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American researchers have discovered microalgae, which gave the "beginning" of all the current reserves of oil and coal. Experts from the United States are convinced that it was the microalgae they discovered that was the reason for the accumulation of these resources.
A group of experts led by Professor Joe Chapel from the University of Kentucky in the USA found a microorganism that became the basis of absolutely all coal and oil reserves on Earth. Now researchers are working on the genetic modification of a newly discovered microorganism that can become a real source of fuel and solve all future energy problems of mankind.
Previously, scientists found that coal and oil were formed as a result of the vital activity of microorganisms that lived on Earth over 500 million years ago. And quite recently, a team of American researchers found that just one organism was the most direct cause of the emergence and accumulation of these important natural resources. Experts have found that this is a microalgae called Botryococcus braunii, which has chemical "imprints" in all types of oil. Since oil eventually becomes coal over a long period of time, the B.braunii algae is also the source of this solid fuel.
"But what's even more intriguing is that this amazing algae still exists today and could well become a major research target for the large chemical and petrochemical industries," says Joe Chapel.
Despite the obvious colossal "work" on the formation of the current oil and coal reserves, B.braunii, alas, grows rather slowly, and therefore, in its natural form, it is not very suitable as a direct source for creating biofuel reserves. But experts can use the genes of B.braunii to create alternative microorganisms that may be capable of efficient and rapid biosynthesis of hydrocarbons.
Today, there are already very successful examples of isolating the desired genes, which are characterized by high biochemical activity, and forcibly introducing them into the yeast genome. As a result, generally unpretentious living sources of biofuels come out, which in the future can become a renewable alternative to the classical method of oil extraction.
According to scientists, the use of B. braunii genes has enormous advantages, since this microorganism has a unique molecular mechanism for the production of hydrocarbon raw materials. And I must say that not a single known bacterium is endowed with similar qualities, which, in general, is confirmed by the colossal reserves of coal and oil that B.braunii began to create many millions of years ago. According to experts, the transfer of the unique genes of the alga Botryococcus braunii into a fast-growing and not very whimsical organism will make it possible to create inexpensive and highly efficient bioreactors that produce fuel.
Forecasts
It is believed that global economic growth, as well as a freezing winter in the northern hemisphere, will increase oil demand in current year which will exceed the expectations of many experts and business representatives. This is reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
According to forecasts of this agency, the volume of oil demand should reach 89.1 million barrels per day, compared with 87.7 million barrels per day last year.
The IEA warns that today's high oil price could trigger a slowdown in the global economic recovery. In addition, the IEA informs that oil producers, investors, and consumers may suffer significantly if the price of oil is kept at around $100 per barrel.
Oil will never run out?
A few decades ago, geologists believed that gas and oil reserves on Earth should have run out more than once. The latest data force scientists to clarify that hydrocarbon reserves on our home planet will be enough, in all likelihood, for as much as half a century. In this case, of course, we are talking about hydrocarbons of organic origin.
Meanwhile, recent experiments at the Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the city of Troitsk have demonstrated that our Earth can produce oil and gas continuously. There is a lot of carbon in the upper mantle, they say Russian specialists, often it comes to the surface - say, in the form of diamonds through kimberlite pipes.
As domestic scientists explain, in the bowels of the earth there is a constant transfer of mass, transfer of heat. And this means that the rocks and various substances that are present in the mantle of our planet are capable of inexhaustible reproduction of hydrocarbons, including oil.
Petroleum is a liquid combustible mineral found in sedimentary rocks Earth. The composition of oil is a complex mixture of many hundreds of different hydrocarbons and compounds containing, in addition to carbon and hydrogen, different amounts of sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen and metals. By appearance oil is an oily liquid from dark to light color depending on the content of resinous substances in it. It is lighter than water, practically insoluble in it, its relative density is usually from 0.80 to 0.92. The viscosity of oil is much higher than that of water. The boiling point of various hydrocarbons and fractions that make up oil varies from 40-50 °C to high temperatures(up to 500-600 °C). Oil got its name from the Persian word "nafata", which means "leaking, flowing out." The appearance of oil on Earth is still the subject of ongoing scientific discussions (mainly two mutually exclusive hypotheses - its organic and inorganic origin).
According to the hypothesis of the inorganic origin of oil (abiogenic hypothesis), hydrocarbons were formed as a result of the transformation of inorganic compounds. Back in 1805, the German scientist A. Humboldt argued that oil comes from primitive rocks, under which the energy of all volcanic phenomena rests. In 1876, the French chemist M. Berthelot, having artificially synthesized hydrocarbons from inorganic substances, suggested that oil was formed in the bowels of the Earth from mineral compounds.
In 1876, the Russian scientist D. I. Mendeleev outlined his “carbide” hypothesis of oil formation, according to which water, seeping into the bowels of the Earth and interacting with metal carbides, in particular iron, under the influence of high temperatures and pressure forms hydrocarbons and the corresponding metal oxides . The abiogenic theory was confirmed by experiments on the production of hydrogen and unsaturated hydrocarbons by the action of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) on cast iron containing significant amounts of carbon. In 1878, French scientists, processing hydrochloric acid(HC1) mirror cast iron and iron with water vapor at white heat, received hydrogen and hydrocarbons, which even smelled like oil.
A well-known Leningrad oil geologist N. A. Kudryavtsev made a significant contribution to the development of the hypothesis of the inorganic origin of oil. In the 1950s, having summarized the vast geological material on the oil and gas fields of the world, he created his own magmatic hypothesis of the origin of oil, according to which hydrocarbon radicals are first formed from carbon and hydrogen in the Earth's mantle at high temperature and pressure, which, rising into layers earth's crust(in the region over low temperatures and pressure), interact with each other and with hydrogen, turning into oil. Moving both vertically and horizontally in the rock along cracks, the formed oil accumulates in traps not only in the upper layers of the Earth, but also in depth. These views of N. A. Kudryavtsev are confirmed by the ever greater depth (more than 10 km) of drilling oil wells.
But the "carbide" hypothesis does not explain the appearance of all hydrocarbons of various structures that are present in oil. Along with the volcanic hypothesis of the origin of oil, the Russian geologist V.D. Sokolov in 1889 put forward a space theory, according to which the gas clot gradually passed into the liquid phase, and the hydrocarbons contained in it (compounds of carbon with hydrogen) were dissolved in liquid magma, which turns as cooling into the solid earth's crust, along the cracks in which hydrocarbons rose to its upper layers, forming accumulations of oil and gas.
Already in our time, having combined the volcanic and space hypotheses into a single whole, the Novosibirsk researcher V. A. Salnikov suggested that as a result of the collision of the satellite with the Earth, volcanic and mountain-building activity intensified. Billions of tons of volcanic ash and mud flows filled up in the deep bowels of the Earth hydrocarbons brought from space, where, under the influence of high temperatures and pressures, they turned into oil and gas.
The essence of the organic hypothesis of the origin of oil is that oil and gas appeared from organic matter, which was originally in a dispersed state in sedimentary rocks. It is assumed that such organic matter was the dead remains of microflora and microfauna (plankton, etc.), which developed in sea water, which were mixed with the remains of an animal and flora. The main processes of transformation of organic matter buried in sedimentary rocks occurred after immersion to considerable depths, where, under the influence of high temperatures and pressures, as well as due to the catalytic action of rocks, organic matter was converted into oil hydrocarbons. This took hundreds (about 570) million years, which, however, is only about 10% of the history of the Earth. Back in 1888, German scientists G. Gefer and K. Engler obtained saturated hydrocarbons, paraffin and lubricating oils by distilling fish oil at a temperature of 400 °C and a pressure of about 1 MPa.
In 1919, the Russian scientist academician N. D. Zelinsky during the processing of organic sludge plant origin(sapropel from Lake Balkhash) received gasoline, kerosene, heavy oils, and methane.
Academician I. M. Gubkin in his book "The Teaching about Oil" (1932) also considered sapropel - bituminous sludge of plant and animal origin - as the initial substance for the formation of oil. Layers enriched with organic residues are overlain by younger sediments, which protect the silt from oxidation by atmospheric oxygen and its subsequent transformation under the influence of anaerobic bacteria. In the reservoir, as it moves tectonically, the temperature and pressure increase, which leads to the transformation of organic matter into oil. The views of I. M. Gubkin on the formation of oil underlie the modern hypothesis of its biogenic origin, according to which the process of formation of oil deposits includes the main stages of sedimentation and the transformation of organic residues into oil.
Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR A. A. Vorobyov suggested that, in addition to temperature and pressure, electricity also participates in natural processes. Thus, methane released from organic compounds under the influence of an electric discharge that occurs when rocks come into contact during tectonic processes is converted into acetylene, ethylene and other hydrocarbons that are part of oil.
Academician V. I. Vernadsky, the founder of modern oil geochemistry at the beginning of the 20th century. also adhered to the biogenic hypothesis of the origin of oil: "Organisms are undoubtedly the starting material of oils." According to the hypothesis put forward by V. I. Vernadsky, carbon and its compounds are involved in the structure of oil, gas, coal and other rocks, which are part of the global geochemical circulation system
in the earth's crust (Fig. 1.1). The main of these compounds is carbon dioxide (CO2), the content of which in the atmosphere is estimated at 4 10 tons. At the same time, more than 8 108 tons of CO2 are absorbed from the atmosphere annually as a result of photosynthesis and weathering. That is, in the absence of a circulation, carbon could completely disappear from the atmosphere over thousands of years and be “buried” in rocks, where CO2 reserves are about 500 times greater than in the atmosphere.
Methane (CH4) is also a carbon carrier, and its content in the atmosphere is 5109 tons. However, from the atmosphere, part of CH4 enters the stratosphere and further into space. In addition, methane is also consumed as a result of photochemical transformations. If we take into account that the duration of the existence of the CH4 molecule in the atmosphere is about 5 years, then in order to replenish its reserves, about 109 tons of methane from underground reserves should annually enter the atmosphere in the form of methane evaporation or “gas breathing of the Earth”.
At present, the Earth's mantle during volcanic eruptions and degassing of the bowels due to the "gas breathing" of the planet are considered to be sources of carbon intake. At the same time, the replenishment of carbon reserves occurs as a result of the pulling of sediments of oceanic rock into the mantle when the plates are pushed against each other. To a much lesser extent (10 - 10 of the total amount annually "stored") carbon is supplied together with meteorite matter from outer space.
Professor of Moscow State University B. A. Sokolov figuratively writes about the organic origin of oil and gas: “Oil is the result of physicochemical reactions in the collision of two opposite moving flows: a descending organomineral wave of sedimentary layers containing organic matter and undergoing catagenetic transformations, on the one hand, and rising fluid, carrying out heat and mass transfer from the bowels of the Earth to its surface - on the other.
The majority of Belarusian scientists (academician National Academy Sciences of Belarus and Russian Academy sciences R. G. Garetsky, corresponding members of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus R. E. Aizberg and A. V. Kudelsky) connect the genesis of oil and natural gas with organic (sedimentary-migration) theory. Their position is due to the fact that almost all known accumulations of oil and hydrocarbon gases are confined to sedimentary strata and development areas of the so-called oil and gas source (gas and gas generating) complexes. There is a very great similarity of most organic compounds found in sedimentary rocks with hydrocarbons that make up the bulk of oil, while it is shown that organic matter in oil is of biogenic origin. In accordance with the sedimentary-migration theory, the oil and gas content of the subsoil is a historical phenomenon. It depends on the quantity and quality of the organic matter of generation rocks, the intensity of their subsidence to great depths (2-10 km or more) in a growing high-temperature environment (from 60-80 to 150-200 °C).
In this regard, all exploration work to discover new oil and gas fields in Belarus is based on the concept of their organic origin.
At the same time, according to academician R.G. Garetsky, the identified cases of finding oil shows in crystalline or igneous rocks (if they are not associated with overflow from sedimentary strata) may be evidence of the possibility of the genesis of oil and naphthides in an inorganic (abiogenic) way. But such naphthide shows are incommensurably rarer than oil shows in sedimentary complexes.
The Belarusian scientist, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Yu. M. Pleskachevsky in the late 1980s proposed a radiation-chemical hypothesis of the genesis of oil, which is based on the known phenomena of the interaction of ionizing radiation with matter. According to this hypothesis, oil is formed both from the organic matter of the sedimentary stratum and from carbonaceous gases of deep and superdeep origin. Under the influence of natural radiation of terrestrial rocks, gases of mantle (abiogenic) origin, such as methane and low molecular weight hydrocarbons, which are also present in the degradation products of organic substances "buried" in sediments, i.e., of biogenic origin, polymerize and then turn into oil. At the same time, the depth of these transformations is largely determined by the absorbed dose of radiation, which determines the formation of oil of different composition and viscosity.
In favor of the radiation-chemical hypothesis of oil formation is evidenced by the presence in it of natural radioactive substances: uranium, thorium, etc., as well as vanadium compounds (the concentration of which in heavy
The common forecast about the imminent (in 30-50 years) depletion of oil reserves is perceived by specialists in different ways. Most are respectful (“it is”), others are skeptical (“oil reserves are limitless!”), and still others are regretful (“could be enough for centuries…”). "Popular Mechanics" decided to look into this issue.
Oil formation according to biogenic theory
Volumes of oil production at the field " white tiger» on the sea shelf of Vietnam surpassed the most optimistic forecasts of geologists and inspired many oilmen with the hope that huge reserves of "black gold" are stored at great depths
1494-1555: Georgius Agricola, physician and metallurgist Until the 18th century, there were many curious versions of the origin of oil (from "terrestrial fat under the influence of the waters of the Flood", from amber, from the urine of whales, etc.). In 1546, George Agricola wrote that oil is of inorganic origin, and coals are formed by its thickening and solidification.
1711−1765: Mikhailo Vasilyevich Lomonosov, scientist-encyclopedist - chemist, physicist, astronomer, etc. One of the first to express a scientifically based concept of the origin of oil from plant residues subjected to charring and pressure in the earth's layers ("On the layers of the earth", 1763) : "Brown and black oily matter is expelled by underground heat from the prepared coals ..."
1834−1907: Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, chemist, physicist, geologist, meteorologist, etc. Initially shared the idea of the organic origin of oil (as a result of reactions taking place at great depths, at high temperatures and pressures, between carbonaceous iron and water seeping from the surface land). Later adhered to the "inorganic" version
1861−1953: Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky, organic chemist He made a significant contribution to solving the problem of the origin of oil. He showed that some carbon compounds that are part of animals and plants, at low temperatures and appropriate conditions, can form products similar to oil in terms of chemical composition and physical properties
1871−1939: Ivan Mikhailovich Gubkin, petroleum geologist Founder of Soviet petroleum geology, supporter of the biogenic theory. He summarized the results of studies of the nature of oil and came to the conclusion: the process of its formation is continuous; the most favorable for the formation of oil are unstable in the past areas of the earth's crust at the boundaries of the areas of subsidence and uplift
Roughly speaking, no one knows how long oil reserves will last. What is more surprising, until now, no one can say exactly how oil is formed, although the debate has been going on since the 19th century. Scientists, depending on their beliefs, were divided into two camps.
Now in the world among specialists the biogenic theory prevails. It says that oil and natural gas were formed from the remains of plant and animal organisms in the course of a multi-stage process lasting millions of years. According to this theory, one of the founders of which was Mikhailo Lomonosov, oil reserves are irreplaceable and all its deposits will someday run out. Irreplaceable, of course, given the transience of human civilizations: the first alphabet and nuclear energy are separated by no more than four thousand years, while it will take millions to form new oil from the current organic residues. This means that our not too distant descendants will have to do without oil first, and then without gas ...
Proponents of the abiogenic theory look to the future with optimism. They believe that we will have enough oil and gas reserves for many more centuries. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, while in Baku, once learned from the geologist German Abikh that oil fields are geographically very often confined to faults - a special type of cracks in the earth's crust. At the same time, the famous Russian chemist became convinced that hydrocarbons (oil and gas) are formed from inorganic compounds deep underground. Mendeleev believed that during mountain-building processes along cracks that cut through the earth's crust, surface water seeps into the depths of the Earth to metal masses and reacts with iron carbides, forming metal oxides and hydrocarbons. Then hydrocarbons rise through cracks into the upper layers of the earth's crust and form oil and gas fields. According to the abiogenic theory, the formation of new oil does not have to wait for millions of years, it is a completely renewable resource. Proponents of the abiogenic theory are sure that new deposits are waiting for discovery at great depths, and those explored at this moment oil reserves may well turn out to be negligible compared to those still unknown.
Looking for evidence
Geologists, however, are more pessimists than optimists. At least, they have more reasons to trust the biogenic theory. Back in 1888, German scientists Gefer and Engler set up experiments that proved the possibility of obtaining oil from animal products. During the distillation of fish oil at a temperature of 4000C and a pressure of about 1 MPa, they isolated saturated hydrocarbons, paraffin and lubricating oils from it. Later, in 1919, Academician Zelinsky from organic sludge from the bottom of Lake Balkhash, predominantly of plant origin, obtained crude tar, coke and gases - methane, CO, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide during distillation. Then he extracted gasoline, kerosene and heavy oils from the resin, proving by experience that oil can also be obtained from plant organic matter.
Supporters of the inorganic origin of oil had to correct their views: now they did not deny the origin of hydrocarbons from organics, but believed that they could also be obtained in an alternative, inorganic way. Soon they had their own evidence. Spectroscopic studies have shown that in the atmosphere of Jupiter and other giant planets, as well as their satellites and in the gaseous envelopes of comets, the simplest hydrocarbons are present. This means that if in nature there are processes of synthesis of organic substances from inorganics, nothing prevents the formation of hydrocarbons from carbides on Earth. Other facts were soon discovered that did not agree with the classical biogenic theory. At a number of oil wells, oil reserves unexpectedly began to recover.
oil magic
One of the first such paradoxes was discovered in an oil field in the Tersko-Sunzhensky region, not far from Grozny. The first wells were drilled here in 1893, in places of natural oil shows.
In 1895, one of the wells from a depth of 140 m gave a grand fountain of oil. After 12 days of flowing, the walls of the oil pit collapsed and the flow of oil flooded the derricks of the adjacent wells. Only three years later, the fountain was tamed, then it dried up and they switched from the fountain method of oil production to the pumping one.
To the beginning of the Great Patriotic War all wells were heavily watered, and some of them were mothballed. After the onset of peace, production was restored, and, to everyone's surprise, almost all high-water wells began to produce waterless oil! In an incomprehensible way, the wells received a "second wind". Half a century later, the situation repeated itself. By the beginning of the Chechen wars, the wells were again heavily watered, their production rates dropped significantly, and during the wars they were not exploited. When production was resumed, production rates increased significantly. Moreover, the first small wells began to pump oil through the annulus again onto the earth's surface. Supporters of the biogenic theory were perplexed, while "inorganics" easily explained this paradox by the fact that in this place oil is of inorganic origin.
Something similar happened at one of the largest oil fields in the world, the Romashkino oil field, which has been under development for more than 60 years. According to Tatar geologists, 710 million tons of oil could be extracted from the wells of the field. However, to date, almost 3 billion tons of oil have already been produced here! The classical laws of oil and gas geology cannot explain the observed facts. Some wells seemed to be pulsating: the drop in production rates was suddenly replaced by their long-term growth. A pulsating rhythm was also noted in many other wells in the territory of the former USSR.
It is impossible not to mention the White Tiger field on the sea shelf of Vietnam. From the very beginning of oil production, "black gold" was extracted exclusively from sedimentary strata, here the sedimentary stratum (about 3 km) was drilled through, entered the foundation of the earth's crust, and the well gushed. Moreover, according to geologists' calculations, about 120 million tons could be extracted from the well, but even after this volume was produced, oil continued to flow from the bowels with good pressure. The field posed a new question for geologists: does oil accumulate only in sedimentary rocks, or can basement rocks be its reservoir? If there is also oil in the foundation, then the world's oil and gas reserves may turn out to be much larger than we think.
Fast and inorganic
What caused the “second wind” of many wells, which is inexplicable from the point of view of classical oil and gas geology? “In the Tersko-Sunzhenskoye field and some others, oil can form from organic matter, but not in millions of years, as classical geology provides, but in a matter of years,” says the head of the Department of Geology of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas. THEM. Gubkin Viktor Petrovich Gavrilov. - The process of its formation can be compared with the artificial distillation of organics, similar to the experiments of Gefer and Zelinsky, but carried out by nature itself. Such a rate of oil formation became possible due to the geological features of the area, where, together with the lower part of the lithosphere, part of the sediments is drawn into the upper mantle of the Earth. There, under conditions of high temperatures and pressures, rapid processes of destruction of organic matter and the synthesis of new hydrocarbon molecules take place.”
At the Romashkinskoye field, according to Professor Gavrilov, another mechanism operates. Here, in the thickness of the crystalline rocks of the earth's crust, in the foundation, there is a thick layer of high-alumina gneisses more than 3 billion years old. These ancient rocks contain a lot (up to 15%) of graphite, from which hydrocarbons are formed at high temperatures in the presence of hydrogen. Along faults and cracks, they rise into the porous sedimentary layer of the crust.
There is another mechanism for the rapid replenishment of hydrocarbon reserves, found in the West Siberian oil and gas province, where half of Russia's hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated. Here, according to the scientist, in the buried rift valley ancient ocean processes of methane formation from inorganics have occurred and continue to occur, as in “black smokers” (see sidebar). But the local rift valley is blocked by precipitation, which interferes with the dispersion of methane and causes it to concentrate in rock reservoirs. This gas fed and continues to feed hydrocarbons throughout West Siberian Plain. Here, oil is rapidly formed from organic compounds. So, hydrocarbons will always be here?
“If we build our approach to field development on new principles,” the professor replies, “we coordinate the rate of extraction with the rate of hydrocarbon inflow from generation centers in these areas, the wells will operate for hundreds of years.”
But this is an overly optimistic scenario. The realities are more cruel: in order for reserves to be replenished, humanity will have to abandon “violent” mining technologies. In addition, it will be necessary to introduce special rehabilitation periods, temporarily refusing to exploit deposits. Can we go for it in the face of a growing world population and growing needs? Hardly. After all, except for nuclear energy, oil still has no worthy alternative.
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev critically stated in the century before last that burning oil is like heating a furnace with banknotes. If the great chemist lived today, he would probably call us the craziest generation in the history of civilization. And perhaps he would be wrong - our children can still outdo us. But the grandchildren, most likely, will not have such a chance ...
There is usually little doubt about the formation of oil and coal - these are the organic remains of ancient plants and animals transformed under the influence of pressure from the bowels and with a lack of oxygen. Therefore, coal and oil are rightly classified as non-renewable resources, and the press regularly scares us with a very short period of time remaining until they are completely exhausted. In the corner, this is indisputably confirmed - traces of ancient animal organisms and plants. But with oil, it turns out, everything is far from being so simple. There are at least two more theories that have a fairly serious scientific basis.The experience of the German scientists G. Gefer and K. Engler, set by them in 1888, serves as confirmation of the classical theory of oil formation. They carried out the distillation of fish oil at a temperature of 400 C and a pressure of about 1 MPa. At the same time, they managed to obtain saturated hydrocarbons, paraffin, lubricating oils with a high content of alkenes, naphthenes and arenes. Later Academician N.D. Zelinsky conducted a similar experiment, but organic sludge formed from algae was chosen as the starting material. He managed to get gasoline, kerosene, heavy oils, as well as methane ...
It would seem that everything fell into place with this process. Millions of years ago, the deposited remains that fell to great depths (how?) Under the influence of pressure and temperature, were transformed into oil-gas-coal. Soon (in 50 years) we will extract them all, and we will have to wait a few more million years before the renewal of reserves. It wasn't there. The facts show that the processes of oil and gas formation continue and at a much higher rate than is possible according to the classical theory.
The facts of the ongoing formation of oil and gas are evidenced by the long life of the fields, reaching a hundred or more years, and the total volume of cumulative production, many times higher than originally planned. The level of production at the fields at its later stages first decreases to 10-20% of the maximum production level, and then stabilizes. For example, the Shebelinskoye field has been in operation for more than 50 years, and its resources do not run out. The initial gas reserves of the field have been repeatedly adjusted upwards. Currently, they are 2 times higher than originally approved. In Tatarstan, there is also a clear discrepancy between oil resources and oil production volumes. More than 3 billion tons of oil have already been extracted, while the estimate of their oil source material for the entire sedimentary stratum is only 709 million tons. And these are not isolated cases.
Theory one. Carbide or biogenic.
In 1866, the French chemist M. Berthelot suggested that oil was formed (and is being formed) in the bowels of the Earth from minerals. In support of his theory, he conducted several experiments, and he managed to artificially synthesize hydrocarbons from inorganic substances.
Ten years later, on October 15, 1876, at a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society, D.I. Mendeleev outlined his hypothesis of oil formation. The great chemist believed that during mountain building processes, water enters deep into the cracks-faults that cut through the earth's crust. Seeping into the bowels, it eventually meets with iron carbides and, under the influence of high temperatures and pressure, enters into chemical reaction. As a result of this reaction, iron oxides and hydrocarbons are formed. The resulting substances rise along the faults of the crust into its upper layers and saturate the porous rocks. As a result, gas and oil fields are formed.
Mendeleev refers in this case to experiments on the production of hydrogen and unsaturated hydrocarbons by the action of sulfuric acid on cast iron containing a sufficient amount of carbon.
At that time, the ideas of Mendeleev's "pure chemist" were not successful with geologists, who considered the experiments carried out in the laboratory to be different from the processes occurring in nature. However, the carbide or, as it is also called, biogenic theory about the origin of oil received evidence from an unexpected source - from astrophysicists. Spectra study celestial bodies showed that hydrocarbons are present in the atmosphere of Jupiter and some other planets, as well as in the gaseous envelopes of comets. Well, since carbon and hydrogen compounds are common in space, it means that the processes of synthesis of organic substances from inorganic matter in nature take place!
Theory two. The carbon cycle in nature.
A group of scientists from the Institute of Oil and Gas Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPOG RAS), led by Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Azariy Barenbaum, developed another theory of the origin of oil and gas. According to their concept, hydrocarbon deposits can arise not over millions of years, but over decades. At the same time, the theory of the greenhouse effect is questioned, since the main thesis is that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can self-regulate, which means that there is no uncontrolled accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The theory of Russian scientists suggests that oil and gas formation is not so much a geological process as a climatic one. It is connected with the water and carbon cycle on Earth. Carbon coming with rainwater, captured from the atmosphere in the form of bicarbonate under the conditions of the earth's crust, is reduced to hydrocarbons, from which oil and gas accumulations are formed already in geological structures-traps. According to Russian scientists, up to 90% of oil and gas accumulations at depths of 1 to 10 kilometers appear due to the theory he described, and only 10% of the reserves are formed from organic residues, as assumed by the classical theory.
And another important conclusion of Russian geologists is that due to the active participation in the formation of oil and gas of the climatic cycle, the replenishment of fossil hydrocarbon deposits occurs not in many hundreds of thousands and millions of years, but only in a few decades. And the second conclusion is that a moderate extraction of oil and gas from deposits should not greatly affect the potential oil and gas potential of the region. But this is true on the condition that hydrocarbons will be consumed within the same region as their production. That is, thermal power plants operating on hydrocarbons compensate for oil and gas production by its formation.
Vladimir Khomutko
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Theories of the origin of oil
The existence of a modern world economy is unthinkable without minerals such as oil and gas, which is why oil is often called "black gold", since the high demand for this energy resource allows oil companies to make solid profits. Many are interested in the question of what is the origin of oil and gas and what is oil in general. In this article we will try to answer these questions in an accessible language.
Oil is a complex mixture of various chemical substances, in which two elements predominate - carbon and hydrogen, the compounds of which are called hydrocarbons.
So, oil consists of the following chemical compounds:
- Hydrocarbons. They are divided into methane, naphthenic, paraffin and aromatic.
- Asphalt and resinous substances. Substances soluble in gasoline are called asphaltenes. Substances that gasoline does not dissolve are called resins.
- Sulfur and its compounds. The content of sulphurous substances in oil usually ranges from 0.1 to 6 percent, however, there are oils and great content this chemical element.
- Nitrogen and oxygen compounds. Their content in oil, as a rule, does not exceed 1 percent.
- Metals. There are also few of them in oils (less than a percent).
Crude oil is unsuitable for practical use. In order to obtain practically applicable products, it is subjected to processing at oil refineries (refineries). Field oil is crude and marketable. Crude oil is a substance that was formed naturally in nature. It contains dissolved gases, salts, water and rock fragments.
All these undesirable impurities are not only useless from a practical point of view, but also have an extremely negative effect on the equipment used and on the pipelines through which raw materials are supplied for processing. Therefore, in the oil fields, oil undergoes preliminary purification before being pumped into the main oil pipeline. It is after these processes that oil is obtained, called commercial oil.
The list of products obtained from this mineral is very extensive. This and all known species motor fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation kerosene, and so on), as well as boiler and marine fuel (fuel oil) and various types of oils (lubricating, transmission, and so on).
In addition, petroleum feedstocks are used to make plastics, solvents, paints, cleaning products and explosives. Car tires also made from raw materials obtained from "black gold". It is not in vain that this mineral is called the most important energy carrier, since its main purpose is fuel raw materials. And already the fuel is converted into thermal, mechanical and other types of energy by combustion.
Currently, the most popular theories explaining the formation of oil in nature are two hypotheses of the origin of oil. Both of these assumptions have both their ardent supporters and their irreconcilable opponents in the scientific world.
The first theory is biogenic.
It says that oil was formed from the organic remains of the most different types flora and fauna, and this process continued for many millions of years. and animals and plants for many millions of years. The world-famous Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov was the first to put forward this hypothesis.
If we take this theory as a basis, then the prospect of mankind in terms of this energy resource does not look at all rosy. The fact is that our civilization is developing much faster than the natural formation of oil in nature.
In other words, humanity is pumping it out much more than nature has time to create, as a result of which this mineral is classified as a so-called non-renewable resource. Supporters of this theory are sure that in the near future the reserves of black gold will run out, and humanity will need alternative sources energy.
The second theory looks more optimistic in this regard, especially for the oil industry. It's called abiogenic.
And then the first to put forward this hypothesis was the Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. Once, while in Baku, he met a very famous geologist in those days, whose name was German Abikh. It was this geologist, on the basis of the scientific geological data he had, who told Mendeleev that all the largest oil fields, as a rule, are located close to faults and cracks in the earth's crust.
Taking this information into account, Dmitry Ivanovich developed his own theory about natural origin this mineral. He suggested that through such cracks and faults, surface waters penetrate deep into the earth's crust, after which they react with the metals contained in it and their carbide compounds.
According to the scientist, it is as a result of this process that hydrocarbons are formed. Then, along the same faults and cracks, they eventually rise closer to the surface, which leads to the appearance of an oil or gas field. The main thing in this theory is that, according to Mendeleev, the duration of this process does not exceed ten years.
If you believe this hypothesis, then the hydrocarbon reserves of our civilization will last for many more centuries, since the fields currently being developed will gradually recover if their development is stopped for a while.
Biogenic theory of the origin of oil
However, in the context of the enormous demand for this energy resource, which is constantly increasing due to the constant growth of the population the globe, it is not possible to stop production at already exploited fields. All hope is only for new, not yet touched reserves of raw materials.
Currently, the abiogenic theory is gaining more and more popularity, as the development of modern technologies allows scientists to find more and more evidence of its truth. For example, it has been scientifically proven and verified by numerous experiments that when heated to a temperature of four hundred degrees Celsius, any hydrocarbon containing polynaphthenic compounds begins to release pure oil. And this is a scientifically proven reliable fact.
Artificial "black gold"
"Let me!" - you ask, - "if oil can be obtained in laboratories, then why then spend huge amounts of money on its extraction from the bowels of the earth?" It's not that simple, and the main problem is that the cost of artificial oil is very high. In other words, at the prices at which it will be sold, no one will buy it, and the production of such a product will be unprofitable. Obtaining this product in the laboratory was interesting only from a scientific point of view, since the very possibility of such a process once again confirmed Mendeleev's theory.
Let's take a look at the origin of this valuable natural energy source for comparison. According to the current opinion, the dead living organisms that sank to the seabed ended up in an environment where there is no oxygen and microorganisms, as a result of which their decay did not occur (due to the absence of oxidative processes and the impact of microbes). As a result, silty precipitation accumulated. In the process of movements of the geological layers of the earth's crust, these sediments descended to greater and greater depths, while penetrating into the bowels of the Earth.
For many millions of years, this silt was under the influence of high temperature values and high pressure, which caused certain chemical and physical processes. The carbon contained in these deposits began to form compounds with hydrogen (hydrocarbons). High molecular weight hydrocarbons are liquid substances that are part of the oil. And low-molecular hydrocarbons are just gaseous chemical compounds, from which the well-known natural gas is formed.
That is why in the places of oil production there are always hydrocarbon gases, called associated gases, although there are deposits of pure natural gas on our planet, without the presence of liquid petroleum feedstock in them. This theory just confirms the biogenic hypothesis of M.V. Lomonosov, so there is still no unequivocal answer to the question of the origin of oil.
So what conclusions can be drawn from all of the above?
Scientists cannot say exactly how hydrocarbon minerals are formed at present. Both hypotheses existing in the modern scientific world are confirmed, and one of them has not yet been finally refuted.
If Lomonosov's theory is correct, then human civilization urgently needs to look for alternative energy sources, because if reserves natural hydrocarbons will be exhausted world economy a very deep crisis awaits. Proceeding from the worst, world science is actively working in this direction. Already, people have learned how to make fuel from plants, use the energy of wind and tidal waves to generate electrical energy, developments in the field of electric automotive industry have advanced far, and work in this area is constantly ongoing.
However, so far, scientists cannot offer an equivalent replacement for oil, and "black gold" remains the most important natural energy carrier for the entire human civilization.
Few doubt that the human mind, which launched a rocket into space and sank to the bottom of the oceans, will find a way out of this situation, no matter what theory of the origin of oil and natural gas turns out to be true. For example, there is plenty of hydrogen, from which fuel can be made, in the waters of the world's oceans.
Here the question is different - when scientific and technological progress will make alternative energy sources as cheap and affordable as hydrocarbons. And if this happens later than the usual energy resources run out, then the transition of the world economy to new energy sources can be very painful.
