Posted on 12/20/2009 2:40:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Washington, D.C. are reporting laboratory evidence supporting the possibility that some of Earth's oil and natural gas may have formed in a way much different than the traditional process described in science textbooks.
Their study is scheduled for Nov./Dec. issue of ACS' Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly publication. Anurag Sharma and colleagues note that the traditional process involves biology: Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth's surface. Some scientists, however, believe that oil and gas originated in other ways, including chemical reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen below Earth' surface.
The new study describes a test of that idea, which dates to at least 1877 and famous Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeelev. They combined ingredients for this so-called abiotic synthesis of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, in a diamond-anvil cell and monitored in-situ the progress of the reaction. The diamond anvils can generate high pressures and temperatures similar to those that occur deep below Earth's surface and allow for in-situ optical spectroscopy at the extreme environments.
The results "strongly suggest" that some methane could form strictly from chemical reactions in a variety of chemical environments. This study further highlights the role of reaction pathways and fluid immiscibility in the extent of hydrocarbon formation at extreme conditions simulating deep subsurface.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Oil Without Dinosaurs ?
The familiar tale is that “Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth’s surface.”
The debunking in this Nov. 6 article actually “un-debunks” an old idea from the 19th century that methane and other hydrocarbons might be produced abiotically, without fossil fuels.
Long-held beliefs such as these are being overturned, after being held as “scientific truth” for decades or centuries.
Which brings up an interesting question -— How do we know that today’s current dogmas are invulnerable to turnarounds? A future discovery might even debunk the debunkers in these stories – some of whom debunked earlier debunkers.
Condemned civilization grasping at straws.
Kill them kill them all. Who are they?
Oil: The new renewable energy source.
I have heard this before from oilmen, and it makes sense.
It never did make sense to me, a non-oilperson and certainly not a chemist or biologist, that all oil came from multi-million-year-old organic matters ‘sandwiched’ between rock.
How could that happen? The rock would have to form, and that would takes thousands of years, and the organic matter didn’t rot away and disappear in those thousands of years?
By the time the rock formed any organic matter would have been long gone.It also means that oil is continually being made, or generated.
“The new study describes a test of that idea, which dates to at least 1877 and famous Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeelev.”
An nobody looked at this again until now? What are we spending our research dollars on the mating positions
of horses?
The familiar tale is that “Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth’s surface.”
Where and when did this come from and how is it supported?
It’s what I grew up hearing but it seems to make little sense.
Saudis, Iranians and Russians worst fears. Time to put the Donovan back in the hot rod?
How did dinosaurs get to Jupiter to make their methane seas?
Yes, of course /sarc.
It is not dinosaur dung, where the heck were they roaming off the coast of Brazil 5 to 7 miles down.
Actually this is a pretty viable theory. The Russians have developed several deep fields. Rotting dinosaurs can maybe explain some oil, but is an absurd theory for oil under several thousand feet of rock.
BP recently hit a major pool about 200 miles off Houston, in the gulf, beneath 2000 feet of water and something like 12,000 feet of Gulf seafloor. No way to explain how old dinosaurs and rotting swampgrass got there.
The major support for the dinosaur theory may simply be that it permits the “peak oil” crisis, much like the “global warming” crisis. In other words a rationale for the government controlling energy because “it is running out.”
Maybe the end of oil is a variation on Algore theology.
Actually this is a pretty viable theory. The Russians have developed several deep fields. Rotting dinosaurs can maybe explain some oil, but is an absurd theory for oil under several thousand feet of rock.
BP recently hit a major pool about 200 miles off Houston, in the gulf, beneath 2000 feet of water and something like 12,000 feet of Gulf seafloor. No way to explain how old dinosaurs and rotting swampgrass got there.
The major support for the dinosaur theory may simply be that it permits the “peak oil” crisis, much like the “global warming” crisis. In other words a rationale for the government controlling energy because “it is running out.”
Maybe the end of oil is a variation on Algore theology.
That would put in serious doubt "Peak Oil"
There is a process whereby a types of bacteria called methanogens can synthesize methane using C02 and H2 underground.
Wells have been drilled to depts of 38,000 ft.
Imagine how high that is when you think “up” instead of “down”. Where the jets fly.
So my question when I read of the well that deep was “How the hell did the dinosaur or plant refuse get down there?
Geologist I am not. The most boring course I ever had in my life, but common sense tells you they would have to dig like mad!!!!
btt
“Some scientists, however, believe that oil and gas originated in other ways, including chemical reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen below Earth’ surface.”
Oh, come on. Rosie O’Donnell herself will tell you there’s no way carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen can turn into gas and oil.
This could explain why oil is present when old wells are reopened?
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