OxfordCatalysts' Microchannel Technology Wins 2011 Chemical Engineering Award

Microchannel technology developed by the Oxford Catalysts Group was named as the winner of the Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award at the ChemInnovations conference and exhibition in Houston, Texas on 12 Sept.


The UK group’s modular synthetic fuel technology - which enables the small scale and economic production of synthetic fuels via gas-to-liquids (GTL), biomass-to-liquids (BTL) and coal-to-liquids (CTL) via the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction - includes microchannel FT combined with a new highly active FT catalyst and steam methane reforming (SMR) reactors.

_The Engineer
The Velocys / Oxford Catalyst microchannel technology for scalable GTL, BTL, and CTL, has won previous engineering awards, and is likely to win more in the future. By bringing Fischer-Tropsch technology down to a size and cost which can be implemented for offshore and stranded GTL, the microchannel devices are likely to have a slowly building evolutionary impact on liquid fuels production from an unexpected source.

The fact that the devices can also convert biomass and coal to liquid fuels is an added advantage, which will eventually bring the cost of F-T plants down from the $billion range into the $ hundreds of thousands range.

It is designed for use in the smallscale distributed production of biofuels, and as practical way to transform associated and stranded gas via GTL into high quality synthetic crude. This opens up the possibility of carrying out GTL offshore.

According to Oxford Catalysts, the technology could also make it possible to use the GTL process to convert North America’s abundant shale gas resources into diesel and jet fuels.

The Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award recognises noteworthy chemical-engineering technology commercialised anywhere in the world during the two years prior to a given award year.

Jeff McDaniel, commercial director at the Oxford Catalysts Group said the award recognised “the environmental and commercial significance of our activities in GTL and BTL. _The Engineer

Excitement Building over Louisiana / Arkansas Brown Dense Shale

"We extensively reviewed the Brown Dense across the region and have indications that the right mix of reservoir depth, thickness, porosity, matrix permeability, sealing formations, thermal maturity and oil characteristics are found in the area of southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana," Steve Mueller, president and CEO of Southwestern, said in the earnings report....

...The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale area, which stretches from Texas through the center of Louisiana and into southwest Mississippi, has also garnered attention in recent months as a potential oil-and-gas producing region, becoming attractive as the price of oil has skyrocketed. In May, Devon said that it had accumulated 250,000 acres in the play, at about $180 apiece.

Even as the Haynesville Shale area surpassed the Barnett Shale area in Texas this year as the highest producer of shale gas in the country, some industry observers say the play remains at a disadvantage since it produces only natural gas, and has one of the highest costs of drilling among shale gas plays in the country.

Meanwhile, the Brown Dense shale area, like the Tuscaloosa Marine shale, is projected to be able to produce both oil and gas. Angelle believes that could help the state retain more drilling work if operators move rigs from the Haynesville Shale area, where he estimated that the drilling rig count this year was "probably down, about 30 percent." _NOLA

NOLATwo new shale plays are coming to Louisiana, each of which may just out-play the fabulous Haynesville Shale as a source of wealth. That's because the new plays -- Brown Dense Shale and the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale -- are likely to contain oil as well as gas.

Though leases and wells are springing up to explore the area, it won’t be known whether the successful and sometimes controversial hydraulic fracturing technique will uncover significant discoveries.

If the fracking works, however, the Brown Dense could be a better find than Haynesville because the wells may be striking both oil and natural gas. Haynesville only produces natural gas.

Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. announced in an earnings report in July that it has leased 460,000 acres in the Brown Dense area for $150 million, or about $326 per acre. Last month, Southwestern drilled its first well in the formation in Arkansas, and the company plans to drill a well in Claiborne Parish by the end of this year.

Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. confirmed in an Aug. 3 earnings call that it has secured 40,000 acres in the Brown Dense area. The company, which has also been active in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale area, has received a permit to drill a well in Morehouse Parish, Angelle said. _Theind.com

Shale oil & gas fever is sweeping the US from Bakken to Eagle Ford to Utica to Marcellus. And it appears that the phenomenon is just getting started.

This bonanza of shale energy may be one of the few things keeping the US economy from going under -- and it is accomplishing all that despite the fact that Obama's DOI and EPA would like to shut the whole enterprise down. Someday a psychiatrist will write a monograph on the Suicidal Energy Anorexia of the US Obama Administration.

The Curious Case of Hycagen's Biofuel Press Release

Hycagen combine skills in chemistry and microbial/enzyme science to design optimal alternative biofuels. The chemical and physical properties needed of a fuel are considered first, and then a biotechnology approach is identified to provide it economically from a renewable carbon feedstock. Similarly, biotechnology processes to chemical industry intermediates are being developed utilising sustainable feedstocks instead of petroleum supplies. _Babraham

Cambridge, UK, biofuels company Hycagen issued a press release (PDF) which provides almost no information at all. The company's website likewise provides almost no information in the description of its biofuels technology. What is going on?

Here is a newstory based on the press release:

Hycagen was founded in 2008 and has developed a number of fuels using its proprietary enzyme and catalyst based processes. Hycadiesel is an improved biodiesel composition that utilises both triglyceride and carbohydrate derived feedstocks.

It has improved low-temperature properties compared with conventional biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters), yet the process for its manufacture is extremely simple, the company says.

A hyper-stabilised reusable enzyme catalyst assimilates the combined feedstocks into the Hycadiesel generating no waste. The only processing step required after the reaction is filtration of the catalyst.

The Hycagen solution therefore completely circumvents the issues of glycerol waste, use of caustic alkali, the recycling of methanol and the product wash steps needed with the conventional biodiesel process.

“Our first stage testing at a variety of concentrations up to 100 per cent shows that the fuel performs exactly as predicted,” said Telgenco CEO Simon Albury.

“Biofuel is a key part of Telgenco's long term renewables strategy and the Hycagen product addresses some of the problems with traditional biodiesel, which means it could be used as a viable drop-in replacement for conventional diesel. Our long term testing will be concluded early next year.”

Hycagen CEO Dr Alan D Roth added: “We have developed Hycadiesel specifically to offer an engineered biofuel with enhanced properties to address a range of markets including the fixed power one.” _BusinessWeekly

Do you see what I mean? There is almost no information about the underlying process, and very little information on the nature of the feedstock is provided.

And yet, the backstory behind Hycagen is too intriguing to assume that the empty press release is just a smokescreen covering up not much at all.

Hycagen was founded in 2008 by some pretty sharp scientists: Drs. Brian Adger, Steve Taylor and Ray McCague, highly proficient in a number of chemical, biological, and pharmacological areas.

The trio founded Chiroscience plc in 1997, which in its current form (after mergers etc) is market capitalised well into the billion pound range. They also founded Sepagen Ltd in 2008. Sepagen's core technology expertise is in separation science, particulary in crystallisation and biocatalysis methods for obtaining highly pure molecules for the life sciences.

What does all of this have to do with biofuels? Most of it has nothing to do with biofuels -- as they are traditionally made. But that is what makes the recent "information-free" press release so interesting. Hycagen already has a customer / partner -- Cambridge based manufacturer of electrical generators, Telgenco. And Telgenco has tested Hycagen's brave new biodiesel and declared it "exactly as predicted."

More on hycagen from another website:

Hycagen is an R&D company, developing superior fuel compositions and renewable chemicals based on a combination of microbial and chemical synthesis. In the fuels area the fuel is first designed then routes for synthesis are considered based on the required properties.

...The new product could replace existing biodiesel with a superior fuel and thus broaden the scope of its application, in particular at low temperatues. As the process is simpler the fuel could be produced more cheaply. It could be produced either locally on-farm using low-tech methods allowing farmers to become self sufficient or at centralised facilities. _Techinspired

Can you believe that last sentence, farmers? This superior biodiesel could supposedly be produced locally on-farm for fuel self-sufficiency. And no problems with low temperature operations, either.

There is just enough information around suggesting that Hycagen utilises synthetic biological methods to create microbial enzymes which help in creating at least some of the fuels they are developing. Steve Taylor has experience in synthetic biology, and at least one consulting scientist for the company has a strong background in recombinant bacterial enzyme expression.

So what we have in Hycagen are some successful scientist/entrepreneurs in the fields of chemistry, biotechnology, and pharmacology who have been around the block a few times, have an established customer : partner relationship for their product, and are holding their process information rather close to the vest.

Al Fin bioenergy analysts are looking into the situation more closely, but are all agreed that Hycagen is worth watching.

Ending Obama Agenda of Energy Starvation: The Impact on US Jobs, Government Revenue, and Energy Production

The images below are taken from a report released last week by Wood MacKenzie, looking at the impact of relaxing just a few of President Obama's anti-energy policies (h/t Powerlineblog). Imagine if all of Obama's devastating policies of energy starvation were revoked. The resulting growth of jobs, revenues, and energy production would be astounding.

Growth of jobs directly involved in energy production, transport, and sales, would be just the beginning. Each new energy job would stimulate the creation of supporting jobs in services, housing, infrastructure, etc. And so it goes: growth breeds growth.

Job Creation Under Relaxation of Obama RulesWood Mackenzie’s analysis found that U.S. policies which encourage the development of new and existing resources could, by 2030, increase domestic oil and natural gas production by over 10 million boed, support an additional 1.4 million jobs, and raise over $800 billion of cumulative additional government revenue.
_quoted_in_Powerlineblog

Enhancement of Government Revenues Under Relaxation of Obama Anti-Energy RulesThe report assumes that the following changes would be made to existing Obama policies in order to allow energy and economic recovery to occur:

• Opening of Federal areas that are currently “off limits” to exploration and development
• Commencement of leasing, drilling and development activity in currently closed regions. Regions to be opened include: Eastern Gulf of Mexico, portions of the Rocky Mountains, Atlantic OCS, Pacific OCS, Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) – 1002 Area, National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska (NPRA) and Alaska offshore

• Lifting of drilling moratorium in New York State
• Commencement of drilling and development of Marcellus shale in New York State

• Increased rate of permitting in the offshore Gulf of Mexico
• Allows for a return to pre-Moratorium exploration and development activity

• Approval of the Keystone XL and other future Canada to U.S. oil pipelines
• Facilitates additional Canadian oil sands development, thereby increasing the demand for U.S. supplied equipment and infrastructure

• Regulation of shale resources remains predominately at the State level
• Environmental regulation of shale gas and tight oil plays are not duplicative or unduly burdensome. Permitting levels are at sufficient rates to develop resources in a timely manner _quoted_in_Powerlineblog

Increased Energy Production Due to Relaxation of Just a Few of Obama's Energy Starvation Rules
The improvements projected in the Wood MacKenzie report (PDF) are based largely on the revocation of Obama's de facto offshore oil moratorium, the approval of pipelines from Canada through the US for oil sands transport, and a cleaner and more streamlined set of regulations overseeing shale oil & gas production. The report also assumed an opening of currently blocked oil & gas resources in the Arctic and in the US mountain states, for development, and a reduction of duplication of bureaucratic environmental regulations.

In reality, according to Al Fin energy analysts, a more rational pro-energy policy would improve North American jobs, government revenues, and energy production far more quickly and to higher levels than the Wood Mackenzie report suggests. The reason our analysts are so confident is that potential for development of massive coal and kerogen deposits were not closely considered. Nor was the potential for development of advanced nuclear energy technologies for both uranium and thorium cycle reactors carefully considered.

Abundant energy opens the doors to other industries and commerce, which means more jobs and more revenues even in areas far removed from direct energy production or sales. The converse is true: energy starvation reduces jobs and revenues not only in the energy-related industries, but in society as a whole. And that is where the US stands under President Obama's policies.

Energy starvation -- shutting down reliable energy in favour of unreliable forms of energy such as big wind and solar -- is never a smart policy. It is a strongly ideological policy promoted by green faux environmental activists, with the unspoken aim of whittling away at the industry and commerce which support advanced economies. Economies which fall under the curse of energy-starvation policies slowly succumb to worsening economic conditions.

69th Nuclear Blogs Carnival @ Atomic Power Review

Atomic Power Review is hosting the 69th iteration of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers. The last dozen or so carnivals have been obsessed with the Fukushima meltdown and subsequent wave of anti-nuclear hysteria sweeping around the globe. Carnival topics are just now returning to items of interest. Excerpts:

Brian Wang - Next Big Future

The Institute of Energy Economic of Japan (IEEJ) says that for the past five years the cost of nuclear generation remained stable at around ¥7.00 ($0.09) per kilowatt-hour (kWh). However, even if compensation of up to ¥10 trillion ($130 billion) for loss or damage from a nuclear accident is taken into account, the cost of electricity generation with nuclear reactors increases to some ¥8.50 ($0.11) per kWh.

Link: Nuclear Cost Still Competitive / Uranium moves forward

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Rod Adams - Atomic Insights

Link: Wind & solar are not "intermittent"; they are unreliable, unpredictable, uncontrollable and worthless

Americans most likely associate the word “intermittent” with their easily controlled windshield wipers that can be adjusted to match the demand of clearing their windshield through a variety of conditions. However, people also describe wind and solar power as "intermittent" energy sources.

We have been using the wrong word and conveying the wrong meaning. Unlike our intermittent windshield wiper systems, with their responsive control systems that allow drivers to pick exactly the right speed to respond to changing demands, the desired output of wind and solar power systems are completely dependent upon the input weather conditions. No human can control the weather or make systems dependent on the weather produce the right amount of power at the right time.

We want our power to smooth, reliable, and utterly under control. Wind and solar do nothing to assist grid operators deliver a product meeting those requirements.

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Dan Yurman - Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes

Link: China Restarts Progress on its Nuclear Energy Program

China restarts progress on its nuclear energy program. Post-Fukushima safety checks are done, but the size of the new build will be smaller. This blog predicted last December that the size of the new build in the next ten years would not be 80 GW, but something closer to 25 GW. According to the latest statements in China’s state-owned media, the amount of construction by 2020 will be 30 GW with another 28 GW built between 2020 and 2030.

Also, China has hooked up a fast reactor to the grid supplying electricity from one for commercial use for the first time in that country. The China National Nuclear Corporation plant is generating 20 MW and has a capacity of 65 MW. It was built with help from a consortium of Russian state-owned companies.

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Gail Marcus - Nuke Power Talk

Link: Uranium - Not Just For Reactors

Gail Marcus takes a break from writing about Fukushima and, triggered by a new stamp from the US Postal Service, makes note of how uranium was used in days before the first the reactor ever split an atom.

APR note: Folks, this is really a fun post.

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Margaret Harding - 4Factor Consulting

Link: PEST(EL) in the Nuclear Industry - Social Factors (Part 6.)

Margaret is continuing her evaluation of the nuclear industry by looking at social factors affecting the industry. This week she examines the industry demographics of age and education.... _69thNucularBlogCarnie

Full carnival at the link above.

Pronuclear environmentalist Charles Barton takes a critical look at the anti-nuclear campaign of the Big Green lobbies, which are otherwise known as faux environmentalist dieoff.orgiastic energy starvationists.

Advanced nuclear fission can provide Earth with abundant power and heat for thousands of years. Controlled nuclear fusion can provide abundant power for tens of thousands of years.

The question before modern governments is whether they will give up on clean, abundant, inexpensive sources of energy before they have even begun?

There is no reasonable choice between fossil fuels, bioenergy, and nuclear power. No, every reliable form of energy and power must be utilised as we bridge the gap between combustion energy and power, and nuclear energy. In fact, nuclear power can help us utilise more difficult to obtain fossil fuels, which will then help us to bridge the gap to more advanced nuclear power.

We should always think in terms of multiple streams of energy, power, and fuels, from multiple sources.

Even when humans have permanent colonies in space, and when most advanced human societies are using controlled fusion, there will still be societies cooking with woodfires and using combustion engines and boilers for transportation, heat, and power.

More on the incredible disaster of the big wind agenda. From an economic standpoint, from an energy standpoint, and from an aesthetic standpoint, these unreliable monstrosities are a curse placed upon taxpayers and citizens by their own governments.

Advanced Biofuels, Done Three Ways

1. Primus Green Energy uses gasification of biomass and Exxon's methanol-to-gasoline process, to convert biomass to gasoline.

Very broadly, the biomass-to-gasoline (BTG) process...gasifies biomass to produce a syngas rich in hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This syngas is cleaned and conditioned and then catalytically converted into methanol for use in the MTG process. In the MTG process, dimethylether (DME), the dehydrated derivative of methanol, is reacted over a ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst, on which the chain growth of molecules is sterically hindered, thus allowing only production of gasoline and lighter material. The gasoline product from the MTG process has more than 51 compounds, similar to straight-run gasoline in a petroleum refinery. This mixture is then separated using a process similar to that used in a gasoline refinery. The design utilized in the NREL model utilizes five distillation columns to separate the remaining gas, LPG, light gasoline, and heavy gasoline. The remaining gas is sent to the fuel combustor. The light gasoline continues without further treatment. The heavy gasoline could proceed through a durene isomerizer in order to eliminate the presence of the 1,2,4,5-tetramethylbenzenes by converting them to 1,2,3,5-tetramethylbenzenes. This stream would then be merged with the light gasoline. The two product streams are LPG and gasoline. _GCC

Note that this biomass-to-liquids (BTL) approach does not use the Fischer-Tropsch approach, but the more efficient Exxon methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) approach.
2. Sugars-to-isobutanol producer Gevo has signed an agreement with fuel distributor Mansfield Oil, for the distribution of isobutanol-based fuels to the petroleum market. (Source: GCC)
This type of collaboration creates an almost instant distribution infrastructure for advanced biofuels, by piggy-backing onto a pre-existing distribution infrastructure. Gevo uses a proprietary yeast to ferment sugars to isobutanol. The company is in the process of converting corn ethanol plants to produce the higher value, more advanced biofuel isobutanol. Gevo's profit margins are likely to improve as it utilises more economical sources for its sugar feedstocks, derived from cellulosic biomass, over the next few years. This Gevo webcast for investors is available for the next 30 days.
3. Finland's Neste Oil, producer of the highly advanced renewable diesel NExBTL, is collaborating with the Finnish Environmental Institute, to research Baltic Sea strains of algae for the purpose of using algal oils in its NExBTL product. (Source: GCC)
Neste hydrotreats bio-oils to convert them into a drop-in hydrocarbon replacement for petro-diesel. Neste's NExBTL is a superior fuel compared to both conventional bio-diesel, and compared to traditional petro-diesels. Algal oil production has the potential for the highest yields of any oil crop currently known. The focus of this research is on bringing costs of growing, harvesting, and oil extraction, down to competitive levels with other bio-oils.

Al Fin energy analysts anticipate that thermochemical approaches to advanced biofuels from biomass will be competitive with petro-fuels within five years -- assuming the price of oil continues to remain high (above $80 a barrel, 2011 US dollars). Gasification or pyrolysis, combined with either Fischer Tropsch or Exxon's MTG, are examples of thermochemical approaches to advanced biofuels from biomass.

Hydrotreating of bio-oils (Neste etc) is already competitive in particular markets, depending upon government policies, petro-oil prices, and feedstock bio-oil prices.

Algal fuels and advanced bacterial fuels are likely to take a bit longer -- up to ten years to profitability. But one possible shortcut to profitable algal fuels is the IH2 pyrolysis of algal biomass approach. Such an approach could achieve profitability within 5 years.

Scientists and engineers are researching dozens of approaches to advanced biofuels, in the attempt to speed up the conversion of sunlight to fuels faster than the 100,000 years or more that nature requires.

Accelergy's CBTL Technology Expanding Rapidly

Accelergy is taking its coal biomass to liquids technology across the US, to China, and to the US military.

In the United States, Accelergy is working on demonstration facilities in Pennsylvania, Montana, and North Dakota. Accelergy's process can be tuned to utilize a wide range of feedstocks, and the company is currently exploring the use of both coal and natural gas in the U.S, along with biomass.

The company is also targeting its efforts in China since the country already has a small number of synthetic fuels plants where coal is converted to a liquid, he said. China is also the world's largest producer and consumer of coal. _Energy.AOL.com

Accelergy's Coal Biomass to Liquids (CBTL) process utilises direct liquifaction of coal (using hydrogen from gasification of algal biomass and coal), combined with advanced catalytic processing of hydrotreated coal and hydrotreated algal lipids, to produce advanced hydrocarbon liquid fuels at high yields.

Consider these facts about CBTL [Coal Biomass to Liquids]:

Abundant Supply: There is more than 250 billion tons of recoverable U.S. coal reserves – equivalent to an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, compared to Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves of 260 billion barrels. (Source: National Mining Association)

Environmental Benefits: Combining the Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) and Biomass-to-Liquids (BTL) processes, Accelergy removes 20% of the CO₂ emissions associated with standard refining methods, resulting in cleaner fuels that reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions and enabling use of higher efficiency engines.

Reliable Sources: Coal currently provides more than half of the nation’s electricity and is the largest single source of overall domestic energy production at more than 31% of the total, according to the National Mining Association. Additionally, our feedstocks can be grown domestically an land deemed unsuitable for food crop cultivation. _Accelergy

EERC PDF
More on direct coal liquefaction:

• Direct liquefaction processes add hydrogen to the hydrogen deficient organic structure of the coal, breaking it down only as far as is necessary to produce distillable liquids.
• Coal dissolution is accomplished under high temperature (~400 0 C) and pressure (~1500-3000 psi) with hydrogen and a coal-derived solvent.
• The coal fragments are further hydrocracked to produce a synthetic crude oil.
• This synthetic crude must then undergo refinery upgrading and hydrotreating to produce acceptable transportation fuels. _Direct Liquefaction of Coal PDF

More on Accelergy's licensing of Exxon Mobil technologies

Accelergy patent dealing with a related but variant process

More on Accelergy's potentially lucrative move into the Chinese market

Accelergy's approach to CBTL is rather sophisticated, involving some advanced Exxon Mobil technology along with other imaginative innovations. The fact that Accelergy is working with the US military, with civilian US entities, and inside China, indicates that the company is following an aggressive path of expansion and development.

Surviving Obama Will Not Be as Easy as it Sounds

The EPA  

The Obama administration had staffed the agency with reliable green cadres who were sure to come out with such aggressive regulations that fundamental changes in environmental policy would be made without the inconvenience of an actual congressional vote. This administration’s extraordinarily active EPA delivered..._WalterRussellMead

The EPA's rules are playing hell with US energy and jobs creation. The Obama energy starvation devastation has just begun, and much of the pain it causes will last for decades after Obama is finally ejected from the White House.

With concern over a slowing U.S. economy and 13.9 million unemployed, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promulgating new rules that will threaten the economic recovery.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff estimates that as much as 81 gigawatts of coal-generated electricity, which is about 8 percent of the entire U.S. electricity capacity, would be eliminated from the power grid by new EPA regulations on power plant emissions. Such a drastic effect will raise the costs of production, reduce the reliability of the power grid and result in a substantial drag on economic growth and employment. _GaryWolfram

Obama's de facto offshore oil moratorium is another aspect to this administrations overall energy starvation agenda. And the energy starvation agenda is just one aspect to the regime's anti-private sector campaign. Destroying private sector jobs is not necessarily considered a downside to Obama's policies, within his close circle of advisors.

There are many rational approaches to reversing the current ongoing Obama economic recession. But Mr. Obama is unlikely to seriously consider any of these logical actions, since many of them would have the effect of strengthening the private sector. In Mr. Obama's mind, the strength of the private sector and the ability of the private sector to act independently of the government, must be curtailed at all costs.

A good example of Mr. Obama's energy policy, is the Solyndra debacle. The corrupt alliance between a top Obama fundraiser, and a $500 million loan to a solar cell company now floundering in bankruptcy, makes for a classic tale -- if any of the mainstream media were brave enough to bring the dirty tale to light.

To see a prototype of Mr. Obama's vision for America, one might wish to visit Detroit. Nothing can happen in Detroit without the permission of mob-connected public sector unions, and the corrupt town bosses. Very much like Chicago, except a bit further down the road.

It is easy for doomers to blame this long term economic recession on energy scarcity, peak oil, climate change, outsourcing, and any number of other causes. But when a government works so hard to create energy starvation and to kill private sector jobs, one does not need to look too much further.

Expanding Biofuel Crops to Marginal Cropland Flood Plains

Scientists and engineers are devising a wide range of ways for converting biomass into fuels, chemicals, feeds, and materials. There has been some controversy over whether there is enough cropland available for producing a significant amount of biomass and biofuel crops. But if bioenergy producers can open their minds to new types of crops and crop growing, on marginal lands, the limitations on cropland begin to fall away.

Shibu Jose, director for MU’s Center for Agroforestry, is proposing that biomass crops be grown and harvested along the flood plains of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. He says converting less than 1% of the 116 million acres of “marginally productive” cropland on the flood plains could create a corridor of sustainable biomass and biofuel production.

Food crops planted there – typically corn and soybeans – are prone to failure because of flooding and soil erosion. Jose’s proposal involves replacing those crops with seven types of plants: cottonwood and willow trees, switchgrass and miscanthus grass, energy cane, and sweet and biomass sorghum.

All except sorghum are perennials, so farmers wouldn't have to replant year after year.

Jose says this is perhaps the most productive use of some of the flood plains.

“If you plant the trees or grasses, it keeps the soil in place for 10, 15, 20 years,” he says. “Even if there is a flood, they stay in place.”

...Under Jose’s plan, area farmers would cultivate and harvest one or more of the proposed crops. Small rural biorefineries would then collect the biomass, grind the feedstock and make pellets or extract sugar out of them. The product would then ship to "hubs," larger plants that ferment the pellets into electricity or biofuel, such as butanol, green diesel and jet fuel. _Hay&Forage

Algae can grow in saltwater, brackish water, wastewater, or freshwater. Halophytes can grow in salty soils unsuitable for regular crops. Plant genetic engineers have just begun creating biomass crops which can thrive on marginal lands. Whatever limitations most persons may think exist on the potential for growth of bioenergy crops, are more in their limited imaginations than in reality.

It is not a zero sum world. It is long past time for most humans to be suffering under the limited vision of the people who would be their governmental and thought leaders and controllers.

Borrowed Thoughts on the Eternal "Energy Crisis"

The truth is that our current energy use is minuscule. The entire world burns about 345 Quads of fossil fuel every year. Known coal reserves contain 200,000 Quads, oil shales 10 million quads, the deuterium in the ocean 10 trillion Quads..... To believe that energy shortages are our biggest problem requires very special blinders.

People have been panicking about "energy crises" since Og the cave man noticed that the supply of fallen branches near the cave was dwindling. There was a panic about "running out of wood"; Watt developed an efficient steam engine and England switched to coal. There was a whale oil shortage in the 1800s; Drake developed oil drilling. There were multiple panics in the 20th Century about running out of oil; we developed nuclear fission, offshore natural gas, efficient solar cells, fuel cells, hybrids, better wind turbines… and then continued to find oil anyway, but when we do need to switch there are multiple technologies available and more on the way.

Energy produces new energy; Watt's steam engines were used to pump out coal mines to produce more coal. Today's reactors and drill rigs produce the energy to make mining equipment and develop new power sources.

Huber and Mills make several points in The Bottomless Well. One is that we don't really want "energy," we want useful order ("negentropy" in physics). Order can only be produced by creating disorder somewhere else, by having energy flow from more concentrated to less concentrated states. If you don't have a good grip on the concept of entropy, then read this; you can't talk effectively about "energy" if you don't know what it is.

This is why talk of "conserving energy instead of producing" is self-contradictory. If we want a clean environment, we have to use energy flowing from a more concentrated source to a more dispersed state to power the separating and recycling of pollutants. Now, this flow could occur in the Sun and be collected by rooftop solar panels, or it could occur in a space-based reactor and be transmitted via microwave and then high-tension line to your house. But life doesn't exist without that energy flow.

Any successful "energy-conserving" technology in fact leads to the consumption of more energy. _Bill Walker

The cost of extracting oil from the earth has not gone up over the past century, it has held remarkably steady. Going forward, over the longer term, it may rise very gradually, but certainly not fast. The earth is far bigger than people think, the untapped deposits are huge, and the technologies for separating oil from planet keep getting better. U.S. oil policy should be to promote new capital investment in the United States, Canada, and other oil-producing countries that are politically stable, and promote stable government in those that aren't. _Oil, Oil, Everywhere

• Forty-nine percent of respondents believe Saudi Arabia exports the most oil to the U.S., while just 13% correctly identified Canada as our top foreign supplier. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. imported 58.2% of its petroleum (including crude oil) in 2007, but only 16.1% of all imports came from Persian Gulf countries.
• More than 67% believe we can meet future energy demand through conservation and efficiency. Historically, in contrast, energy demand actually increases alongside efficiency gains. And because energy use is not static, conservation leads to only marginal reductions in demand. The EIA projects global energy consumption to increase 50% from 2005 to 2030 and U.S. energy use to increase 11.2% from 2007 to 2030.
• Just 37% correctly answered that no one has ever died from the actual generation of nuclear power in the U.S. Though the U.S. has not built a nuclear-power reactor since the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, 104 active reactors safely generate roughly one-fifth of our nation’s electricity.
• Sixty-three percent of those surveyed believe that human activity is the greatest source of greenhouse gases. In fact, such emissions are significantly smaller than natural emissions. The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for just 3.27% of the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere each year, while the biosphere and oceans account for 55.28% and 41.46%, respectively.
• Less than 28% correctly believe that U.S. air quality has improved since 1970. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the six most common air pollutants have decreased by more than 50%; air toxins from large industrial sources have fallen nearly 70%; new cars are more than 90% cleaner, in terms of their emissions; and production of most ozone-depleting chemicals has ceased. These reductions have occurred despite the fact that during the same period, gross domestic product tripled, energy consumption increased 50%, and motor vehicle use increased almost 200%.

_EnergyMyths

Discussion of "EROEI" -- energy return on energy invested -- is often just as much off the mark as disscussion of energy conservation. Cheaper energy is used to produce more expensive or more useful energy and products. Cheaper substitute feedstocks are used in place of scarcer and more expensive feedstocks in industrial processes.

Religious disciples, zealots, and slaves of peak oil suffer from the greatest scarcity -- the scarcity of human ingenuity. By imagining only their indwelling visions of doom, they are unable to break through their mental cobwebs and out of their mental ruts. Thus it is left for more ingenious and useful men to do the work for those who choose to dwell in idle doom wasting.

Obama's Great Bankrupt Solar Power Debacle

First Evergreen Solar decided to close up shop. Now Solyndra has announced that it can't compete in solar panels and is declaring bankruptcy. What gives? Wasn't this supposed to be the era of renewable energy? Weren't we headed for a green energy renaissance that would end America's dependence on foreign oil? _iStockAnalyst

Strangely enough, Solyndra's billionaire majority stockholder, George Kaiser, was a big campaign fundraiser for Obama. Interestingly, Mr. Obama has been quite vocal in his praise of Solyndra, and helped ease over $500 million in government loans to Solyndra -- which taxpayers are now liable for.

Solyndra's relationship with the White House came under special scrutiny because of Solyndra backer and Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser's history as an Obama fundraiser. In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee raised concerns about the loan, noting that the company had suffered "financial setbacks," and asking for information about "whether Solyndra was the right candidate" for the loan guarantee....The Department of Energy marched on anyway _WSJ

Where did all the money go? Perhaps not surprisingly, Obama's White House is now stonewalling an investigation into the administration's financial connections with the failed solar company.

The solar industry is environmentally dirty, responsible for dumping millions of tons of lead across the Indian and Chinese countryside. In one sense, the bankruptcies of US solar companies are considered a boon for Chinese manufacturers. But in an environmental sense, Chinese production of photovoltaic panels is proving to be a great curse.

In many circles, Obama is being described as the "jobs destroyer in chief." Not only has Mr. Obama's "green jobs revolution" backfired badly, but his entire agenda of energy starvation is creating massive secondary and tertiary downstream destructive effects on job formation.

Keystone XL Pipeline Fights Faux Environmentalist Energy Starvation

The Keystone XL pipeline is meant to carry oil sands crude all the way from Canada to the US Gulf of Mexico coast refineries and terminals. This pipeline will provide deepwater access to Canada's oilsands, as it ramps up in production.

The US State Department has issued a final environmental impact statement, finding no significant environmental impacts from the pipeline. The bureaucratic process for approval of the pipeline is far from exhausted, however. The Obama agenda of energy starvation has barely begun to sink its fangs into Canada's oilsands, US coal, US offshore oil, US kerogens, US nuclear etc. -- despite the risk to the US economy of shutting down virtually all reliable forms of energy.

As for the Keystone XL and other oilsands pipelines -- Most analysts believe that it is the price differential (about $25) between North American oil prices and global oil prices which is driving various pipeline routes to the sea.

Will the pipeline connection to the Gulf Coast simply be a conduit for Canadian oil to be trans-shipped to foreign markets and capture more favorable world pricing? If so, how does that help America?

Or will the flow of 500,000 to 900,000 barrels a day through the Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf Coast be sufficient to bring down bulging inventories of stranded, land-locked oil in Cushing, Oklahoma and eliminate, or at least substantially reduce the huge price spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate?

If it doesn’t, and the over $25-per-barrel spread between U.S. domestic oil prices and world oil prices persists, new pipelines will be built in Canada to provide a more direct connection to global oil markets.

One way or another, it is oil price differentials, not James Hansen’s concerns, which will ultimately determine the flow and direction of oil from Canada’s tar sands. _Globe&Mail

Faux environmentalism is little more than a primal desire to return to a pre-industrial global state. Since such a return would inevitably result in the dieoff of several billion human beings, faux environmentalism is a thinly veiled yearning for a massive reduction of the human population to less than 10% of current levels.

Energy starvation of the developed world is the quickest route to this dieoff. By shifting from reliable forms of energy such as nuclear, coal, gas, etc. in favour of unreliable forms of energy such as big solar and big wind, faux environmentalism is apparently trying to bring about massive poverty, hunger, hardship, disease, and death. Think of that the next time you are solicited by Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, or World Wildlife Fund.

Coal to Syngas; Syngas to Methanol; Methanol to Gasoline

Synthetic fuels from coal, natural gas, biomass etc. will compose a larger share of the transportation fuels market over the next few decades. This will come about due to more economical processes for coal to liquids (CTL), gas to liquids (GTL), biomass to liquids (BTL), etc. combined with a long term trend of rising oil prices.

Ambre Coal to Liquids
The methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process is the prime competitor to the Fischer Tropsch (FT) process, in the conversion of carbonaceous mass to liquid fuels. Ambre Energy of Australia is involved in the clean conversion of low quality coal to high quality liquid fuels, using the Exxon-Mobil methanol-to-gasoline process (PDF).

Methanol is usually synthesised from syngas, a mixture of H2, CO, CO2, methane, etc. Syngas can be produced via gasification of coal, natural gas, biomass, or any other carbonaceous material.

Methanol is used as a feedstock to produce fuels or other chemicals. Methanol can also be used as a fuel itself, or as a fuel additive. Methanol is also finding greater use in methanol fuel cells -- a market that is expected to grow very rapidly over the next several years.

Ambre CTL process
PDF description of Ambre CTL
Ambre is involved in a technical study agreement with Synthesis Energy Systems to develop an improved coal to liquids project which will produce both synthetic gasoline and LPG from methanol.

Better Nuclear Fuels; Better Biomass to Fuels Approach

Conventional nuclear power plants are able to burn only a small fraction of nuclear fuel. They are then forced to store the lion's share of this expensive fuel indefinitely, as "nuclear waste." Far from being waste, most of this unused material is incredibly valuable. How could nuclear reactors burn fuel more efficiently? Two candidates suggest themselves: thorium and depleted uranium, burned in safe, advanced breeder reactors.

Los Alamos National Labs has devised a new approach for refining thorium for nuclear fuel, which shaves almost 99.5% of the cost of processing -- reducing the cost from $5000 a kg to only $30 per kg. This LANL breakthrough is just one of several which will be necessary, before thorium can become the dominant nuclear fuel.

NextBigFuture presents an exclusive interview with Robert Petroski -- engineer for the Terrapower "traveling wave reactor" approach being spurred by Bill Gates and other Microsoft luminaries. Petroski discusses how abundant depleted uranium -- U238 -- can be used efficiently in advanced nuclear reactors, to replace the more rare and expensive fuels which rely on highly refined U235.

These breeder reactor approaches use much cheaper and safer fuels than are used in conventional reactors, and burn them almost completely, with far less waste left over. If all the money being thrown down the rat hole by governments for programs of carbon hysteria -- big wind, big solar, climate hysteria bureaucracies, etc -- were devoted to more rational energy strategies, these advanced nuclear approaches could stave off global energy shortages for many centuries or longer.

More: The Integral Fast Reactor has much in common with the evolving Terrapower approach. It is another approach to burning almost 100% of nuclear fuel -- primarily depleted uranium.

And for those who would like to believe in biofuels, but who cannot separate the idea of biofuels from the wasteful green agendas of the Obamas, Merkels, etc. -- there is the up and coming IH2 technology from CRI Catalyst. IH2 is "integrated hydropyrolysis and hydroconversion," an advanced biomass-to-liquid fuels approach which has been covered favourably at Al Fin Energy in the past.

Now New Zealand algae company Aquaflow is working with CRI Catalyst of Texas, to efficiently convert algal biomass to liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Prolific species of algae are far more easily grown for their biomass -- at very high rates. Contrast such cheap and dirty high-yield algal biomass production with the more expensive, finicky, and complex process of trying to grow algae for oil production. All that was missing was a practical way of converting prolific algal biomass into valuable liquid fuels -- and IH2 appears to be a promising approach.

Advanced pyrolysis and hydro-treatment of biomass is not as sexy as breeder reactors, of course, but far more practical for decentralised production almost anywhere on Earth -- at a far cheaper price than nuclear reactors would cost.

It is good to know that science and engineering are working on several different fronts to provide the abundant energy that the future will demand.

Who Will Ride the Gas-to-Oil Price Differential to Riches?

There is always big money to be made in substituting a lower cost feedstock or commodity for a higher priced one. The obvious big money substitution opportunity in the energy field, is the substitution of low cost natural gas for high priced oil. Natural gas is difficult to transport globally, unless it is transformed into a denser liquid form, such as LPG or GTL. The more economical the transformation process to liquids, the more money that can be made.

NYT
Shell's gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology is producing high value hydrocarbon fuel and chemicals in Qatar and in Malaysia. But it is very expensive to build large scale GTL plants based on this technology, which limits entry into the field. As the technology proves itself in the market, other big players are likely to step in.

Sasol and PetroSA have GTL plants in South Africa, where rich shale gas fields are coming under development. Shell is moving into those gas fields, and may be thinking about opening its own GTL plant in South Africa, if it can deal with the government corruption.

applications of excess product. Primarily, natural gas is used as feedstock for the Gas To Liquid process. The GTL process converts natural gas to synthetic fuels. This has proven to be far more profitable product for oil/energy and exploration companies to supply into the energy markets. There are currently only two plants in SA capable of refining natural gas to liquid petroleum products. Sasol has its GTL plant located in Secunda and PetroSA has its plant in Mosselbay. _CBN

Australian companies are looking at building GTL plants to take advantage of large gas deposits there, but are somewhat daunted by the high cost of entry. The uncertainty of long term oil prices also causes planners to hesitate.

"Higher oil prices provide the incentive to look at ways and means of producing synthetic fuels, other than simply refining crude oil," Mr Wendt told AAP.

However, he says a major barrier is the high price of setting up a processing plant to make a product that is a commercial alternative to oil-based fuels.

It would cost $1 billion or $2 billion to build a plant that produces synthetic diesel at $40 or $50 a barrel.

But if the price of oil drops dramatically, people won't buy the synthetic product, leaving the owner of the plant unable to get a return on the investment, Mr Wendt said. _ninemsn

There is also debate in Alaska about turning North Slope gas into more lucrative liquid fuels. One of the problems is deciding on the best chemical approach to the transformation of gas to liquid fuel.

For a number of years there has been discussion of the potential to convert North Slope gas to diesel fuel on the North Slope using a process called gas to liquids, or GTL, and then shipping the diesel fuel down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. The core of the GTL process is the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, a chemical process first used in Germany in 1936 to produce synthetic liquid fuel. However, a study of the relative costs of the Fischer-Tropsch process and MTG has indicated that it is significantly cheaper to produce a given volume of fuels with MTG than with Fischer-Tropsch, while the gasoline produced from MTG has a higher value and quality than the diesel from GTL, Van Wijk said. _PetroleumNews

The Oxford Catalyst microchannel Fischer Tropsch GTL approach is just getting started, commercially, but is already receiving "buy" recommendations from Charles Stanley -- assuming the investor possesses abundant intestinal fortitude and staying power.

One of the largest driving forces behind the drop in natural gas prices -- and the opportunity to take advantage of the gas-oil price differential -- is the recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking technologies. Gas and oil trapped within shale has existed for eons, only waiting for a species intelligent enough to go in and get it.

The image above provides a modest comparison of the relative quantities of energy which are potentially available from conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons. Note the gas to liquids, coal to liquids, and kerogen to liquids potential. It is all about finding the best and most economical ways to liberate the hydrocarbons in high-value form.

Summary of gas-to-liquids technologies

Biofuels News

Huber-Wyman Aqueous Phase Hydrodeoxygenation
The simple process pictured above comes from researchers at UM Amherst and UC Riverside. It is an example of a relatively economical thermochemical approach to producing fuels from cellulosic biomass. Yields need improving, but give them time.

Meanwhile, Tulane U. researchers have discovered a mysterious bacterium they have dubbed "TU-103", which can produce butanol directly from newspaper biomass. The designation is apt for some type of secret weapon, and if the bacterium can provide economical yields, it may very well turn out to be just that. More here

Meanwhile, University of Wisconsin researchers have developed a process for producing potentially high-value furan derivatives from biomass. They are using a new type of solvent -- alkylphenols -- to help accomplish the sugar extraction phase.

US government investment into biofuels is ramping up, as is some private sector financing. Even the private sectors of Europe and North America are financing advanced biofuels research -- despite an ongoing global financial downturn.

There is abundant waste biomass in advanced nations -- from municipal waste, agricultural waste, forestry waste, etc. But for advanced biofuels to take an appreciable proportion of the fuels and chemicals markets away from petroleum, dedicated biomass crops must be available at economical costs and in plentiful supplies.

The most prolific type of biomass -- and the only type of biomass that can grow in abundance over at least 80% of the Earth's surface -- is algae (micro and macro). While the focus has long been placed on algal oils, it is algal biomass which offers the earliest promise for reduced cost / high yield advanced biofuels. Eventually it will be economical to utilise both algal oils and algal biomass for advanced biofuels.

The point of Al Fin Energy's biofuels coverage is to point out that the research and the infrastructure-building have barely begun to get started. Just as one cannot judge the potential of a human being's life work while he is still in the womb, one cannot judge the ultimate impact of advanced biofuels at this early stage.

Too many analysts confuse biofuels with wind and solar, and put them all into the same category of delusional green fantasies. That is a mistake, a rookie mistake. Try not to fall into that trap.

Potholes on the Road to Peak Oil

What did Hubbert and Simmons miss?

Hubbert came out with the whole concept and Matt Simmons really popularized it five to six years ago. What’s important to understand is it didn’t take into account the unconventional potential and the improvements in technology. Unconventional oil and gas projects like the oil sands in Canada and the shale projects in the US are all now major sources of oil and gas, whereas 20 years ago they were concepts or in early-stage development. Five years ago, no one thought that there would be unconventional shale production in Europe. Well, it’s starting now and that’s going to change the energy dependence of European countries on Russian natural gas.

What’s important to understand is that there is new technology coming on board that ten years ago wasn’t even conceptualized yet; now they’re producing, and in 20 years who knows what there will be. An investor must be aware of the changes, but also be careful not to get caught investing in someone’s science project. _Marin Katusa _ on _ HoweStreet

Al Fin energy analysts say that the biggest problem with the idea of peak oil, is that no one can agree on its definition. That makes it quite difficult to discuss intelligently, since it has become such a vapourous circular tug.

Which is in control: Supply or Demand?

This reality of "peak oil is already here" is presently not a supply-side phenomenon, but is demand driven...

..."Stranded" gas and unconventional gas are abundant. These are the two rational fossil energy great hopes. Oil will stay expensive, in all probability, but gas will certainly get cheaper. New gas resources and supply are given massive coverage by the IEA - and the EIA has no ideological problems with this particular IEA policy stance !

The real world shows no hint of looming peak gas. Supplies have gone through the roof, only since 2008, due to increasing development of massive "stranded" or gas-only fields such as Russia's Shtokman field and Iran's Pars field, and particularly because of new technology for releasing gas trapped in tight shale formations. Shale-based gas production, usually from resources located more than a mile underground, uses hydro fracturing to release the gas - to be sure with relatively frequent but controllable waterbody pollution of "frac job" chemicals and wastes.

Due to at least 40 percent of world oil being used only in transport (and most of this in land and ocean transport), gas substitution is the clearest, simplest, most rational energy policy change that is needed. _MarketOracle

The author of the Market Oracle piece doesn't discuss gas-to-liquids (GTL), but new technologies of GTL (plus CTL, BTL, KTL etc) are likely to tear up the peak oil highway with a vengeance.

Peak manpower: the sobering reality of limitations of conventional energy supplies.

...large accumulations of oil are getting harder and harder to find. They are in more remote locations, more challenging areas. That is also requiring more sophisticated technologies and more and more intellectual power to be invested in being able to identify where those resources are. When discoveries are made, these challenges only get bigger. It becomes a question of how to ultimately get these resources to market to feed the world's energy demand. So the peak is really a combination of one, making those new large discoveries (is more difficult), requiring more investment, more technology, more human intellectual capacity to find that oil, and two, rise in prices as a consequence. If it takes more capital, more people, more time, to produce the hydrocarbons the world needs then the ultimate impact of the peak will be higher prices in order to maintain the balance between supply and demand. Prices will have to go up to attract the financial capital, attract the technology investment and the people to define, develop and deliver the energy needs. _Brad Lingo Interview at OilVoice

The manpower shortage is not just about growing shortages of skilled oil field workers, engineers, geologists, and managers. It is about the growing shortages of skilled workers, engineers, and managers in all of the many fields which support and supply the oil industry. This growing crucial shortage is a reflection of a global demographic crisis, which is covered frequently at the Al Fin blog.

Have the Peak Oil theories all been proven wrong?

As far as the problem of drilling oil and gas at economic rates is concerned, technology has come handy. With the help of horizontal drilling and other innovations, shale gas production in the United States has skyrocketed from virtually nothing to 20% of the US natural gas supply in less than a decade. By 2040, it could account for more than half of it. Further when it comes to onshore oil production, the peak oil theories have all been proven wrong. _EquityMaster

Unfortunately, peak oil theories are harder to pin down than the HIV AIDS virus. Slippery and amorphous, as labile as a borderline personality crack whore. There is no definition of peak oil that can stand on its own, although every peak oil believer thinks that he understands what he spends so much time and emotion arguing about. And the more definitions which are piled on, the more amorphous the conceptual structure becomes.

The simple truisms that: 1. The world has only a finite supply of mineral resources, and 2. Oil fields begin to deplete as soon as production begins, appear to be the subconscious foundations of peak oil belief. But are these trite and obvious axioms solid enough to support the alarmism and rampant doomism which rolls along with the peak oil convoys?

You have to decide that for yourself.

Brazil Not Wasting Time Developing Huge Offshore Resources

Image Source
While the US Obama administration carries on a de facto offshore oil moratorium, Brazil is rushing to develop its own vast offshore petroleum resources. Brazil is spending over $220 billion in an attempt to almost triple its offshore production from over 2 million bpd to over 6 million bpd in 2020. Brazil's oil industry faces tremendous challenges, working far offshore and deep under the surface.

...the technical and logistical challenges involved in tapping this oil are immense – the oil is under a layer of salt as far below the waves as commercial jetliners cruise above them. As a result, Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant with a 30% stake in all sub-salt concessions, predicts that between 2011-2015, it will make $224.7 billion in investments – $127.5 billion of which is for exploration and production.

The fruits of those investments are already visible in the floating frontier towns.

“It is really impressive what is out here, 100km off the shore,” said Willem Van Beek, a Dutch “mud engineer” who drills the wells, from an oil platform at Espiríto Santos Basin recently. “It’s like a complete offshore city. You see thousands and thousands of lights.”

With reserves this big, Brazil is experiencing an oil boom: 50,000 people were at the Brazil Offshore bi-annual conference in the oil town of Macaé, in June this year. “Brazil is the biggest new front for oil in the world,” said Petrobras CEO José Gabrielli.

...Brazil’s platforms and rigs sit above 2,000 meters of water. The oil is anywhere between 2,000-7,000 meters below the sea bed and to get to it, engineers must drill through clay, then a variety of geographical formations like shale or calcium carbonate, before they hit a thick later of salt that can be thousands of meters thick.

“You have to develop new technology,” says Norman Gall, Executive Director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economy (Instituto Fernand Braudel de Economia Mundial) in São Paulo, and a sub-salt expert. “You have to deal with processing the oil at these depths. You have all of these problems. That’s why it’s so expensive.”

...at depths like these, the water is close to freezing. “The temperature changes the viscosity of the drilling fluid,” says Van Beek. This, in turn, affects the oil, which is “very thick, like a syrup. The way to make it more fluid is by heating it up. They do injection wells. When you produce oil you produce gas. The gas is on top of the oil, so you pump it back in at the bottom of the reservoir and it forces the oil up.”

...The goal now is to move this processing under the sea. At its research centers like the giant CENPES, at the Federal University of Rio, Petrobras is developing technology to separate oil from water, gas and water on the seabed as part of a move to completely automate processing. Carlos Fraga, CENPES executive manager, told Brazil’s Valor Econômico newspaper that he would like to eliminate the need production platforms within a decade.

FMC Technologies plans to start operating a sub-sea separation unit for Petrobras in the Marlim Field, in the Campos Basin, later this year. “This is new technology, and these systems are supposed to run for 20 years, which is the life of an oil field,” says Gall. _Txchnologist

And still, Petrobras continues its intensive exploration for new resources

The ramp-up in production of Brazil's offshore parallels increased production slated for Canada's oil sands. Between the two developments, an increase of almost 10 million bpd is expected by close to 2020. If Venezuela could get rid of Hugo Chavez and allow international oilcos to develop its heavy oil deposits, another 5 million boepd could conceivably be added, if they started right away. And if the US could get rid of President Obama and his Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar, they could add another 5 million bpd by 2020 without too much trouble, using all available resources -- including kerogens, CTL, GTL, and offshore oil.

Combining these increases would yield an extra 20 million bpd in an energy climate where many analysts believed that oil production had peaked at around 85 million bpd in 2008. Realistically, of course, the western hemisphere will be lucky to add 10 million bpd to current production, due to political, manpower, technological, and logistical limitations. Particularly if the incompetents, Chavez and Obama, continue in office for several more years.

USGS: Massive Upgrading Of Marcellus Shale Gas Reserves

Marcellus via GCC
It is to be expected that as better technology and better data about oil & gas reservoir fields comes available, that large new fields will be found, and existing fields will prove to have greater capacity than at first conservatively believed. That is the case, according to the USGS, with the Marcellus Shale formation pictured above.

The Marcellus Shale contains about 84.198 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas and 3.379 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas liquids, according to a new geology-based assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS). Technically recoverable oil and gas resources are those quantities of oil and gas producible using currently available technology and industry practices, regardless of economic or accessibility considerations.

These gas estimates are significantly higher than the last USGS assessment of the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian Basin in 2002, which estimated a mean of about 2 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCF) and 0.01 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

The increase in undiscovered, technically recoverable resource is due to new geologic information and engineering data, as technological developments in producing unconventional resources (e.g., the fracking boom) have been significant in the last decade, USGS says. _Marcellus Shale Gas Upgrade

Life has been present on planet Earth for almost 4 billion years. Given the plots of historical rises in O2 and drops in CO2, it should be clear that most of the bio-petroleum formation occurred long before the eras of the geologic basins which are being tapped for oil & gas currently. This means that the greatest amount of the world's hydrocarbon resource, by a wide margin, remains undiscovered.

Here's to improved geologic data.

Explosive News: Waterless In Situ Extraction of Oil Shale Kerogens

Eco-Shale Technology

The EcoShale™ In-Capsule Technology involves heating mined shale in a closed surface impoundment, or capsule. The process relies on conventional mining and construction methods and produces a bottomless oil product that requires no coking. The process produces a shale oil with a much higher concentration of middle distillate than West Texas intermediate crude. Two synthetic shale oil products are produced: (1) prompt oil of approximately 29 API gravity; (2) condensate oil of approximately 39 API gravity. The oil and condensate produced with this process have no fines and have very low acid numbers.

The technology requires no process water, protects groundwater and vegetation, uses low temperatures for heating and allows for rapid site reclamation.

The resultant product is a high quality feedstock with an average 34 API and no fines. The process also results in synthetic natural gas production allowing for energy self-sufficiency. _EcoShale

...the Uinta Basin is the site of the massive Eocene Green River Shale formation – potentially the largest reservoir of unconventional petroleum in the world. With total reserves estimated at up to 1.3 trillion barrels, and ultimately recoverable reserves of 800 billion barrels or more , this formation holds three times or more the amount of Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves. Unlocking this formation would change the energy outlook of the nation – and of the world – for a century or more.

Today, TomCo has announced that it has awarded contacts toward the development of this resource. _Source

World Oil
Reserves of oil shale kerogens in the western US states is massive -- far larger than the huge proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Now a technology exists which can liberate these vast trapped energy reserves without using water or contaminating groundwater. Using this waterless in situ approach, the scenic appearance of these majestic western drylands will be unaffected, and the environmental quality of the region will be preserved.

The use of nuclear process heat from gas-cooled reactors is yet another waterless in situ approach to the environmentally sound liberation of oil shale kerogens. Raytheon's microwave approach -- powered by nuclear generated electricity -- is yet another viable approach to the valuable resource.

It is almost impossible for most persons to envision the economic impact of the introduction of these vast energy resources into world energy markets. Far more resources are devoted by the Obama administration to shutting down the liberation of North America's vast energy stores, than to making the production of energy cleaner and more economical.

Mr. Obama's approach has always been one of energy starvation, rather than energy facilitation. That is just one of the several nearly insurmountable obstacles to prosperity which the US economy currently faces, and for which Mr. Obama can take direct credit -- if only he would.

Cross-posted and adapted from an article posted to Al Fin

Virent Biogasoline Passes Euro-Fleet Test, Phase 1

The Virent BioForming premium gasoline blendstock has a molecular composition identical to fuel made at a petroleum refinery. The sugars can be sourced from conventional biofuel feedstocks such as sugar beets, corn and sugar cane, or as proven recently, from cellulosic biomass like corn stover and pine residuals. _GCC

Virent via GCC
Virent is working with investor Royal Dutch Shell to develop a top quality biologically derived drop-in substitute for gasoline. The catalytic process takes place at relatively low temperatures. The product is apparently doing well in European fleet testing so far.

Virent’s BioForming platform (earlier post) is a catalytic, low-temperature (180°–260° C) process that can produce drop-in hydrocarbon fuels from plant-based sugars. BioForming combines Virent’s Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) technology...with conventional catalytic processing technologies such as catalytic hydrotreating and catalytic condensation processes, including ZSM-5 acid condensation, base catalyzed condensation, acid catalyzed dehydration, and alkylation.

Similar to a conventional petroleum refinery, each of these process steps in the BioForming platform can be optimized and modified to produce a particular slate of desired hydrocarbon products. For example, a biogasoline product can be produced using a zeolite (ZSM-5) based process, jet fuel and diesel can be produced using a base catalyzed condensation route, and a high octane fuel can be produced using a dehydration/oligomerization route. _GCC

The economic viability of the process will depend upon feedstock prices and on catalytic efficiencies and yield.

Obama Uses EPA to Shut Down More Energy and Jobs

The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, announced last month, will affect coal-fired electric plants in at least 27 midwestern and eastern states. Set to take effect next year, the rule could shutter up to a fifth of the nation’s generating capacity. _NYP

New EPA rules define carbon dioxide as a pollutant. This erroneous definition allows the US government agency to adopt drastic and economically damaging new emission rules. The destructive new rules are driven by high-level carbon hysteria -- the fear of carbon dioxide. They are also driven by the antipathy of Mr. Obama and his administration toward coal, and toward large scale energy consumption of US society in general.

Mr. Obama has always intended to bankrupt coal plants and coal mines, forcing them to shut down and fire workers. The short video above is from a campaign appearance in San Francisco, appealing for funding from wealthy backers with faux environmentalist tnedencies.

If these regulations were actually about coal-caused pollution, many of the plants which are due to be shut down could be converted to burning torrefied biomass -- as opposed to conventional biomass -- at minimal or no cost of conversion.

“If you have a 500-MW plant, to retrofit it to also use wood pellets would cost about $300 million,” Morihara says. “If you use torrefied biomass, there is no retrofitting cost. For its Btu content, torrefied biomass may cost 20 percent more, but it has 20 percent more energy so the cost is actually very similar.” _Biomass

A large number of coal plants in Europe are beginning to use torrefied biomass, as well as cofiring conventional biomass with coal. US plants are ramping up experience to do the same. But the impetuous plant closings by the EPA, with the consequent energy shortages, price increases, and economic slowdowns which will result, will make it more difficult to transition to biomass and torrefied biomass. How much easier if the EPA had cooperated with industry to facilitate a smooth transition?

In other words, if the EPA rules and regulations were about cleaning the environment and reducing coal burning, the EPA could have scheduled the rules to allow the biomass and torrefaction industries to scale up to displace coal consumption.

Global Oil Prices Likely to Drop for Multiple Reasons

Restoration of Libyan oil production likely to put downward pressure on overinflated Brent prices

Italian oilco Eni appears to be the first player likely to profit from a regime change in Tripoli

Ongoing problems in the European economy likely to reduce Euro oil demand even further

Economic problems of Europe and the US likely to impact BRICS adversely

Corrupt oil dictatorships such as Venezuela, Iran, Russia, etc. likely to suffer disproportionately due to overdependence on energy exports. Russia's problems go even deeper, into the core population's inability to sustain its own numbers

The global economy is increasingly an unstable house of cards, threatened by both debt and demography across the advanced world. Bad national leadership -- from the US to Russia to the EU -- is preventing the global economy from instituting crucial political and economic reforms.

The oil markets are particularly untrustworthy at this point in time, subject to powerful undertows and manipulations from powerful players, politicians, and investors. Do not bet your shirt on a belief in the monotonic increase in oil prices over time.

As long as oil prices remain close to $80 a barrel or higher, there will be a strong incentive for more oil production from multiple sources -- including unconventionals such as CTL, GTL, BTL, and KTL (kerogens to liquids). Despite the politically correct protests against the Canada oil sands pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico, Keystone XL, the pipeline is likely to be built. If the Obama regime rejects the pipeline in keeping with its "energy starvation" agenda, the administration that replaces Obama in 2013 will certainly approve the project.