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Questions on Abiotic Oil...

Posted: 05 Mar 2006, 03:56
by Koba
Just say for one minute that abiotic oil is made deep within the earth wouldn't it be useless as a fuel for the reasons below:

1. As the abiotic oil would have had to survive the extreme pressures deep within the earths mantle on its way up to the surface, wouldn't the fact that it didn't burn then make impossible to be used as fuel. This leads on to point two.

2. How much energy and money would have to be invested to convert it in to a fuel to be used in transportation, even if you could get it to burn.

3. Wouldn't you need some kind of ultra high pressured engine to burn your new abiotic fuels.

The point I am making is that if abiotic oil exists on planet earth wouldn't it be virtually indistructable making it useless to use and refine???

Re: Questions on Abiotic Oil...

Posted: 05 Mar 2006, 09:34
by skeptik
"Just say for one minute that abiotic oil is made deep within the earth wouldn't it be useless as a fuel for the reasons below"
er... no. With the greatest respect your thinking on this matter seems a little confuseypants to say the least.

1. As the abiotic oil would have had to survive the extreme pressures deep within the earths mantle on its way up to the surface, wouldn't the fact that it didn't burn then make impossible to be used as fuel.

No. all hydrocarbons are combustible given an appropriate environment of pressure , temperature and oxygen mix. Proponents of the abiotic oil theory do not make any special claims as to its characteristics. The reason why otherwise combustible materials do not combust at great depth under the ground is due to the absense of oxygen - there is no atmosphere for things to burn in at 10.000 feet under the ground. Combustion is from a chemists point of view simply a high speed exothermic oxidation reaction.

2. How much energy and money would have to be invested to convert it in to a fuel to be used in transportation, even if you could get it to burn.
Abiotic oil does not exist, so don t worry about it. Even if it did exist it would not require any special 'conversion'

3. Wouldn't you need some kind of ultra high pressured engine to burn your new abiotic fuels.
No.

The point I am making is that if abiotic oil exists on planet earth wouldn't it be virtually indistructable making it useless to use and refine???
Er...no.

Posted: 05 Mar 2006, 18:30
by mikepepler
Even if it did exist, I assume it would be rate limited in production, leaving us in a situation nearly as bad as peak oil, given that we'd have been using millenia of accumulated production up to this point?