Just in case... ;)
Interesting post.
This guy should be a Freeper.
This idea is actually closely-related to what Shell is working on for their oil shale extraction program. If they can make it economical supposedly pumped-out oilfields could become productive again. In short, the march of technology could hurt OPEC down the road.
Wow! I love the possibilities.
How does the energy input compare with the oil extract?
Just in case... ;)
Frequency I understand, and vacuum in a laboratory is no problem, but how do you pull a vacuum (how much of a vacuum?) in an underground area the size of an oil well ?
Great, now the enviros can complain about stray microwaves frying us all.
ping for later
A somewhat related subject : growing mounds of old rubber tires. Once in a Popular Science(or Mechanics)article, I read about a couple of guys down south somewhere that had worked out this process : cut the tires up into small chunks, then drop them into a bath of liquid lead. The steel cords drop to the bottom and the rubber molecules, as froth, come to the top. Thus you skim off the froth as feed stock for new tires. Sounded like it might work as a rubber tire recycling process, instead of just burying them in these ever growing mountains of old tires. Recycling old tires, like old oil fields is GREAT, if it's economically viable. Does anyone here know any thing more about this idea?
It is interesting. And it is more evidence that Yankee ingenuity will prevail, *if* the idiot guberment will just quit getting in the way.
Geez. If commercial quantities of oil could be recovered from a majority of those wells, I would think we'd be looking at some significant reserves. Particularly if we extapolate that to include abandoned wells in the rest of the country.
Dang! All I got to tell y'all is whatever you do don't cut a bike tire up and try cooking it in a bowl in your microwave thinking you'll get oil. It don't work, even when you cut a hole in the top and stick a vacuum hose in. It just makes an awful mess and you can't hardly put that tire out when it catches fire.
Pyrite, hematite, limonite, ilmenite, rutile...Could be interesting down there. Hope he choses his formations carefully or the accessory minerals might make things difficult. Worth keeping tabs on, though. Thanks, thackney.