Discovery could revolutionize oil sands processing

Oil-Finder

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071212201431.htm

Making Gas Out Of Crude Oil: Discovery Could Lead To Dramatic Improvement In Fossil Fuel Processing

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2007) — An international team that includes University of Calgary scientists has shown how crude oil in oil deposits around the world -- including in Alberta's oil sands -- are naturally broken down by microbes in the reservoir.

Their discovery could revolutionize heavy oil and oil sands production by leading to more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly ways to produce this valuable resource.

Understanding how crude oil biodegrades into methane, or natural gas, opens the door to being able to recover the clean-burning methane directly from deeply buried, or in situ, oil sands deposits, says Steve Larter, U of C petroleum geologist in the Department of Geoscience who headed the Calgary contingent of the research team.

The oil sands industry would no longer have to use costly and polluting thermal, or heat-based, processes (such as injecting steam into reservoirs) to loosen the tar-like bitumen so it flows into wells and can be pumped to the surface.

"The main thing is you'd be recovering a much cleaner fuel," says Larter, Canada Research Chair in Petroleum Geology. "Methane is, per energy unit, a much lower carbon dioxide emitter than bitumen. Also, you wouldn't need all the upgrading facilities and piping on the surface."

Biodegradation of crude oil into heavy oil in petroleum reservoirs is a problem worldwide for the petroleum industry. The natural process, caused by bacteria that consume the oil, makes the oil viscous, or thick, and contaminates it with pollutants such as sulphur. This makes recovering and refining heavy oil difficult and costly.

Some studies have suggested that biodegradation could by caused by aerobic bacteria, which use oxygen. But Larter and colleagues from the U of C, University of Newcastle in the U.K., and Norsk Hydro Oil & Energy in Norway, report in the journal Nature that the dominant process is, in fact, fermentation. It is caused by anaerobic bacteria that live in oil reservoirs and don't use oxygen.

"This is the main process that's occurring all over the Earth, in any oil reservoir where you've got biodegradation," Larter says.

Using a combination of microbiological studies, laboratory experiments and oilfield case studies, the team demonstrated the anaerobic degradation of hydrocarbons to produce methane. The findings offer the potential of 'feeding' the microbes and rapidly accelerating the breaking down of the oil into methane.

"Instead of 10 million years, we want to do it 10 years," Larter says. "We think it's possible. We can do it in the laboratory. The question is: can we do it in a reservoir?"

Doing so would revolutionize the heavy oil/oil sands industry, which now manages to recover only about 17 per cent of a resource that consists of six trillion barrels worldwide. Oil sands companies would be able to recover only the clean-burning natural gas, leaving the hard-to-handle bitumen and contaminants deep underground.

Understanding biodegradation also provides an immediate tool for predicting where the less-biodegraded oil is located in reservoirs, enabling companies to increase recovery by targeting higher-quality oil. "It gives us a better understanding of why the fluid properties are varying within the reservoir," Larter says. "That will help us with thermal recovery processes such as SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage)."

The research team also discovered an intermediate step in the biodegradation process. It involves a separate family of microbes that produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen from partly degraded oil, prior to it being turned into methane. This paves the way for using the microbes to capture this CO2 as methane, which could then be recycled as fuel in a closed-loop energy system. This would keep the CO2, a greenhouse gas blamed for global warming and climate change, out of the atmosphere.

The petroleum industry already has expressed interest in trying to accelerate biodegradation in a reservoir, Larter says. "It is likely there will be field tests by 2009."

FireJack · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 16, 2005 Posts: 449

Ya heard this on the cbc was thinking ya that would be kind of nice. Then there is the catch, field tests by 2009. Uh ya good luck with that. By 2025 mabey we'll see results, lots of time before the oil starts peaking.

Oil-Finder

Well in the meantime there's no reason why they can't continue to process the oil sands using their current methods.

lightman · Coal Joined: Nov 11, 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Switzerland

You're right. They can and they will. But there is more than one good reason why they really shouldn't:

1) It is not economical (energy-wise, not financial).
EROEI is quite low for tar sands (generally less than 3, but almost never more then 5). This doesn't even take into consideration the energy consumption (buildup and maintenance) of the infrastructure required to support the operations.

2) It is not ecological.
In the case of surface mining, large "modifications" of the natural landscape occur (e.g. destruction of boreal forest in Alberta).

3) It is making large areas inhabitable (and even kills people).
The extraction of synthetic crude requires large quantities of water (generally 3-4 times the amount of oil produced), which (despite recycling) ends up in tailing ponds. Even so, enormous quantities of toxic material may end up in the environment and eventually in our food chain (like in the case of the Athabasca River).

<sarcasm>On the other hand it generates a lot of jobs, may help reduce energy dependency from overseas and contributes to the economy by keeping large quantities of money flowing. What more could you want?</sarcasm>

Grifter

another article on the same technique

Sounds very interesting to me. Can Nitrogen Fertilizer be made out of Methane?

Thats the first thing that occured to me. If its a simple low tech method of converting dirty fuel to clean(er) fuel then surely this is a little peice of possitive news.

Hooray

pstarr

Of all the hair brained schemes this one has got to take the cake. This is right up their with JD's methane space-elevator and the Missouri Turkey-Gut Depolymerzation gambit. The only methane coming out of this project is the brain-fart emmited from this 'science.'

How is the geologic structure prepared for the microbe? How will it be penetrated down to the granular level? How are the bugs inserted into the geologic mass? How are biologic processes supported under the ground and immense pressure? How is oxygen supplied and CO2 removed? Other waste products? How is proper pH, temperature, humidity, etc. maintained in the culture? How is the finished product removed?

Or is this is another one of those virtual and cornucopian schemes that will be sure to make money and sense the moment crude reaches $60. Oh wait that happened Shock

Oil-Finder, the devil is in the details Twisted Evil

you know.
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highlander

There you go again pstarr. Asking about the elephant in the room that nobody seems to notice. Stop it . News like this is suppose to make you rush out and buy more stuff.
A scientist said it works, so who are we to question.
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pstarr

Grifter