Ethanol is not All
Unconventional Fuels Rise to Forefront of Energy Needs
The race for an alternate fuel source to replace conventional petroleum is not a sprint, but a marathon that has been ongoing for decades.
Although ethanol has been touted as the 21st century solution to a dwindling fuel supply, other products are being developed for the immediate future.
Industrialized countries throughout the world have been filling their energy needs in ways that best fit their unique circumstances. Research and development into these unconventional fuel options has accelerated to meet the rising global demand for petroleum.
The United States government currently supports many unconventional fuel ventures, mandating immediate research and development of all practical endeavors. These include shale rock studies in Colorado, oil sand partnerships in Canada, and a process in Pennsylvania for turning coal into diesel fuel
Exxon Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell, and the British Petroleum Company are three of the top five members of the Global Fortune 500 list. To stay there, the oil companies must exhaust all feasible means to acquire or develop oil resources in a profitable manner. Instead of reinventing the wheel, these major players are focusing on methods that date back from 30 to over 100 years.
As far back as 1860, Australia was mining shale rock and converting it into oil. The primary use back then was as a lighting fluid in lamps. The largest concentration of shale rock in the world just happens to be located in the Green River Formation, in the heart of the United States. These sedimentary rocks could yield over two trillion barrels of oil from the distillation of the organic matter present, a process that speeds nature’s work by a few hundred million years. This would equal the total amount of oil produced throughout history.
The government owns 80% of this land, located in the states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, and is currently leasing parcels for exploration. Exxon was mining this area until 1982, when the price of crude oil on the market fell. Today, the Shell Company is experimenting with new techniques that revolutionize the shale rock process.
Along the northwest coast of Canada, the harvest of oil flows at the rate of 1.2 million barrels per day from the sands beneath the frozen tundra. The process is very demanding on the laborers, and requires a great deal of energy to effect, but the result has made Canada the number one oil supplier to the United States, and the number eight oil producer in the world.
On the eastern U.S. coast, Pennsylvania is using bank guarantees and government support to convert a vast supply of coal residue into diesel fuel. The success of this venture would serve to bolster the trucking industry in the Quaker state and alleviate a toxic eyesore.
Brazil has produced ethanol from their abundant sugar cane crop for over thirty years, currently providing the natives with a choice of fueling options that includes pure ethanol. Automobiles are conducive to any of the offerings, and Brazil now produces all of its energy needs.
None of these unconventional sources will reduce the cost of fuel, nor offer resolution to environmental threats, but their increased development will supplement a dwindling, volatile world supply of oil.
