Oil reservoirs could have an environmental make-over with the help of bacteria. A report in Nature has shown how crude oil in deposits around the world is naturally broken down by microbes to methane.
Scientists say that increasing microbe activity would produce a more energy-efficient method of methane recovery.
It is likely field tests will start by 2009.
The ability to recover methane directly from deeply buried oil reserves means energy-intensive and thermal polluting processes are removed.
It's simply a way to get more hydrocarbons out of previously undrillable oil wells.
Except not in the form of oil, but instead as methane and a bunch of CO2.
And then if you actually want it to turn back into oil, you have to expend a lot more energy.
Whats worse, this will probably just be applied toward creating methane to run Tar Sands production.
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It's great news if all you care about is Peak Oil.
But I wouldn't really call it "green".
I dunno, do is there anything wrong with a 2-5x increase in greenhouse emissions, ravaging millions of acres of boreal forests, creating miles and miles of toxic cesspools devoid of life, and mountains of sulfur, to be a bad thing?
Yes, I have grave doubts about it, too. And would we be creating super bacteria with all those nutrients, or whatever trick they used to speed up the process, perhaps genetic engineering? And did they factor in he environmental cost of producing the fertilisers? And would the new demand for fertliisers raise the cost of fertilisers for food? And what byproducts would be left, and could they leak out into the air or water?
I've an even greener solution. Don't extract the oil/methane, but put money into renewables and conservation instead.
Sue N.
Posts: 4624 | Location: UK | Registered: 16 November 2004
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