THE NONRENEWABLE RESOURCE FORMATION Like oil, natural is a product of decomposed organic matter, usually from ancient marine microorganisms left on the bottom of bodies of waters mixed with mud, silt, and sand on the sea floor, gradually becoming buried over time. Since it is sealed off in an oxygen-free environment and exposed to increasing amounts of heat and pressure, the organic matters undergo a thermal breakdown process that converts it into hydrocarbons. The lightest of these hydrocarbons exit in the gaseous state under normal conditions and are known collectively as natural gas. Once this natural gas forms, it depends on two very critical characteristics of the surrounding rock: porosity and permeability. POPOSITY is referred to as the amount of empty space there is within the grains of the rock. Highly porous rocks like sandstones, on a good day have porosities of 5% to 25%. this gives them a large amount of space to store fluids like oil, water, and gas. PERMEABILITY is a measure of the degree in which the pore spaces in a rock are interconnected. A rock with high permeability will let more gas and liquids to flow very easily through the rock. After natural gas forms, it then rises to the top of the surface through the pores spaces in the rock because of its low density compared to the surrounding rock. MAJOR RESERVES AND HOW THE GAS IS EXTRACTED The biggest reserve of natural gas is in...Russia!, which has seven times the reserves of the U.S. Our country is endowed with a substantial resource of natural gas and new findings has revised that number in the upward position in the last few years. But, what we Americans do best, we use more gas every year than can be produced so we depend on the Canadian... ... middle of paper ... ...ting unconventional sources of gas have dramatically raised estimates of the U.S.'s available gas resource. In the short, renewable energy added to the grid just may displace natural gas use, because natural gas power typically has the highest operating costs. In the long, increased amounts of renewable energies are more likely to encourage the use of natural gas as a complementary source of power. Natural gas plants have the operational flexibility to vary their production rapidly, so this will allow them to be able to provide more reliability to the electric power system as it transitions to greater shares of renewable generation. Works Cited Malouf, Agnes and David Wimberly The Health Hazard of Natural Gas http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/summer01gas.html How Natural Gas Works http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/ener...
hydrocarbons that forms during the extraction of natural gas and is used as a thinning
In 1908, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) predicted that the total future supply of U.S. oil would not exceed 23 billion barrels. In 1914, the U.S. Bureau of Mines predicted that only 5.7 billion barrels of oil remained. In 1920, the USGS proclaimed the peak in U.S. oil production was almost reached. In 1939, the Department of Interior declared that there was only 13 years of oil production remaining. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter claimed, “We are now running out of oil.” Despite these predictions, the U.S. has produced over 200 billion barrels of oil since the early 1900’s. (The Futurist, 1997)
Then gallons of water mixed with "frak fluid" and proppants continuously until the target area can't take all the constant pressure and eventually breaks. Thus cracking open areas in a well filled with natural gas. The cracks are held open with the proppants. Marcellus Shale formations are located around the northeastern side of the United States. This rock is said to be known to hold a great deal of amount of natural gas, as much as 500 trillion cubic feet. Only an estimated amount of 50 trillion cubic feet is all that can be recovered from the Marcellus
Gas in shale formations are“low in permeability,” making it very tedious to extract, but with the increase in technological knowledge in fracking and horizontally drilling into shale beds, the vast reserves of natural gas resource could be extracted (4). Fracking is a large industrial operation that boost the “productivity of a oil or gas well” (5). It is a process by which, under very high pressure, a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand, are pumped into shale formations that causes fractures in the rocks to open wider or create new fractures that would allow otherwise trapped oil and gas to flow into the wells (6).
The main thing in natural gas is methane. Millions of years ago, decaying remains of
The two dominant physical properties of oil and gas that enhance their movement through subsurface substance are their relative immiscibility in water and their lower density than water which causes their buoyancy. Buoyancy of the hydrocarbons occurs because of differences in densities of respective fluids while transcend via the oil and gas reservoir is a stimuli which creates differential pressures that exist in a reservoir bed.
A reservoir is considered as a compaction drive is when the pore volume contraction takes prominently to overall expansion while the reservoir is saturated. This drive is supplemented by solution gas drive and may or may not by water/gas cap drive. This reservoir acts like their non-compaction counterparts except that they exhibit enhanced recoveries. For example, the oil recovery will be greater for a solution gas drive by which the compaction drive will act like a normal solution gas drive reservoir. This is because of the direct consequence of the extra rock expansion that compaction drive reservoirs actually have. Due to the extra compaction, some production occurs. For instance, the permeability may decline, fracture may happen and subsidence but all there problems are manageable and the result of compaction is very favorable.
Our country is currently suffering energy-wise, we have been powering with inefficient sources for years now and the harm that it is doing to the country has started to become apparent. Renewable energy is the only way to stop, or at the very least set back the inevitable downfall of our ecosystem. I think that the next big breakthrough for renewable energy is implementing off-grid communities that use renewable sources as their main sources of power, so that we can potentially escape the energy rut that we got ourselves stuck in.
In order to ensure enough organic matter and plenty of space to form commercial shale gas reservoirs, the effective thickness of shale rock is required. Shale gas reservoir’s thickness controls of the economic benefits of shale gas reservoirs. The larger the effective thickness, especially the larger continuous effective thickness, the more the total amount of organic matter, the higher the degree of enrichment of shale gas. The limitation of shale thickness gas can be reduced with maturity of organic carbon content increasing.
The United States relies on imports for about forty percent of its crude oil, which is the lowest rate of dependency since 1991 according to the U.S Energy Information Administration. Today our country is trying to keep on track in becoming less and less dependent. When it comes to the topic of the future ways the United States will get its fuel, most of us readily agree that the United States should become more independent by using natural gas that is already here on our land. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of the consequences drilling for natural gas brings. Whereas some are convinced drilling is safe, others maintain that it is actually in fact dangerous. Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", the terms for drilling for natural gas, is dangerous to our public health and to the environment because of the water contamination it causes. Therefore, it is not something that should become a project for alternative fuel used by the United States.
Currently, the most important factor in the rise of gas prices is the increasing cost of crude oil. Unfortunately, the United States has three percent of the world’s oil reserves. (Horsley) In 2009, the United States was third in crude oil production as well as the world’s largest petroleum consumer. (e. I. Administration) Such consumption required and still requires the United States to import petroleum/crude oil from other countries.
United States is known for their innovation towards alternative energy like solar power, wind power and nuclear power. However , these alternative energies are not completely beneficial towards the United States. For example, Hydrofracking; What is hydrofracking? Gas industries use hydrofracking to extract natural gases from shale ground in order to power Americans homes. When gas industries hydrofrack, they dig ten-thousand feet into the mantle of the earth and turn perpendicular to the t into shale layers with cement and steel casing to prevent leaks.
Gases are also very low in density. The average gas is 1000 times less than that of the average liquid. The volume of gas varies with many things including temperature and pressure. These are explained in Charles's and Boyle's laws.
Using fossil fuels such as coal and oil is inefficient, dangerous, and otherwise a process that is known to eventually fail as a long lasting energy source. Yet, there is hope for the future of energy, this new hope has many shapes and forms, but requires a chance to be fully implemented in our everyday life. Such energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, and hydro power are the key to our future. These energy sources are proven to be long lasting, safe, more reliable, and the next innovation. In short, all Americans should switch to renewable energy, resulting in a safer and more efficient world.
...t the demand for electricity than non-renewable. Also it could be more environmentally friendly. Wind energy, as it can be seen that wind energy might lowest danger and more reliability.