitation/distillation process it calls DynaSep. First, carpet goes to a recycler where it gets shaved. The backing, made of calcium carbonate, goes to one company and MCR takes the fibers.

MCR dissolves the fiber in formic acid to make a nylon soup. Then comes the secret precipitation process. The process occurs at room temperature, but at an elevated pressure. In the end, the process fleeces out the dirt so that the company is left with 99 percent pure nylon and a reusable tub of formic acid. _GTM

Here is a nice online directory for Waste to Energy

Other materials used in carpet-making are not as easily recycled in this way as is nylon. For them, other approaches for conversion to high value products will be necessary.

The prime shortage is the shortage of human ingenuity, inventiveness, and ambition.

High Oil Prices Spur Oil Companies to Explore and Produce

Oil is like any other commodity: if price go up, people will produce more of it to sell. Despite the bleatings of peak oil sheep, oil companies are responding to recently elevated oil prices. Many are in fact scrambling to find and produce more oil.

From giants Saudi Aramco and Exxon Mobil Corp. to five-person wildcat outfits, the industry plans to spend nearly a half-trillion dollars next year to find and extract oil and natural gas, according to a new survey by investment bank Barclays Capital.

For the first time in several years, large Western oil companies are leading the industry's charge, increasing their budgets faster than the state-run national oil companies that have dominated spending in recent years.

"This is being driven by the appetite to find more oil, comfort that today's oil prices will be sustained and companies getting out of a hunker-down, recession mode," said James West, an energy analyst with Barclays, who co-authored the survey, which has been produced every year since 1982. _Rigzone

The key question oil executives as themselves is, "Will the high prices of oil stay high?" During the speculative runup in oil prices from 2007-2008, it was clear to most wise analysts that the high prices could not last. And indeed oil prices crashed to relatively low levels in 2009.

Oil has always been a boom and bust industry, with multiple price elevations followed inevitably by price crashes, and so on. That is one reason for the formation of OPEC -- the perceived need to maintain a stable price level for oil.

More on the investing side from Phil McPherson:

With the economy recovering, and as more people feel that the double-dip recession is not going to happen, oil prices are tending to stay stronger. However, it seems to me the tail is wagging the dog right now, with the U.S. dollar going down and the price of bonds being up, and the yield being extremely low. To me, it has more to do with the price of oil than necessarily the pure supply and demand fundamentals, because we still have excess supply of oil via OPEC. If you're bullish on oil or bullish on the economy, then you use those dips as opportunities to gain more exposure.

...But as with any business, when the demand is there and the visibility is there, entrepreneurs rise up to the challenge because they know they can make money. I think you're going to be surprised that in 2011 the likes of Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB), as well as lot of other smaller companies, are going to have more crews out working. There's going to be enough demand there. It's all a function of oil prices, and as long as they are in this relative range, people are going to continue to drill these wells. I don't think margin makes as much of an impact as the NAV that you can grow with these companies via drilling these wells and growing reserves. _IBTimes

The world is floating in hydrocarbons. North American shale gas has barely gotten started, and the technology for repeating that miracle is in high demand worldwide -- from Israel to China to South America.

As long as current oil prices remain above $70 (2010 dollars), exploration and production will continue to accelerate for both oil and wet gas. Higher prices -- above US $80, will spur even greater investment and faster development.

The next time someone tells you there is no flexibility in oil production, and that demand for hydrocarbons absolutely must continue to rise exponentially, you would be wise to bid the person a good day, and seek other companionship.

Massive Shale Gas Deposits Found Off Israel's Coast

A gigantic natural gas field that could yield millions of barrels of oil was recently discovered on the maritime border between Israel, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Cyprus, and Northern Cyprus. _FastCompany

FastCompany

While it is one of the world's richest natural gas reserves, the Levant Basin Province is located between countries with endless amounts of mutual hatred. It straddles the sea borders of Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The largest section discovered so far, the Leviathan gas field, is believed to possibly contain, alongside natural gas, 4.2 billion barrels of oil. Leviathan straddles the Israeli-Lebanese maritime border. Israel is currently in a state of war with Lebanon and does not recognize the de-facto Hamas Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip.

... _FastCompany

More on the technical apsects of the discovery and planned exploration and production from Green Car Congress:

Texas-based Noble Energy, Inc. announced a significant natural gas discovery at the Leviathan exploration prospect offshore Israel. The results from the well confirm the pre-drill estimated resource range, with a gross mean for Leviathan of 16 trillion cubic feet (450 billion cubic meters). The Leviathan field is estimated to cover approximately 125 square miles (325 square kilometers) and, as a result of its size, will require two or more appraisal wells to further define total gas resources, according to Noble.

Leviathan-1, located in approximately 5,400 feet (1,645 meters) of water, is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) offshore of Haifa and 29 miles (47 kilometers) southwest of the Tamar discovery. Drilled in the Rachel license, the well encountered a minimum of 220 feet (67 meters) of net natural gas pay in several subsalt Miocene intervals. Apparent reservoir quality is very good, and the intervals discovered are geologically similar to those intersected at Tamar.

Drilling at Leviathan-1 will continue to a planned total depth of 23,600 feet (7,200 meters) to evaluate two additional intervals. Current well depth is 16,960 feet (5,170 meters). Results from the deeper tests, which have a low chance of success, are expected over the next couple of months.

Noble’s second contracted rig will arrive in the Eastern Mediterranean in early 2011 to spud a Leviathan appraisal well located 8 miles (13 kilometers) northeast of the discovery well. _GCC

The huge shale gas finds in North America -- with ever-growing reserves -- are only the beginning of the unconventional hydrocarbons revolution.

When oil prices are spuriously run up in the fashion of 2007-2008, and in the current run-up in price, the marketplace is likely to respond as soon as it can.

In the modern Obama regime atmosphere of energy starvation, and the carbon hysteric regimes of EU countries, the energy markets can be quite arthritic and slow to respond. Nevertheless, eventually things begin to move, where money can be made.

Another 2 Trillion Barrels of Oil On the Way

Khaled Al Buraik, executive director of the government-controlled Saudi Aramco, announced that new technology could add as much as 2 trillion barrels of oil to global proved reserves.

Although the current global oil reserves in place are estimated at 14 trillion barrels, only about 1.2 trillion can be recovered, said Khaled Al Buraik, executive director of the government-controlled Saudi Aramco.

Speaking at a seminar in Riyadh, Buraik said the quantity of oil extracted so far worldwide does not exceed one trillion barrels.

"Advanced technology in hydrocarbon production could add around two trillion barrels to the existing proven crude reserves in the near future," he said in his address, published by Saudi newspapers on Monday.

"The real challenge for scientists and engineers is how to access to nearly 11.8 trillion barrels to meet the growing world needs of hydrocarbon in the future...what is needed now is more effort by scientists and specialists in this field to invent new methods and very advanced technology." _Zawya

Higher oil prices are spurring oil companies to increase their spending for exploration and production.

Brazil's rich offshore reserves keep growing larger

Brazil announces ambitious new underwater technologies to provide easier access to its vast undersea oil wealth

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is a growing component of national energy budgets from Britain to Japan, as a compensatory move against higher oil prices.

A new and ambitious approach to increasing the value of cheap, abundant natural gas, is being advanced by San Francisco startup Siluria Technologies.

Siluria has decided not to go after gasoline or diesel but instead to produce ethylene, a building block for plastics, fertilizers, pesticides, beverage bottles, tires and lots of other materials that are now made from oil. Ethylene can also be turned into alkanes, a class of hydrocarbons that are a component of gasoline.

A more important difference, though, could be the energy needed for conversion from the natural hydrocarbon molecule, methane, to the synthetic one, ethylene. In Siluria’s process, using a new kind of catalyst, that conversion gives off heat instead of requiring it. _NYT

I will present more information on Siluria in the future.

As you can see, new technologies will bring about both new proved oil reserves and production, AND new substitutes for crude oil in both fuels and chemical uses.

Methane plus CO2 Yields Gasoline: U of Saskatchewan

Everyone is looking for ways to convert an abundance of low-priced methane into something of higher value. The University of Saskatchewan is licensing a process to Carbon Sciences Inc. which combines CH4 and CO2 to produce syngas (CO + H2), which is catalytically transformed to liquid fuels such as gasoline.

For the past year, CSI has been developing its own catalyst for the efficient transformation of CO2 and methane gas into a synthesis gas, which is then be further catalytically processed into gasoline and other fuels. The overall reaction is:

CH4 + CO2 → (C5-10Hn) + H2O

The specific methane reforming reaction is:
CO2 + CH4 → 2CO + 2H2

The technology licensed from the UOS directly complements its own development efforts in this area, the company said.

The major challenges faced by previous industry attempts at developing a successful catalyst include coking (fouling the catalyst with carbon deposits) and continued long-time performance.

...CSI’s development was directed at solving these problems and its research team observed encouraging short-term laboratory results, the company said. However, the UOS technology developed over the past decade by Dr. Hui Wang, professor of Chemical Engineering, and colleagues has demonstrated high performance and reliability, the company noted.


The UOS catalyst achieved 92% conversion with no detectable sintering, no significant carbon deposition, and thus no catalyst deactivation. Dr. Wang’s research team has successfully tested the catalyst for 2,000 hours of continuous operation in a bench top reactor. _GCC

In other energy news, U. of Illinois, UC Berkeley, Seoul National University, and BP have combined with Lawrence Berkeley Lab to genetically engineer a strain of yeast capable of co-fermenting glucose and xylose simultaneously. This development will prove important, as cellulosic biomass conversion to alcohols moves into the marketplace.

The new yeast strain is at least 20% more efficient at converting xylose to ethanol than other strains, making it the best xylose-fermenting strain reported in any study, according to Jin.

The Energy Biosciences Institute, a BP-funded initiative, supported the research. A paper on their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

S. cerevisiae has been used for centuries in baking and brewing because it efficiently ferments sugars and in the process produces ethanol and carbon dioxide. The biofuel industry uses this yeast to convert plant sugars to bioethanol. While S. cerevisiae is very good at utilizing glucose, a building block of cellulose and the primary sugar in plants, it cannot use xylose, a secondary but significant component of the lignocellulose that makes up plant stems and leaves. Most yeast strains that are engineered to metabolize xylose do so very slowly. _GCC

Canadian Oil Sands Going In Situ

For oil sands that are too deep for surface mining operations, some form of "in-situ" is needed to extract the oil. Most in-situ operations involve the injection of steam into the oil sands deep underground.

The steam warms the bitumen, making it more mobile, so that it can then be extracted through drilling.

Some sources say 20 per cent of this area will be mined versus 80 per cent being developed in situ. (The Alberta government disagrees, telling The Tyee the number is more like 2.5 per cent mining and 97.5 per cent in situ.) _TheTyee

... the number of in situ or thermal projects continued to multiply as foreign investors lined up to inject dollars. _CalgaryHerald

Cenovus Foster Creek
There are several approaches to mining oil sands. Not all oil sands projects are equally economical to construct. Some of the most economical approaches involve in situ extraction of bitumen from the sands.

Ten years ago, big mining projects were the only game in town - now there are choices not only between mining and in situ but sophisticated money is also seeking out the projects with the best reservoir quality.

What they are finding is that in situ technologies, through which 80 per cent of the oilsands will be accessed, are gaining an economic advantage.

Capital intensity, for example, at Imperial Oil's under-construction Kearl mine project is about $70,000 per flowing barrel - it'll cost about $8 billion for a project expected to produce 110,000 barrels of bitumen per day.

Suncor has said its oilsands mines will cost around $60,000 per barrel to build while its multiple Firebag thermal in situ projects will come in for between $30,000 and $35,000 per barrel.

"People like Cenovus are saying that, in some cases, they can add in situ capacity at about $20,000 per daily barrel," Dunbar said. _Calgary Herald

As technologies improve and become cleaner and more economical, expect Canadian oil sands production to grow exponentially. A giant new pipeline going all the way to the Gulf of Mexico should speed up the process, once completed and running.

Just as North American shale gas technology has revolutionised the energy industry, so will Canadian oil sands technology.

Other unconventional forms of hydrocarbons will also likely step in to provide liquid and gaseous fuels, as needed. There are trillions of barrels of oil equivalent in known unconventional reserves around the world, with variable accessibility. Many trillions more barrels are undoubtedly sitting around, unsuspected, waiting for better technologies of exploration and production.

Fuels from Biomass Without the Microbes? Enzymes Triumphant

Virginia Tech researchers have been developing their enzymatic approach to advanced biofuels - from - biomass for some time. They believe that enzymes - without - the - microbe can provide a more efficient and stalwart production system. Their latest:

The research will be published in the January 2011 issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology.

"Enzymes self-assemble a cell-free synthetic pathway; that is, we can put the desired biological reactions to work without the other complex interactions that take place within a cell," said Y.H. Percival Zhang, associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech.

"In microbial fermentations, glucose serves as both a growth substrate and a source of energy for generating a reduced power -- NADPH. In fact, only a small fraction of glucose is allocated to NADPH generation," he says. "The cell-free synthetic pathway process increases efficiency and reaction rate."

"By using an enzyme cocktail consisting of 12 purified enzymes and coenzymes, this work has also demonstrated that the enzyme cocktail systems can work in the presence of microorganism-toxic compounds from dilute-acid pretreated biomass, suggesting that enzyme systems do not require high-purity substrates for biotransformation," said Zhang. "In other words, after pretreatment, we can do bioconversion directly, followed by chemical catalysis," he said.

The article, "Biohydrogenation from Biomass Sugar Mediated by in vitro Synthetic Enzymatic Pathways," was written by Yiran Wang, research scientist in biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech; Weidong Huang, visiting scholar from the University of Science and Technology of China; Noppadon Sathitsuksanoh and Zhiguang Zhu; biological systems engineering Ph.D. students at Virginia Tech; and Zhang. _Physorg

Abstract from earlier article by same team comparing the thermodynamics and bioenergetics of different biofuels approaches

The trend in advanced biofuels production has always pointed toward an eventual "acellular" approach, at least for small-scale, portable applications. Microbes are self-reproducing, and fairly easily "tweaked" genomically, but they can be a bit finicky when faced with some of the noxious process chemicals in common use today. Advanced catalysts -- eventually nano-molecular catalysts that are much more hardy than peptide enzymes -- will be designed to tolerate a wide range of reactants, products, intermediates, and impurities.

The researchers at VTU assume that their hydrogen will be used in hydrogen fuel cells. That is likely to be true at some scale, but hydrogen is quite valuable in its own right for a multitude of chemical and biofuels processes. It is more likely that most of the hydrogen will be used to produce more advanced biofuels, chemicals, plastics, other materials, feeds, etc.

Gas to Liquids (GTL) Coming to Canada via South Africa

Sasol figures that the natural gas needed for a gallon of diesel, plus operating costs, comes to about $1.50 a gallon. In comparison, a gallon of diesel made from crude oil now costs more than $2, even before refining, and many forecasts are for the price of oil to go higher.

...A barrel of oil has historically cost one to two times as much as the equivalent amount of energy from natural gas. But right now, vast supplies of natural gas from shale formations in North America have driven prices down, so oil is triple the price of the gas equivalent.

The new ratio creates “a very attractive economic option,” said Lean Strauss, senior group executive at Sasol. _NYT_via_EnergyTribune

South Africa's SASOL learned to create synthetic diesel back during apartheid days, when the rest of the world refused to trade with South Africa. Now, SASOL intends to bring its synthetic diesel technology to Canada, to turn the "shale gas bonanza" into a veritable GTL financial gusher.

More from NYT (via EnergyTribune) and Business Daily:

Diesel and jet fuel are usually made from crude oil. But with oil prices rising even as a glut of natural gas keeps prices for that fuel extraordinarily cheap, a bit of expensive alchemy is suddenly starting to look financially appealing: turning natural gas into liquid fuels.

A South African firm, Sasol, announced Monday that it would spend just over 1 billion Canadian dollars to buy a half-interest in a Canadian shale gas field, so it can explore turning natural gas into diesel and other liquids. Sasol’s proprietary conversion technology was developed decades ago to help the apartheid government of South Africa survive an international oil embargo...

The Sasol process cooks a hydrocarbon, either coal or natural gas, into a fuel gas made of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Using a patented process that involves cobalt catalysts, it converts that gas into a mix of liquids: 80 percent diesel fuel, 15 percent naphtha and 5 percent liquid propane.

...with the huge spread between oil and gas prices, and predictions of oil topping $100 a barrel next year, the conversion technology could be a “a money-maker for whoever is a first mover in that space.” _NYT

It is a question of cheap, reliable feedstock supplies combined with an efficient industrial process and a good market for liquid fuels. At this time, SASOL has access to cheap, plentiful feedstock AND a good market for liquid fuels. They will now have to prove the industrial ability to economically convert cheap, plentiful shale gas into more valuable liquid fuels.

It is a wise move for SASOL to develop such a plant in North America, with ready access to competent engineers, technologists, and craftsmen, as well as easy access to the US energy market.

[SASOL], which announced a 50% acquisition of a stake in Canadian shale gas company Talisman Energy for R7,1bn on Monday, is also exploring for shale gas in SA’s Karoo basin, although any production is at least 10 years away. "It’s a long shot, but it could be a game-changer," Mr Haan said. Reuters _BusinessDay