Saturday, July 21, 2007
Breaking science: Natural gas is a RENEWABLE resource!
There has been a lot of disputation about the idea that oil is constantly produced by bacterial action; the conventional wisdom is that all fossil fuels were laid down in Fred Flintstone's era, so the supply is strictly finite.
Apparently liquid oil is still dubious, but it turns out that a significant portion of natural gas - maybe 20% - is known to be generated steadily and presently by bacteria. This fact is not publicized for some reason, and I'd never heard it before, but it's settled science.
"In 1993, researchers with the USGS reported pockets of biogenic gas across the US and predicted that 20 percent of all known natural gas deposits worldwide were formed by microbes."
Jennifer McIntosh at the Univ of Arizona is trying to determine whether the right kind of microbes can be injected into shale deposits that bear a likely combination of hydrocarbons. Goal: start methane generation where it isn't already occurring!
From New Scientist, 7/21/07 print issue. ¶ 2:52 PM
Apparently liquid oil is still dubious, but it turns out that a significant portion of natural gas - maybe 20% - is known to be generated steadily and presently by bacteria. This fact is not publicized for some reason, and I'd never heard it before, but it's settled science.
"In 1993, researchers with the USGS reported pockets of biogenic gas across the US and predicted that 20 percent of all known natural gas deposits worldwide were formed by microbes."
Jennifer McIntosh at the Univ of Arizona is trying to determine whether the right kind of microbes can be injected into shale deposits that bear a likely combination of hydrocarbons. Goal: start methane generation where it isn't already occurring!
From New Scientist, 7/21/07 print issue. ¶ 2:52 PM
