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New Evidence Supports 19th Century Idea On Formation Of Oil And Gas
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 12, 2009 Scientists in Washington, D.C. are reporting laboratory evidence supporting the possibility that some of Earth's oil and natural gas may have formed in a way much different than the traditional process described in science textbooks. Their study is for the ACS' Energy and Fuels, a bi-monthly publication. Anurag Sharma and colleagues note that the traditional process involves biology: Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth's surface. Some scientists, however, believe that oil and gas originated in other ways, including chemical reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen below Earth' surface. The new study describes a test of that idea, which dates to at least 1877 and famous Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeelev. They combined ingredients for this so-called abiotic synthesis of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, in a diamond-anvil cell and monitored in-situ the progress of the reaction. The diamond anvils can generate high pressures and temperatures similar to those that occur deep below Earth's surface and allow for in-situ optical spectroscopy at the extreme environments. The results "strongly suggest" that some methane could form strictly from chemical reactions in a variety of chemical environments. This study further highlights the role of reaction pathways and fluid immiscibility in the extent of hydrocarbon formation at extreme conditions simulating deep subsurface. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Download the full text of the article Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Gas flaring in Nigeria must stop by January: ministerAbuja (AFP) Nov 11, 2009 Nigeria will next January ban gas flaring, an environmentally unfriendly practice of burning gas extracted alongside oil, the junior foreign minister, Bagudu Hirse, said on Wednesday. Nigeria, the world's second-biggest gas flarer after Russia, has in the past decade repeatedly issued warnings and deadlines to oil companies to stop the practice, but none have been respected. "By the end ... read more |
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