Nature gave us oil from algae; perhaps we should try Nature’s way again

Breakthroughs, Inventions, Discoveries & Pioneering Efforts in the Field of Fossil Energy & Fuels

Do have a look at this section and please let me ( narsi at esource dot in) know if you could think of any improvements / refinements to make this section more useful.

For the latest updates in Fossil Energy, please see all our blog posts

Fossil Energy & Fossil Fuel

Fossil Energy - Inventions, Research, Innovations, Breakthroughs

1. Huge potential seen in Gulf of Mexico oil well; Deepwater well could be nation's largest source; A group led by Chevron Corp. on Tuesday raised expectations that it has tapped into what could be one of the nation's biggest oil discoveries in decades, releasing results from the long-awaited test of a Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil well – Energy Bulletin, Sep 2006 (see also: A clarification for the original news item)
2. Shell makes massive natural gas discovery (Dec 2004) - Shell Canada Ltd. has tapped into a massive natural gas reservoir in Western Canada -- its largest discovery in the area in nearly two decades -- raising hopes that the birthplace of the Canadian oil industry may still contain undiscovered elephant-sized deposits. Read more from the Energy Bulletin article here
3. PetroChina makes major oil discovery (May 2004) - PetroChina, China's largest oil producer, has made the nation's biggest oil discovery in a decade, bolstering its reserves by at least a third at a time when oil prices are at a record and the country's demand is soaring, the company said Thursday. PetroChina Changqing Oilfield, a unit of the Beijing-based company, found 108.2 million tons of proven reserves and another 327 million tons of estimated reserves in the Xifeng oilfield in the northwestern province of Gansu, PetroChina's parent, China National Petroleum, said on its Web site…Read more from the Energy Bulletin article
4. The End of Oil? Breakthrough Turns Coal Into Clean Diesel - Sean Markey - National Geographic News - April, 2006 - Scientists announced the production of diesel fuel from coal, natural gas, and organic material. Researchers say they have developed a way to derived products such as ethane gas and diesel fuel. The synthetic diesel is cleaner burning than conventional diesel, even cleaner burning than gasoline. Read more from this National Geographic article
5. Oil Shale – a number of oil shale related resources are provided at this page. Some of the topics are: The US Govt's Secret Colorado Oil Discovery?, Raytheon process allows oil shale for sale (May 2006), Oil Shale Development in the United States: Prospects and Policy Issues (2005), ; The Illusive Bonanza: Oil Shale in Colorado, Pulling the Sword from the Stone; Oil Shale Review, by Jean Laherrère (2005 August); Shale-oil dream ends in company collapse by Brian Robins, Sydney (2003 December); Suncor's announcement of abandoning the Stuart Oil Shale Project adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia owing to greenhouse problems. Read more from this page @ Oil Crisis
6. Israel Presses for Oil from Shale - Past attempts to extract liquid oil from shale weren't economically feasible. Now a process developed in the 1990s to squeeze oil from shale by mixing the rock with a residue from conventional oil refining and putting it through a catalytic process could yield dramatically improved results. In this process, the shale is mixed and coated with bitumen, a remnant of normal oil refining, then put through a catalytic converter under relatively low pressure. The output is synthetic oil that can be refined into gasoline and other products. Read more from this Business Week report, Jul 2006
7. New Exxon Mobil Oil Drilling Technology Reduces Drilling Time by 35% - Nov 2005 - AZOM - Exxon Mobil Corporation announced that its drilling organization has developed an optimization process that consistently reduces the time required to drill oil and gas wells by up to 35 percent. The Fast Drill Process (FDP) achieves this breakthrough performance by using real-time, computer analysis of the drilling system's energy consumption. This analysis, in turn, helps improve the management of the factors that determine drilling rate, such as weight on the drill bit, rotary speed and torque. Read more from this Nov 2005 report
8. Timor Sea Exploration Breakthrough - A team of scientists at CSIRO, Australia has developed a new exploration tool which could save oil and gas companies hundreds of millions of dollars. The team has shown that by combining several different geological techniques they can predict where pools of oil and gas are contained (trapped) beneath the Ocean floor. This is done by understanding a combination of factors including fault growth histories, trap geometry and hydrocarbon charge history, to predict the distribution of preserved and breached traps. Read more from this CSIRO press release, June 2005
9. Breakthrough Electromagnetic Technology Developed For Shallow And Deepwater Oil Exploration - March 2006 - Controlled Source Electromagnetic Imaging (CSEM) is a sounding technique, increasingly used by oil exploration companies to extend their knowledge of an exploration prospect before incurring drilling costs. CSEM has been recognised as a useful exploration tool. Until recently the technique could only be usefully applied in deep water, at depths of more than 1,000 metres. However, scientists at an oil industry survey services company, Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc (OHM) have come up with solutions that now make it possible to utilise the method in water as shallow as 50 metres. Read more from this report (PDF)
10. Topics Discussed (and their abstracts) in the Oil & Gas Exploration AAPG Conference -  Topics in the 2006 conference;  an exceptional number of interesting research topics discussed. 
11. Process of microbial extraction of hydrocarbons from oil sands – Abstract - A process is described for the separation of hydrocarbon residues from oil and tar sands by microbiological activity. Hydrocarbon residues are released from the sands by contacting with a suspension of oxidase-synthesizing, hydrocarbon-metabolizing microorganisms. US Patent number: 4349633; Filing date: Nov 10, 1980; Issue date: Sep 14, 1982; Inventors: Howard E. Worne, Irving Rabinovitch. See full details of the patent from here
    

Pictures

A pictorial representation of a carbon cycle

World Fossil Energy Reserves & Resources chart – coal, oil & gas 

Check out the latest inventions and breakthroughs in energy & alternative energy, on the following topics @ NewNergy Blog

Energy Sources - Main Sections 

• Alternative Energy 

• Alternative Renewable Energy
• Geothermal
• Hydro-power
• Ocean Energy
• Hydrogen Energy
• Solar Energy
• Wind Energy
• Radiant Energy
• Waste to Energy
• Bio-based Energy
• Biodiesel
• Alcohol Fuels
• Ethanol Fuel
• Biomass
• Fuel from Animals 

• Alternative Energy, Non-renewable
• Alternative Fossil Fuels
• Synfuel
• Syngas
• Nuclear Energy 

• Fossil Fuels
• Coal – Coal to Oil, Diesel
• Natural Gas – Gas Hydrates
• Oil – Oil from Oil Shale, Oil from Tar Sands

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About Oilgae - Oilgae - Oil & Biodiesel from Algae has a focus on Biodiesel production from algae while also discussing alternative energy in general. Algae present an exciting possibility as a feedstock for biodiesel, and when you realise that oil was originally formed from algae - among others - you think "Hey! Why not oil again from algae!"

To facilitate exploration of oil production from algae as well as exploration of other alternative energy avenues, Oilgae provides web links, directory, and related resources for algae-based biofuels / biodiesel along with inputs on new inventions, discoveries & breakthroughs in other alternative energy domains such as Solar Wind nuclear, hydro, Geothermal hydrogen & fuel cells, gravitational, geothemal, human-powered, ocean & Wave / Tidal energy.