Posted on 08/09/2010 11:25:41 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle —the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of the core.
The research was conducted by scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues from Russia and Sweden, and is published in the July 26, advanced online issue of Nature Geoscience.
Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, while ethane (C2H6) is used as a petrochemical feedstock. Both of these hydrocarbons, and others associated with fuel, are called saturated hydrocarbons because they have simple, single bonds and are saturated with hydrogen. Using a diamond anvil cell and a laser heat source, the scientists first subjected methane to pressures exceeding 20 thousand times the atmospheric pressure at sea level and temperatures ranging from 1,300 F° to over 2,240 F°. These conditions mimic those found 40 to 95 miles deep inside the Earth. The methane reacted and formed ethane, propane, butane, molecular hydrogen, and graphite. The scientists then subjected ethane to the same conditions and it produced methane. The transformations suggest heavier hydrocarbons could exist deep down. The reversibility implies that the synthesis of saturated hydrocarbons is thermodynamically controlled and does not require organic matter.
The scientists ruled out the possibility that catalysts used as part of the experimental apparatus were at work, but they acknowledge that catalysts could be involved in the deep Earth with its mix of compounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Oil is a renewable energy source?
Of course oil is renewable — it’s just a matter of how long the process takes.
Abiotic Synthesis Of Methane: New Evidence Supports 19th-Century Idea On Formation Of Oil
posted on FR Sun 20 Dec 2009 02:40:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Also a proponent of Peak Oil :Matt Simmons Has Died
Haven’t some scientists, especially those from Russia, been saying this for years?
—check out “Thomas Gold”—
Yes it is. Might not be as fast as water or trees, but more and more it’s looking like geological and not decomposing dinosaurs and plant matter. Especially since Titan has methane geysers.
Many of us believe the abiotic oil theory.
See #5.
The russians/ukranians have never bought the fossil fuel explanation for oil and posited the deep earth natural process instead. The problem with the fossil fuel theory is how does all this plant matter die, but not decay, and then find itself under enormous pressure to turn to oil? Pretty much anything that dies ultimately decays long before it could be preserved in mud or earth. The rate of top soil rich in dead plant matter being consumed to inner earth seems a bit far fetched.
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Does that mean this was an unstable reaction and would not result in accumulation of heavier products?
We were discussing this hypothesis in my high school geology class 35 years ago! Well, the was when they taught ideas and not feelings.
“Haven’t some scientists, especially those from Russia, been saying this for years?”
It says something about what’s become of America when we have to go to Russia for scientists who are free to pose alternate theories.
American science is so ruled by grants and political correctness that it’s very unlikely that America can be the source of any ideas that don’t agree with the current accepted theories. And that’s not science.
Yeah, high school was really cool way back when!
Makes one wonder if somewhere in the future, those who contended that oil came from organic matter decomposed over time will be looked upon like flat-earthers are now.
Time for the geologists of the world to man up, admit that Thomas Gold was right all along, and give him the posthumous apology that he deserves.
Unless it’s changed, they’ve never been conclusive how oil was formed. Just a theory how it does. I’ve always thought there was a chance oil was “renewable”. Maybe they are coming close to this realization...the subject is interesting nonetheless.
Drill, Baby, Drill.
A couple have pursued this claim. But commercial production of oil, like in the rest of the world, is located on traditional geological research, and only found in sedimentary rock. I've been on the design team of Siberian Oil fields.
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