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Nature Geoscience Study: Abiogenic Oil and Gas Forever?
Researchers at KTH have been able to prove that the fossils of animals and plants are not necessary to generate raw oil and natural gas. This result is extremely radical as it means that it will be much easier to find these energy sources and that they may be located all over the world.
“With the help of our research we even know where oil could be found in Sweden!” says Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the KTH Department of Energy Technology in Stockholm.
Together with two research colleagues, Professor Kutcherov has simulated the process of pressure and heat that occurs naturally in the inner strata of the earth’s crust. This process generates hydrocarbons, the primary elements of oil and natural gas.
According to Vladimir Kutcherov, these results are a clear indication that oil supplies are not drying up, which has long been feared by researchers and experts in the field.
He adds that there is no chance that fossil oils, with the help of gravity or other forces, would have been able to seep down to a depth of 10.5 kilometres in, for example the US state of Texas, which is rich in oil deposits. This is, according to Vladimir Kutcherov, in addition to his own research results, further evidence that this energy sources can occur other than via fossils – something which will cause a lively discussion among researchers for a considerable period of time.
“There is no doubt that our research has shown that raw oil and natural gas occur without the inclusion of fossils. All types of rock formations can act as hosts for oil deposits,” asserts Vladimir and adds that this applies to areas of land that have previously remained unexplored as possible sources of this type of energy.
This discovery has several positive aspects. Rate of success as concerns finding oil increases dramatically – from 20 till 70 percent. As drilling for oil and natural gas is an extremely expensive process, costs levels will be radically changed for the petroleum companies and eventually also for the end user.
“This means savings of many billions of kronor,” says Vladimir.
In order to identify where it is worth drilling for natural gas and oil, Professor Kutcherov has, via his research, developed a new method. The world is divided into a fine-meshed grid. This grid is the equivalent of cracks, known as migration channels, through strata underlying the earth’s crust. Good places to drill are where these cracks meet.
According to Professor Kutcherov, these research results are extremely important not least as 61 percent of the world’s energy consumption is currently based on raw oil and natural gas.
The next stage in this research is more experiments, especially to refine the method that makes it easier to locate drilling points for oil and natural gas.
The research results produced by Vladimir Kutcherov, Anton Kolesnikov and Alexander Goncharov were recently published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, Volume 2, August.
For more information, please contact Vladimir Kutcherov at vladimir.kutcherov@indek.KTH.se or on +46 8790 85 07.
Peter Larsson
KTH – Royal Institute of Technology
METHANE-DERIVED HYDROCARBONS PRODUCED UNDER UPPER-MANTLE CONDITIONS
Nature Geoscience 2, 566 – 570 (2009), 26 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/ngeo591
Anton Kolesnikov 1,2, Vladimir G. Kutcherov 2,3 & Alexander F. Goncharov 1
Abstract:
There is widespread evidence that petroleum originates from biological processes1, 2, 3. Whether hydrocarbons can also be produced from abiogenic precursor molecules under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions characteristic of the upper mantle remains an open question. It has been proposed that hydrocarbons generated in the upper mantle could be transported through deep faults to shallower regions in the Earth’s crust, and contribute to petroleum reserves4, 5. Here we use in situ Raman spectroscopy in laser-heated diamond anvil cells to monitor the chemical reactivity of methane and ethane under upper-mantle conditions. We show that when methane is exposed to pressures higher than 2 GPa, and to temperatures in the range of 1,000-1,500 K, it partially reacts to form saturated hydrocarbons containing 2-4 carbons (ethane, propane and butane) and molecular hydrogen and graphite. Conversely, exposure of ethane to similar conditions results in the production of methane, suggesting that the synthesis of saturated hydrocarbons is reversible. Our results support the suggestion that hydrocarbons heavier than methane can be produced by abiogenic processes in the upper mantle.
1 Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia 20015, USA
2 Lomonosov Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology, 117571 Moscow, Russia
3 Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Correspondence to: Alexander F. Goncharov1 e-mail: goncharov@gl.ciw.edu
FULL PAPER at http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v2/n8/abs/ngeo591.html
Copyright 2009, Nature Geoscience
H/T Benny Peiser’s CCNet
September 11th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
[...] that are largely hostile to the US. peak oil is like anthropogenic global warming, a theory. Climate Research News Nature Geoscience Study: Abiogenic Oil and Gas Forever? __________________ Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 4:56 am
The abiogenic theory of oil generation (aka abiotic oil) is junk science, and Kutcherov is one of those publicity loving jerks who gets a snippet of fact from one experiment and then unjustifiably extraplates it to the whole world. Note how the language in the abstract is quite different to the press release. It goes from saying “some” hydrocarbons “could” be created in the mantle to saying that we will never run out of oil, which is BS. We could have 1000 barrels per year of abiotic oil for ever, but what about 30 billion barrels/year, which is what we use currently?
The fact is that all commercial oil production is from oil that can be traced to natural origin, and absolutely no oil has been found in significant quantities based on where abiotic theories say it should be.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Junk science it may be, but there is more here:
Published in Science on 1st February 2008: ‘Abiogenic Hydrocarbon Production at Lost City Hydrothermal Field’ states in the Abstract that, ” Our findings illustrate that the abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in nature may occur in the presence of ultramafic rocks, water, and moderate amounts of heat.”
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/319/5863/604
Non-fossil Hydrocarbons on Saturn’s moon Titan:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/02/14/2162556.htm
Saturn moon awash with oil
Saturn moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists report.
But this massive reserve is at least 1.2 billion kilometres away from us, on a tiny inhospitable world where on a warm day it’s minus 179°C.
Researchers from the European Space Agency (ESA), report their findings about Saturn’s orange moon in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Their results suggest that methane and ethane fall like rain from the sky, forming massive lakes and seas.
And complex organic molecules called tholins are believed to make up Titan’s oily dunes.
“Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material. It’s a giant factory of organic chemicals,” says scientist Dr Ralph Lorenz, Johns Hopkins University.
Lorenz is a member of a team poring over radar data sent back by the US space probe Cassini, which dispatched a European probe, Huygens, to the moon’s surface.
Understanding Titan’s carbon-chemistry cookbook may unlock knowledge as to how Earth’s carbon-based life began, the researchers hope.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:00 am
[...] Earth has an ENDLESS Supply of Hydrocarbon Fuels Climate Research News Nature Geoscience Study: Abiogenic Oil and Gas Forever? Scientists are re-thinking the theory that dead plant and animal matter plus geo-forces produce [...]
January 8th, 2010 at 5:48 am
It seems that Kucherov did the same experiment back in 2002, see http://www.pnas.org/content/99/17/10976.full?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=genesis+of+hydrocarbons+and+the+origin+of+petroleum&searchid=1085470440708_510&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0%253E
It is nice that Nature cares so much for the environment that the recycle old experiments and republish as new ones…
January 14th, 2010 at 6:23 am
The abiotic origin of hydrocarbon fuels is an old story and Thomas Gold is telling it again many years ago. Who was the inventor of the fossile fairy tale? Mikhailo V. Lomonosov in the year 1757. Read more here: http://www.cprm.gov.br/33IGC/1286972.html
Must be news for some people, astonishing …