Originally Posted by
Doc1
There's not very much "secret" about any of this. It is widely known that the Germans made synthetic fuel from coal in WWII and further, that the South African energy company SASOL developed the process further and has been making oil from coal for decades. Further, many readers are probably familiar with more recent synthetic fuel production efforts at turning poultry scraps and other organic waste into oil. All of these things work, but are not yet especially economic propositions compared to conventional oil drilling methods.
The Germans did it out of pure necessity because of their lack of oil during the war and the South Africans began doing it because international boycotts limited their access to petroleum. Again, very doable....very expensive.
I heard Corsi's interview on C2C and while he made some valid points, his basic science was off in several places. His most glaring error was his assertion that he's seen many buried bodies and none of them had turned into oil! Duh! No one has suggested that they do!
Coal, poultry scraps (or human bodies) and other organic materials must be subjected to intense heat, pressure and catalytic action to turn them into synthetic oil and this must also be done using very expensive and sophisticated industrial resources. The basic EROEI (energy return on energy investment) equation is what thus far limits their production potential.
I have come to believe that there is abiotic oil, but do not believe that its presence invalidates the basic Peak Oil concept (though it may change the curve). The history of oil field development and the development of virtually all natural resources is one of going after the low hanging fruit first. In other words, the resources which are easiest to gather are the ones first brought into production. Whether oil is abiotic in nature or is the result of the Easter Bunny depositing magical oil eggs in the Earth, the deeper and more inaccessible the deposits are, the more expensive it is to bring to the surface. Here again, EROEI rears its ugly head.
The entire center of the Earth could be filled with oil, but if the energy required to extract it is greater than the net energy gain from its production, the end result is still dry gas tanks for the average consumer.
Best regards
Doc
Reply With Quote