Posted on 04/18/2011 6:12:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
A new computational study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how hydrocarbons may be formed from methane in deep Earth at extreme pressures and temperatures.
The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of hydrocarbons at high pressures and temperatures are important for understanding carbon reservoirs and fluxes in Earth.
The work provides a basis for understanding experiments that demonstrated polymerization of methane to form high hydrocarbons and earlier methane forming reactions under pressure.
Hydrocarbons (molecules composed of the elements hydrogen and carbon) are the main building block of crude oil and natural gas. Hydrocarbons contribute to the global carbon cycle (one of the most important cycles of Earth that allows for carbon to be recycled and reused throughout the biosphere and all of its organisms).
[snip]
Geologists and geochemists believe that nearly all (more than 99 percent) of the hydrocarbons in commercially produced crude oil and natural gas are formed by the decomposition of the remains of living organisms, which were buried under layers of sediments in Earth's crust, a region approximately 5-10 miles below Earth's surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Oil is oil........
oil ping
I agree
“I find it hard to believe that the (compacted, concentrated, partially converted to hydrocarbons) mass of dead plants and animals is greater than the amount of oil we have consumed to date.”
When I consider how old the earth is, however, I can believe it. Read “Annals of the Former World” by John McPhee, if you ever get the chance. Your head will spin when you start to think about how OLD the earth is. There was a lot of time for those plants to die and get dirt piled on them.
Wow. Abiogenic hydrocarbon formation. Amazing idea.
Oil is............. “Earth Juice”
Interesting. Possible new/more efficient catalysts for improving/replacing Fischer/Tropsch?? We've got lots of methane, but are short on octane and cetane (gasoline and diesel)
There’s heavy oil, light sweet oil, tar sands oil, three in one oil...
If crude oil is found outside a sediment I´d like to know about it.
MY personal favorite: Hawaiian Tropic Oil..................
That would be awesome.
If we can quickly, cheaply and efficiently convert methane to gasoline or diesel we would never run out of fuel...........
If crude oil is found outside a sediment I´d like to know about it.
I'm sure you can find some in here..............
You mean Dmitri Mendeleev may have been right? But that would make him to be some kind of chemical genius or something.
But like B4Ranch above, I'm also following Rossi's "cold fusion" reactor with GREAT interest. Nothing about the way it has been handled indicates "scam" to me.
But how much is "a lot," really? It isn't just a factor of time, but of time under the correct conditions (which are rare). If the right conditions are not there 99.9% of the time, a billion years is shrunk to an effective million years, and probably less than that. It appears that for large stretches of time much of the earth has been under hostile conditions for large scale decomposition under great pressures. What percentage of the earth today (which is mature and therefore "ideal") exhibits these conditions? Not many acres.
The whole plosive "Billions and Billions," uttered in reverential and sacred tones, needs to be de-mystified. We should not be so quickly, almost religiously, enamored by "the Big Number." To put it in a little perspective, if the groundskeeper can't coax a billion blades of grass to show up on the White House lawn this year, it's going to look like real crap.
Periodically he was a genius............
>>Nothing about the way it has been handled indicates “scam” to me.<<
A couple of years ago I attempted to buy into his experiment but was turned down. Not because the amount I offered was too small but because he is determined to finance it himself. That’s what told me this man had a winner.
I’ve got a billion weeds in mine...............I know. I’ve pulled them all at least once...........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.