Monthly Archives: April 2015

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

Posted on April 29, 2015 by

[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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Electric vehicle overview

Posted on April 28, 2015 by

[ Most, but not all of what follows comes from the NPC paper below. I’ve reworded or interjected some comments as well. As you can see in Figure 1 below, light cars and trucks are the main guzzlers of petroleum.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Electric Cars, Electrification | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on April 27, 2015 by

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

Posted on April 26, 2015 by

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

Posted on April 26, 2015 by

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

Posted on April 25, 2015 by

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 →

Posted in Biofuels | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on April 18, 2015 by

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?

Posted on April 14, 2015 by

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

Posted on April 9, 2015 by

[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

Posted on April 9, 2015 by

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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