Fuel reserves reserve estimates

Fuel Proven reserves Estimated undiscovered recoverable reserves Estimated identified and undiscovered resources... 

Coal is the most abundant and most economical fossil fuel resource in the world. Proven coal reseiwes exceed 1 trillion tons, and indicated reserves are estimated at 24 trillion tons. Coal is found in eveiy continent of the world, including Antarctica, although the largest quantities of coal are in the Northern Hemisphere. Coal is mined in some sixty countries in nineteen coal basins around the world, but more than 57 percent of the world s total recoverable reserves are estimated to be in the United States, and China, which together account for more than two-thirds of the world s coal production. 

Fuel store Approximate total fuel reserve Estimated period for which fuel store would provide energy ... 

Estimates place the world reserves of natural gas hydrates as being in the region of 5 X 1013 m3 on land, mostly in the permafrost regions of Alaska and Siberia, as well as a further 5-25 X 1015 m3 of gas in the oceans, particularly around Central America. This figure is around twice that of the total fossil fuel reserve this is an enormous wealth of energy which will become increasingly important as fossil fuels run out. Indeed, in the Russian Federation the enormous gas hydrate deposit at Messoyakha has been used as a natural gas source since 1971. 

As shown in Figure 1.1, the total fossil fuel reserves of the globe are estimated to be about 75,000 Q, and the total energy consumption is rising at... 

Figure 2 deals with potential gasification feedstocks in the contiguous 48 United States. As shown, coal, at about 5000 quads, is by far the largest recoverable fossil fuel. Peat is next at about 750 quads, and then oil shale at about 500 quads. And finally, we have also shown crude oil at about 170 quads to add perspective to the reserve estimates. These estimates, including crude oil, were published by the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT) in late 1977. 

The United States contains about one-third of the world s coal reserves, and coal represents over 90 percent of U.S. proven reserves of fossil fuels. Recoverable reserves of U.S. coal are estimated to be 250 billion tons. Bituminous coals (with a heating value of 10,GOO-15,000 BTU/lb) comprise nearly one-half of total U.S. coal reserves. Eastern U.S. coals are generally bituminous. Western and southwestern U.S. coals are mainly sub-bituminous... 

Tissue of source Approximate total fuel reserve Estimated fuel stoTvi period for which would provicit energy... 

The input chemicals are carbon dioxide and water, while the output is oxygen and carbohydrates. The latter serve as a feedstock for other organic products such as wood, coal, oil, and gas constituting the World s fossil fuel reserves. It is estimated that about lO tons of carbon dioxide are assimilated annually by plants on Earth, whereby the amount of solar energy harvested by natural photosynthesis is 3 x 10 kJ, corresponding to the continuous generation of 90000 GW of electrical power. 

While current energy consumption depends primarily on fossil fuels, the world cannot rely on them forever. We eventually will be constrained by resources. Reserve estimates and corresponding reserve-to-production (R P) ratios, defined as the number of years reserves will last at current production levels, are summarized in Table 1.1. 

Understanding our long-term energy needs necessitates a review of reserves and estimates of reserves by fuel type. How long these reserves may last may be considered using a simple measure of reserve size, the reserve-to-production (R P) ratio, or a more complex method, the Hubbert Peak analysis. This analysis assumes production from oil fields basically follows a bell curve, where production increases until the maximum production rate is reached when half the resource has been... 

Table 12.3 Recent estimates of Europe s share offossil fuel reserves...

Fig. 2. The combined world fossil fuel production is projected into the future base on proved reserves and estimated future discoveries of oil, gas and coal (Barabba, 1989 Edmonds and Reilly, 1985 Frisch, 1986 Kilgore, 1993 Hammond et al., 1992). The units are in quads (10 BTU).

V. Recent Estimates of Fossil-Fuel Reserves and Resources Likely to Become Usable over the Near Term... 

V. RECENT ESTIMATES OF FOSSIL-FUEL RESERVES AND RESOURCES LIKELY TO BECOME USABLE OVER THE NEAR TERM... 

TABLE 3 A U.S. Department of Energy Estimate of World Fossil Fuel Reserves" ... 

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