Fossil fuels reserve depletion

Calculation of Fossil Fuel Reserves Depletion Times... 

The use of nuclear power has been a topic of debate for many years. Nuclear fuel represents a resource for generating energy weU into the future, whereas economically recoverable fossil fuel reserves may become depleted. Worker exposure, injuries, and fataHties in nuclear fuel mining are reportedly far less compared to those associated with recovery and handling of fossil fuels. Potential hazards associated with transporting and storing radioactive wastes do exist, however. 

Owing to diminishing fossil fuel reserves, alternative energy sources need to be renewable, sustainable, efficient, cost-effective, convenient and safe.1 In recent decades, microbial production of ethanol has been considered as an alternative fuel for the future because fossil fuels are depleting. Several microorganisms, including Clostridium sp. and yeast, the well-known ethanol producers Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zymomonas mobilis, are suitable candidates to produce ethanol.2,3... 

The world s fossil fuel reserves are being depleted at an alarmingly fast rate. Faced with this dilemma, scientists have made intensive efforts in recent years to develop a... 

The first part of the report analyzed the nation s fossil-fuel reserves in some detail, estimated the growth of energy consumption, and related them to the need for development of nuclear energy. It maintained that fossil fuels supplying most of the energy in the United States would be exhausted in the not-too-distant future. Using different combinations of energy estimates, the report predicted that low-cost readily available domestic supplies would be depleted in 75 to 100 years and total supplies in 150 to 200 years. 

Since the Industrial Age beginning with the invention of the steam engine in the 1760s, human beings have been exploiting fossil resources for energy and development. However, after more than 150 years exploitation and utilization, expected depletion of the fossil fuel reserves has emphasized the issue of energy and environmental... 

All fossil fuels are considered unsustainable because someday they will reach a point of depletion when it becomes uneconomic to produce. Petroleum is the least sustainable because it is the most finite fossil fuel. Although levels of production are expected to begin declining no later than 2030 (U.S. production peaked in 1970), the U.S. and world resei ves could be further expanded by technological advances that continue to improve discoveiy rates and individual well productivity. The extraction of oils found in shales (exceeds three trillion barrels of oil equivalent worldwide) and sands (resei ves of at least two trillion barrels worldwide) could also significantly increase reserves. The reserves of natural gas are comparable to that of oil, but natural gas is considered a more sustainable resource since consumption rates are lower and it burns cleaner than petroleum products (more environmentally sustainable). 

The following terms are often used in the context of quantifying reserves and resources of fossil fuels the Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR), also called Ultimate Recoverable Resources (URR), is the sum of past cumulative production, proved reserves at the time of estimation and the possibly recoverable fraction of undiscovered resources. The remaining potential, i.e., the sum of reserves and resources, is the total amount of an energy source that is still to be recovered. The mid-depletion point is the point of time when approximately 50% of the EUR (at field, country or world level) has been produced. 

The two main societal issues that create a need to reconsider the current use of fossil fuels are the cogeneration of C02 in stoichiometric ratio to carbon used in the fuel and depletion of fossil oil reserves. 

---