There ain’t no such animal as “fossil fuel”. Petroleum is formed, for the most part, by abiotic means.
At the boundary layer between the earth’s outer stony crust and the molten mantle beneath, lies the Mohorovičić discontinuity, a vast chemical factory that generates a surprising number of hydrocarbon compounds on a continuing basis. Under the extreme conditions of heat and pressure, water is split into free hydrogen, and carbon dioxide acts as a liquid solvent. The free hydrogen then attaches to the carbon dioxide molecule, forcing off the oxygen and forming a methane molecule. Now for those of you who flunked chemistry in high school, the rest of this discussion is going to look like babbling and magical incantations, but it is very real. Under the continued pressure and heat, the methane molecules are converted, in the presence of certain metallic elements known as catalysts, into longer and longer carbon chains, and distilled by the constant heat source upwards, into the rocky crust above, where the hydrocarbon compounds are trapped in the interstices between the compounds that make up the rocks, mostly silicates of some kind. Sometimes, great pockets of these hydrocarbon compounds form into gaps between the rock layers, and a petroleum well is formed, which humanity has learned how to extract, by drilling into these pockets, and with the internal pressure of the natural gas that is also a part of the mix of hydrocarbons, the whole mix is forced out of the well, in a “gusher”. The shower of hydrocarbons is collected, and by fractional distillation, is rendered into all the oils, waxes, fuels and raw materials for the manufacture of plastics, that grace our world with prosperity today.
Now this process of hydrocarbon formation at the Mohorovičić discontinuity is an ongoing process, which explains why some supposedly “dry” oil wells replenish and begin producing years later. We will NEVER run out of petroleum, the myth of “peak petroleum” is just that, a myth. And if need be, we can PRODUCE a pretty good grade of crude oil, known as kerogen, by a process known as thermal depolymerization. Take a quantity of organic materials, whether it be lawn clippings, lumberyard waste, sewage, turkey intestines, or whatever, put it in a retort with enough water to make a slurry, and heat it at temperatures of about 600 degrees Fahrenheit for about four to six hours under pressures of six times normal atmospheric pressure, and the yield is kerogen, the composition depending on what the original organic material was. We need never run out of petroleum, and the products made from it, not ever. We shall be using these products for as long as civilization and technology continue to exist.
“Take a quantity of organic materials, whether it be lawn clippings, lumberyard waste, sewage, turkey intestines, or whatever, put it in a retort with enough water to make a slurry, and heat it at temperatures of about 600 degrees Fahrenheit for about four to six hours under pressures of six times normal atmospheric pressure, and the yield is kerogen, the composition depending on what the original organic material was. “
Would that produce a net positive amount of energy?