Monthly Archives: April 2015

David Hughes: Has Well Productivity Peaked in the Nation’s Largest Shale Gas Play, the Marcellus?

[This is big news since other major plays have already peaked.  It looks like the Marcellus is on Hughes predicted by 2018 peak with the latest data published] Has Well Productivity Peaked in the Nation’s Largest Shale Gas Play? By … Continue reading

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Natural Gas limits: 20-40% of recoverable resources are low EROI Sour Gas

SBC. October 2014. Factbook Natural Gas Factbook. SBC Energy Institute                           There are 855 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of technically recoverable resources, which means that regardless of cost … Continue reading

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Coal or Biomass & Coal to Liquids: CTL, DCL, & CBTL technology

Gray, D., et al. August 1, 2012.  Topic Paper #8 Production of Alternative Liquid Hydrocarbon Transportation Fuels from Natural Gas, Coal, and Coal and Biomass (XTL). National Petroleum Council Background With national energy security still being a dominant concern because … Continue reading

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Better truck fuel efficiency to delay the end of the oil age

NAS. 2010. Technologies and Approaches to Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles (National Academy of Sciences Study) This free, 251 page document is one of the best I’ve seen on the myriad ways trucks could double their … Continue reading

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New land converted to cropland to grow biofuel crops equal to 34 coal-fired power plants

Summary of article below: Between 2008 and 2012 over 7 million acres new land, much of it grasslands, were converted to croplands, damaging native ecosystems, and mimics the extreme land-use change that led up to the Dust Bowl in the … Continue reading

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Petroleum council urges Arctic oil to offset declining production in lower 48

The U.S. should immediately begin a push to exploit its enormous trove of oil in the Arctic waters off of Alaska, or risk a renewed reliance on imported oil in the future, an Energy Department advisory council says in a … Continue reading

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All Electric Trucks. Probably not going to happen. Ever. Why not?

There are “forms of transport that cannot be electrified — heavy-duty trucks and planes… Even if the electricity problem can be solved, it won’t address the needs of planes, trucks, ships and some industrial heating that cannot be electrified” (Long). … Continue reading

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GAO on why ethanol, and other non-drop in fuels, face pipeline & installation at service station challenges

[The challenges that ethanol faces in being put into new or modified pipelines and added to gas stations are issues faced by all alternative fuels (methanol, CNG, LNG, DME, diesohol, CTL, hydrogen, and so on) in a transition from gasoline … Continue reading

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Biofuels do not scale up enough to power society

Richard, T. August 23, 2010. Challenges in scaling up biofuels infrastructure. Science. (329)   Below are excerpts from this paper.  Look at the impossible scale of biomass required: 150 EJ/year = 15 billion metric tons of plant biomass = 200 billion … Continue reading

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Oil shortages: Transportation needs to go back to high inventories, not just-in-time delivery

Huge amounts of fuel are wasted as trucks arrive half full with just the needed parts at factories and warehouses and return empty. As oil shocks strike, fuel will be less available.  Large inventories will help by cushioning businesses from … Continue reading

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