Hydrocarbon-producing resource

Hydrocarbon-producing resource a resource such as coal and oil shale (kero-gen) which produce derived hydrocarbons by the application of conversion processes the hydrocarbons so-produced are not naturally-occurring materials. 

FIGURE 2.2 Classification of the various hydrocarbon and hydrocarbon-producing resources. 

SASOL. SASOL, South Africa, has constmcted a plant to recover 50,000 tons each of 1-pentene and 1-hexene by extractive distillation from Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons produced from coal-based synthesis gas. The company is marketing both products primarily as comonomers for LLDPE and HDPE (see Olefin polymers). Although there is still no developed market for 1-pentene in the mid-1990s, the 1-hexene market is well estabhshed. The Fischer-Tropsch technology produces a geometric carbon-number distribution of various odd and even, linear, branched, and alpha and internal olefins however, with additional investment, other odd and even carbon numbers can also be recovered. The Fischer-Tropsch plants were originally constmcted to produce gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels to fill the lack of petroleum resources in South Africa. 

Oil- and hydrocarbon-producing plants are especially attractive as future energy and chemical resources. Plants already supply several products competitive with synthetic petrochemicals. These products include tall oil, naval stores, seed oils, and plant oils. For this discussion, we refer to such products collectively as oils and hydrocarbons. 

Low- and Medium-Temperature Coke (773 to 1023 K or 932 to 1382°F.) Cokes of this type are no longer produced in the United States to a significant extent. However, there is some interest in low-temperature carbonization as a source of both hydrocarbon liquids and gases to supplement petroleum and natural-gas resources. 

As drilling technology moved the pursuit of hydrocarbon resources into higher-cost offshore and hostile environments, intentionally deviated boreholes required information such as azimuth and inclination that could not be derived by surface instruments. Survey instruments, either lowered on a sand line or dropped into the drill pipe for later retrieval, to some degree satisfied the requirements but consumed expensive rig time and sometimes produced questionable results. 

Thus it will be necessary to exploit other more abundant resources of hydrocarbons. In the United Kingdom there are large reserves of coal which could satisfy demand for at least two hundred and fifty years. The National Coal Board currently mines approximately 120 million tons of coal per annum of which 65% is used for generating electricity (JO. (Combustion of the low sulphur British coals does not result in excessive atmospheric pollution.) To satisfy the increased demand for coal the National Coal Board has undertaken an investment programme which includes the development of a mining complex at Selby in Yorkshire which, it is estimated, will produce in excess of 10-million tons when full production is reached in 1988. 

For each ton of hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons, approximately 2.5 t of carbon is vented to the atmosphere [44-47], However, for each ton of hydrogen produced from current coal technology, approximately 5 t of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Principally, C02 capture and sequestration is a precondition for use of these fossil fuels. However, the sequestration necessity varies, because the relative atomic hydrogen-to-carbon ratios are 1 2 4 for coal oil natural gas. There are two basic approaches to C02 sequestration either at the point of emission (in situ capture) or from the air (direct capture). In either case, C02 must be disposed off safely and permanently. With the capture and sequestration of C02, hydrogen is one path for coal, oil, and natural gas to remain viable energy resources [46]. Carbon sequestration technologies are discussed in detail in Chapter 17. 

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) developed a probabilistic hydrocarbon-resource classification scheme, that takes into account the probability with which a reserve can be produced (SPE, 2007) 4 but such a probabilistic assessment is also subject to a potential level of misinterpretation.5 Finally, as for resources, very few estimates exist, and those estimates that do exist are also subject to considerable uncertainty and the speculative character is even more pronounced than for reserves.6 BGR (2003) refers to resources as those quantities that are geologically demonstrated, but at present... 

By far the most widespread use of NMR in an on-line production environment is the utilization of downhole exploration tools by petroleum service companies such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes. Articles on these unilateral NMR systems are found in the patent databases, " academic literature, and on-line resources provided by the exploration companies. The references provided here are just a few examples in a very prolific field. The technique is applied in high-temperature and pressure situations and currently is used down to a depth of about 10 km (6 miles) to produce a picture of water/oil content in the adjacent rock formations as well as to derive permeability, diffusivity, and hydrocarbon chemistry information. Mobile unilateral NMR systems such as the NMR-MOUSE are also being developed in order to take benchtop NMR systems into the field to perform analysis of geological core samples at the drill site. NMR analyzers are also being developed to determine the bitumen content and properties in tar sand production and processing. " " ... 

Rapid escalation of natural gas and oil prices has not only once again made coal an economically attractive industrial fuel per se but also brought it into focus as a resource from which, in future, petrochemical feedstocks, fuel gas and synthetic liquid hydrocarbons could be produced. 

For many applications, hydrogen is the most convenient fuel, but it is not a primary fuel, so that it has to be produced from different sources water, fossil fuels (natural gas, hydrocarbons, etc.), biomass resources and so on. Moreover, the clean production of hydrogen (including the limitation of carbon dioxide production) and the difficulties with its storage and large-scale distribution are still strong limitations for the development of such techniques [2, 3]. In this context, other fuels, particularly those, like alcohols, which are liquid at ambient temperature and pressure, are more convenient due to the ease of their handling and distribution. 

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