Posted on 11/17/2004 10:25:10 AM PST by cogitator
Researchers at Luca Technologies have made a discovery regarding natural gas production in Wyoming's Powder River Basin that could lead to a renewable source of energy for generations to come.
The company today announced that laboratory evidence shows that the Powder River Basin (PRB) coals are generating natural gas in real time through the ongoing activity of anaerobic microbes (bacteria that live in the absence of oxygen) resident in those coal fields.
The company has termed sites where this microbial conversion of hydrocarbon deposits (coals, organic shales, or oil) to methane occurs "Geobioreactors," and believes the careful management of such sites may offer a new long-term solution to U.S. energy needs.
Robert Pfeiffer, LUCA Technologies president and chief executive officer commented, "Our research on native coal, water and microbial samples from the PRB has determined that PRB coals can produce natural gas in real time."
"This finding suggests that the gas in the PRB need not be an ancient remnant of microbial activity, as generally believed, but instead is being actively created today."
"Moreover, we can increase or decrease methane production by PRB microbes by altering their access to water or nutrients, or halt gas production entirely by exposing the organisms to oxygen or heat sterilization."
"This finding holds the potential of turning what is today thought to be a finite energy resource into a renewable source of natural gas that could potentially go on for hundreds of years."
LUCA believes that in order to attempt to maximize the ultimate recovery of methane from this potentially enormous natural energy resource it will be necessary to amend certain current operating practices as well as review current legal and regulatory underpinnings of energy development.
The company is currently discussing its findings with Wyoming and U.S. national agencies, as well as with major energy companies working in the PRB region.
Microbial Methane Production from Coal
It has long been known that certain ancient microorganisms are "methanogens" -- microbes that generate methane by metabolizing other hydrocarbon sources.
While it has also been generally accepted that much of the methane resident in coal fields was produced by such organisms, most of this production was thought to have occurred millions of years ago, when the hydrocarbon deposits were less mature and closer to the surface of the earth.
More recently, however, research has suggested that living methanogenic organisms may be present and actively forming methane within some major coalfields. LUCA scientists, employing the tools of modern biotechnology and genomics, have confirmed the presence of such microbes within anaerobic core samples from the PRB.
In addition to demonstrating that methane production by these microbes can be stimulated by the introduction of additional nutrient compounds, or suppressed by heat sterilization or the introduction of oxygen, LUCA has shown that radio-labeled CO2 (carbon dioxide) introduced to these PWB core samples is converted to radio-labeled methane.
This demonstrates that the methane formation is the result of a biological process occurring today.
"The United States has enormous amounts of buried hydrocarbon reserves, many of which cannot be extracted in an economically or environmentally benign fashion with current technologies and production practices," said Mr. Pfeiffer.
"Any of these settings, given the right set of conditions, has the potential to produce biogenic methane in a long-term, sustainable fashion."
One thing interesting about H2S; you can smell it at low concentrations in the air. At higher concentrations (above 50 ppm going on memory), it cannot be smelt, and that's when it becomes lethal to inhale.
I have a friend who is able to produce methane in real time...
Ping
Fart bump
Manipulating the genes of these microbes to make other versions could revolutionize refineing.. and make petro-refineing instead petro-brewing.. Just give those little fellas some powdered coal and other "stuff' and VOILA gasoline.. instead of BEER.. or diesle fuel or even crude oil.. Would be cool... instead of a fuel cell you could brew your OWN gasoline or natural gas.. in your garage...
Obvious crude oil and methane are waste products for these little guys..
Reminds me of a story I told some of my grandchildren when they asked me one time what I was drinking.. I said beer.. They said "WHats BEER...", and having had just enough beer to make me more intelligent, I SAID..
Well beer is whats left after some little creatures called "yeasties".. eat all the sugar in some stuff called "malt stuff".. and poop out alcohol and some gas.. and what left is called beer.. and old men drink it...
They said, "Ewwwwwwwwe" all together at the same time... took me a few minutes to recover... as you can well imagine.. d;-'
There is an immense supply of gas under the senate and house buildings. If it were tapped...look out!
Kimchee, Raineer beer, and balut......all the natural gas you need.
Yeah, but can he produce methane at will? I've got a brother that can virtually pass a breezer on command. And it ain't the colorless odorless type either. I swear I've seen the cloud ;^)
FGS
I agree -- encouraging development.
It is worth pouring money into to determine the truth.
Didn't our God create a marvelous system? Men think they are sooooo smart, yet God just keeps on providing for them and hardly ever gets thanked for it.
"Real time"...as opposed to what?
Ping for later
BTT!!!!!!!
There are already natural gas (methane) powered cars out there. There are natural-gas powered Ford Contours around and I do believe they also currently make natural-gas powered Ford Tauruses.
As opposed to all natural gas deposits being paleo-generated (created in the distant past) -- with no active formation of natural gas occurring in the modern era, i.e., now.
"there is not a lower impact on the environment natural resource that I can think of"
I heard that the natural-gas powered vehicles burn so clean that the engine oil never even starts turning dark. 10,000 miles and the oil still looks like it was just poured from the bottle.
Yes. According to the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, the local electric company, 30% of the electricity they distribute comes from natural gas, and that figure is expected to increase.
Natural gas is a variable mixture of those gases, plus others, listed in reply 15.
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