Materials For Energy

Shale Rock Fracking Keeps U.S. Economy from Cracking

By Russell R. Chianelli, The University of Texas at El Paso, MRTI

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Stepping on the Gas,” Daniel Yergin, noted for his book The Prize, which covers the rise of the major oil companies, describes how gas from shale rock can lead the United States out of dependence on foreign oil imports.¹  In this article, he discusses how independent energy producers in the Houston, Texas, area have tapped a resource called the Barnett Shale reserve located around Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas. This is now producing massive amounts of natural gas using techniques developed over the past 30 years to open reservoir rocks. Specifically, a technique called fracking expands rock fractures, releasing gas. Fracking has changed the U.S. energy equation. As part of the so-called Unconventional Natural-Gas Revolution, the technique has turned a natural gas shortage into a surplus, resulting in lowering of the price of natural gas. It is now estimated that the United States has a resource base of natural gas across the country of 2,500 trillion cubic feet (see Reference 2 for worldwide production). This makes it probable that the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas.

Fracking has critics who speak about threats to groundwater and the handling of water recovered from the operation. However, the industry states that they have a long, untarnished safety record. In an accompanying article titled “The Road to Clean Energy?” environmentalist Mark Brownstein discusses the risks and appeals to the industry to allay such fears. Besides the obvious direct uses of natural gas for energy applications, the abundance of natural gas also offers opportunities to the catalytic materials community to convert it to useful transportation liquids. Future blog entries will discuss this in more detail.

1. D. Yergin, “Stepping on the Gas,” The Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, April 2-3, 2011;
2. M. Brownstein, “The Road to Clean Energy?,” The Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, April 2-3, 2011;

EQ Interview: Brazil’s energy policies: An interview with Sérgio Rezende, former S&T minister

(See interview in Energy Quarterly (EQ) in the March 2011 issue of MRS Bulletin)

Brazil’s efforts in science and technology only emerged in the last 40 years and investment in it increased by a factor of 10 in just the last 10 years. Until recently, their Minister of Science and Technology was Sérgio Rezende (2005–2010), a materials researcher himself. He recently addressed questions from MRS Bulletin representative Guillermo Solórzano for Energy Quarterly about Brazil’s plans for the energy challenges ahead.

It is well known that Brazil has invested in renewable energy sources such as hydro and biofuels “long before the issues of a low-carbon economy entered the global agenda,” Rezende said. By the mid-1980s ethanol had replaced over 30% of gasoline there. Yet, Brazil does not rely only on biofuels. All possible energy sources are needed, Rezende said, and their aim is to achieve the lowest possible cost to allow economic growth at reasonably high rates for the majority of the population. Brazil has been developing offshore petroleum along with environmental remediation, stimulating the private sector to deploy wind farms, and pursuing a nuclear energy program. Rezende said that with only 30% of its territory prospected, Brazil has the sixth largest world reserve of uranium mineral. Brazil has self-sufficiency in the exploration, mining, processing, and production of uranium oxide (yellowcake); the production of powder and tablets; and the fabrication of fuel elements; and expects to become self-sufficient in uranium enrichment by 2015, he said.

In the area of biofuels, after the expansion of ethanol from sugarcane into the 1980s, the amount of ethanol used in the 1990s declined when subsidies were lifted, Rezende said. Then in 2003 flexible-fuel vehicles were introduced, making biofuels competitive again. Now over 90% of cars manufactured in Brazil are flex-fuel and more ethanol is used for fuel than gasoline. Rezende also said that while Brazil has plenty of sugarcane to produce ethanol using conventional methods, they also have a major effort in producing cellulosic ethanol, estimating that conversion efficiency can be increased by about 30% by using the stalks and leaves of the plants and also improving fermentation technology.

_________________________________
Elizabeth L. Fleischer, Principal Development Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Catalytic Materials: Clean Fuels for the Future and Origins of Life

By Dr. Russell Chianelli, University of Texas at El Paso, Materials Research and Technology Institute

Catalytic materials have played a crucial role in providing fuels, commodities, and fine chemicals for more than 100 years. The role of these materials is going to become more important than ever in the future. Catalytic materials will provide fuels for environmentally friendly transportation vehicles, as well as materials for these vehicles, well into the future. Today, more than 60% of all chemical products and 90% of all chemical processes are catalytic processes. We define catalytic materials, such as the TMS (transition metal sulfide) catalysts (described below), as solid-state materials with the recognition that many catalysts are inorganic molecules or biological molecules. A full description of catalysts and catalytic materials and the breadth of the field can be found in the Encyclopedia of Catalysis, which includes an article by the author of this report.¹ Catalytic materials are the catalysts, solids in the case of heterogeneous catalytic processes, that are optimized for activity and selectivity in catalytic processes. The process of optimizing the activity and selectivity through synthetic techniques is called structure/function optimization. This process controls the surface chemistry of the catalytic material and has been used since the dawn of catalytic processes. Today, it is called optimization of nanomaterials.

An example of catalytic materials that will continue to be important in the future is the transition metal sulphides (TMSs). These catalysts have been mainstays of hydro-processing fuels (upgrading fuel quality and removing pollutants) and upgrading bitumen and coal for more than 100 years. Every refinery in the world uses them every day to remove sulphur and other pollutants from transportation liquid fuels. As environmental regulations increase the need for improved active and selective TMSs, refineries currently are using Co/Mo/Al₂O₃ or Ni/W/Al₂O₃ or combinations of both. The active materials are sulphides, such as WS₂, MoS₂, Ni₃S₂, and Co₉S₈, while Al₂O₃ is not part of the catalytic system. In addition, Co and Ni sulfides act as promoters of the M and W sulfides, increasing their activities by as much as a factor of 10. These are the so-called “synergic pairs.” These synergic pairs result from the interfacial coordination between the two solid-state phases, for example Co₉S₈ and MoS₂. A cluster of Co/Mo/S atoms exist at the interface, which through d-electron donation cause the Mo to mimic a noble metal catalytic material.

It is also crucial to remember that for a real understanding to develop, we must study the catalytically stabilized materials and not materials that are changing under catalytic conditions. In the case of the TMSs, this means that we must study catalytic materials such as MoS_2–xC_x and RuS_2–xC_x. It has been demonstrated that “surface carbides” are the catalytically stabilized state under hydro-treating conditions. This progress has been made by combining synthetic, experimental, and theoretical techniques, and thecombination of these techniques will be required to develop the catalytic materials of the future, which are crucial to transportation energy in the future.²

Finally, a few years ago, I was invited to speak at the Santa Fe Institute on the “Origins of Life.” Why? Because the molecules necessary for life are created on deep sea vents at the high pressures that occur at the deepest part of the oceans. Such a vent is shown below.

The black smoke, the Black Smoker, emerging from the vent is an iron sulfide catalytic material that is producing compounds necessary for life from indigenous gases (methane, CO). It is thought that similar reactions may occur on distant planets. Thus catalysis by the TMS is central to the search for life on other planets. When I presented at the “Origins of Life Conference,” I started by saying, “I don’t know anything about the “Origins of Life,” but I do know that my life began on the transition metal sulfides.

1. Encyclopedia of Catalysis, John Wiley and Sons Inc. (2010).
2. R.R. Chianelli, G. Berhault, B. Torres, "Unsupported Transition Metal Sulfide Catalysts: 100 years of Science and Application," Catalysis Today 147, 275 (2009).

The Science of Oil Drilling Goes Deep

The demand for crude oil will continue to increase in the near term. Half of the world's undiscovered oil is thought to lie offshore. Thus, in spite of the negative attention garnered by oil spills, such as the recent BP Deepwater Horizon spill, deepwater drilling will continue despite the risks. Even if exploratory drilling hits oil, in order to determine how much oil is present and the type of oil, new innovative scientific tools that regard an oil reservoir as a complex materials system are crucial, says Philip Ball in his Energy Sector Analysis article in the second issue of Energy Quarterly published in the December 2010 MRS Bulletin. New analytical techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, x-ray and neutron scattering and ultrasound are proving to be essential for mapping the composition and shape of the host rock. This information is important to determine the type of extraction to be used.

An oil reservoir is more than a fluid-filled cavity; it is a highly complex material system. The hydrocarbon material may vary from natural gas to a virtually solid, tarry substance made from partly aromatic compounds. The composition could vary from one part of a reservoir to another. Ball details a new methodology for in situ characterization of the reservoir fluids.

It is interesting to note that marine ecosystems are constantly exposed to crude oil via natural processes. Bacteria and fungi have adapted to metabolize the energy-rich hydrocarbons, and effective remediation strategies in the past have included boosting the abundance of these hydrocarbon degraders by adding appropriate nutrients. This bioremediation process can be accelerated by the use of surfactants to emulsify the oil. Dispersants are also effective to reduce the impact of spills on land shores. Ball details these issues in his latest Energy Quarterly article.

_________________________________
Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Oil Spill Update

By Russell Chianelli

As discussed here earlier this year, the Macondo Gulf of Mexico oil spill was not the disaster that was predicted. Now that the relief well has been drilled and the spill is contained, we can look back at the event. For example, the use of dispersants was fully justified as the following news story describes: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/ap_on_sc/us_sci_gulf_spill_where_s_the_oil

“Government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating “dead zones” where fish cannot survive. Outside scientists said this so far vindicates the difficult and much-debated decision by BP and the government to use massive amounts of chemical dispersants deep underwater to break up the oil before it reached the surface”. ……… Has it hit the sweet spot? Yes. Was it by design? Partly, said Steve Murawski, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration senior scientist who headed the federal team of researchers.” ¹

“The use of dispersants has been a source of fierce debate because it involves an environmental trade-off: protecting the shoreline from oil at the risk of causing unknown problems in the deep. While dispersants make it easier for bacteria to degrade the oil, they tend to hide oil below the surface. There have also been concerns about the chemicals’ toxicity and the long-term effects on marine life.^”1

In May, the federal government convened about 50 scientists for advice on whether to continue using the dispersants. Though the researchers were divided before the meeting, they unanimously recommended continuing with the chemicals, said University of California Davis oil spill scientist Ron Tjeerdema. “The best of two options, neither of which were great, was to continue dispersing,” Tjeerdema said.¹

Further, Dr. Larry McKinney, director of a Gulf of Mexico research center at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, said the new federal data showed that it was a “nearly perfect” outcome. “They hit it on the head, which is good,” said McKinney, who was one of the original scientists reporting on the Ixtoc 1979 oil spill. He reported that the Ixtoc spill, which was probably larger than the Macondo spill, had little impact on the beaches and seafood industry because of the widespread use of dispersants by Pemex, Mexico’s government-owned oil company.¹

A recent C&EN article² reported the same results of beaches and seafood quickly coming “back to normal.” These reports are reminiscent of comments made after the Ixtoc oil spill, “where did the oil go?” Similar comments are being made today. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”³

1. S. Borenstein. Microbes are eating BP oil without using up oxygen. Associated Press. (2010)
2. C. Hogue, Restricting Dioxide in Dirt. Chem. Eng. News, 88, 22 (2010).
3. G. Santayana, Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1 (1905).
4. Download JAG_Oxygen_Report (FINAL 090410)

For more background and discussion on the science of oil spills and cleanup, see two interviews from KDKA News Radio 1020 (Pittsburgh, PA) from June 8, 2010: KDKA_060810_DrRussChianelli.mp3 Interview by KDKA host Mike Pintek of Russell Chianelli (University of Texas El Paso), "Natural Organisms Fight Oil Spill." KDKA_060810_DrRitaColwell.mp3 Interview by KDKA host Robert Mangino of Rita Colwell (University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University) commenting on the earlier interview with Russ Chianelli.

KDKA_060810_DrRitaColwell 32 Minutes

KDKA_060810_DrRussChianelli 16 Minutes

 

A Molecular Approach to Oil Spills: Nanoemulsions

By Andrés Martínez, Ana Leonor Rivera, and Víctor M. Castaño of the CFATA

Emulsions are currently among the most widely used materials and have a long history from the research and development standpoint. Size matters in emulsions, and tiny dispersed particles account for the properties of ancient and modern materials. More specifically, practical applications already exist for nanoemulsions, including cosmetics, pharmacology as drug delivery systems or detectors, disinfectants, food technology, beverages, agronomy, and fuel.¹

Nanoemulsions are metastable dispersions of nanodroplets (2–200 nm) into another immiscible liquid. The droplet structure determines the properties of nanoemulsions, which depend not only on composition but also on the preparation (emulsifying path, agitation or emulsification time). Nanoemulsions are thermodynamically unstable systems with a relatively high kinetic stability and a spontaneous tendency to separate into their constituent phases. They can even be distinguished by visual inspection: nanoemulsions are clear and exhibit very little light scattering, despite significant refractive index contrast, even at high droplet volume fractions.

From the standpoint of industrial applications, the leading property of nanoemulsions is their large interfacial area-to-volume ratio, which makes the Laplace pressure and the Young’s elastic modulus of nanoemulsions considerably larger than those of ordinary emulsions. In contrast with common emulsions, nanoemulsions have a surprisingly strong elasticity at low droplet volume fractions and enhanced diffusive transport and stability. The rheological properties of nanoemulsions depend strongly on the droplet size and their interaction. Moreover, nanoemulsions exhibit enhanced shelf stability against gravitationally driven creaming over microscale emulsions.

Although a good portion of the literature on nanoemulsions indicates that they can be stable for many years, the small droplet size causes nanoemulsions to break down by the Ostwald ripening mechanism in relatively short time periods, due to deformations of the droplets to a foam-like structure.

On the other hand, the bioavailability of lipophilic components encapsulated within nanoemulsions may be appreciably higher than the same components encapsulated within conventional emulsions, which allows more applications, such as carrier or transport substances. In particular, oil-in-water nanoemulsions have proven to be a cost-effective alternative as diluents for transportation of heavy crude oil.² A typical transport of nanoemulsions is composed of 70% crude oil, 30% aqueous phase, and 500–2000 ppm of a stabilizing surfactant formulation. Furthermore, surfactants, which can be biodegradable substances, may be injected into a well bore to affect the emulsification in the pump or tubing for the production or extraction of heavy crude oil as oil-water nanoemulsions. Recently, the possibility for enhanced oil recovery has been explored³ by using CO₂-induced nanoemulsions. However, these particular proposal results are too expensive and complicated to be developed at large-scale and/or in-field applications. Nevertheless, this finding opens the possibility of using oil-water nanoemulsions based on a natural surfactant (thus, biodegradable) to remove crude oil from the sea.

 Our group has a lot of experience working with novel nanoemulsions.¹ We have studied the possibility of using them as alternative high-power fuels by using a spontaneous emulsification method with a biodegradable surfactant—obtained from a Mexican plant—as an effective stabilizing agent. The surfactant is completely miscible in water and fuel and allows a very high water content (up to 95%) in commercial gasoline. Furthermore, these nanoemulsions have been tested as fuels in a two-engine cycle, showing an increase in the octane index of about 300% as compared to the base commercial fuels. The potential use of this technology with crude is certainly worth exploring, not only for spills, but also for transport and stabilization.

1. A. Rosas, A.L. Rivera, V.M. Castaño, Fuel-Water Nanoemulsions A Revie, Nano Trends 4 (2), 1–38 (2008).
2. D.P. Rimmer, A.A. Gregoli, J.A. Hamshar, E. Yildirim, in Pipeline Emulsion Transportation for Heavy Oils, L.L. Schramm, Ed. (American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1992), pp. 295–312.
3. 3. J.L. Zhang, B. Han, C. Zhang, W. Li, X. Feng, Nanoemulsions Induced by Compressed Gases, (Angewandte Chemie, Wiley InterScience, MA, 2008), 3012–3015.

Energy and Expansion: The Tata story

By V.S. Arunachalam and Gopal R. Rao

 

Tata is a household name in India. Starting well over a century ago, the Tatas began their foray into industry, and the brand represents more than a diversified conglomerate. The Tatas are well-respected, having endeared themselves in every walk of Indian life. Their businesses are all-pervasive, from building automobiles and generating electric power to making steel and building supercomputers. Their charitable trusts and endowments are as extensive as their businesses. They have founded and funded outstanding educational institutions and human welfare organizations, and they have supported research on alleviating human suffering. The incumbent of the Tata Group is Ratan Naval Tata, a Cornell University graduate in architecture. In the 20 years since he took over the mantle, he has set the Tata industries on a steep growth trajectory, increasing the revenue of the Tata industries 12-fold, making automobiles—the famed Nano—available at very affordable prices in India, and introducing efficient steelmaking. The business empire he heads, the Tata Group, has over 90 companies with footholds in 80 countries.

In the midst of his busy globe-trotting schedule, we managed to steal an hour of his time at the Tatas’ “Bombay House” headquarters in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), India, for him to tell us how he sees the global energy challenges and the opportunities they create. A condensed version of the interview now appears in the first Energy Quarterly section of the September 2010 issue of MRS Bulletin. The interview reveals the breadth of Ratan Tata's knowledge on energy and materials, in line with the vast business interests of the Tatas. 

V.S. Arunachalam
Chair, Energy Quarterly Organizing Committee

Gopal R. Rao
Web Science Editor, Materials Research Society

Exploring for Hydrocarbon Instead of Rock

By Arthur Thompson, retired EPRCo Scientist

A new technology offers the potential to do what classical, oil-exploration technologies cannot: detect the presence of mobile hydrocarbons in porous rock with seismic spatial resolution.

Seismology is the workhorse of hydrocarbon exploration. Before any wells are drilled, seismic studies reveal rock structures that might trap hydrocarbon fluids. Electromagnetic methods have relatively poor spatial resolution, but they are used to high-grade hydrocarbon prospects by identifying high-resistivity zones associated with resistive, hydrocarbon fluids. With input from geology, and possibly gravity and magnetic surveys, a plausible case can be made for the existence of viable reservoirs. However, these surveys taken at the Earth’s surface, do not directly detect hydrocarbons; they do not distinguish between oil, gas, and water; and they do not determine if there are mobile pore fluids. These methods locate rock structures that are possible hydrocarbon traps, and they measure the electric, magnetic, and density properties.

A new exploration technology locates mobile hydrocarbons through the coupling between electric currents and seismic waves. There have been speculations for decades that seismic waves generate electromagnetic responses. It is supposed that seismic pressure gradients create motion of charged fluid in pore spaces. This motion creates time-varying electric fields. Electromagnetic signals occurring contemporaneously with or prior to earthquakes might originate in such fluid motions. However, some published laboratory and theoretical studies concerning hydrocarbon exploration conclude that signals from seismic-to-electromagnetic (SE) conversion at reservoirs are too small to be useful. Recent field tests show that these predictions are too pessimistic.

ExxonMobil supported research on electromagnetic-to-seismic (ES) coupling over several decades. Thompson and Gist detected both SE and ES conversions from 300-meter-deep gas sands. Thompson et al. imaged gas accumulations 1000 m deep and oil reservoirs in carbonates 1500 m deep. These field studies were limited by the state of supporting technology, particularly seismic sensors immune to electromagnetic pickup and programmable, high-power electromagnetic sources. Recent advances in technology, combined with the experience gained in the field tests, make it feasible to gather data from deeper targets with substantially less effort than was required before 2007.

The signals measured in the field are orders of magnitude larger than predicted from either laboratory measurements or theories based on microscopic fluid motions. When the overburden resistivity is the order of a few ohm-meter or larger, ES coupling may be useful to depths of 5000 meters. ES conversions have limited use in high conductivity basins such as the Gulf Coast, where the electromagnetic attenuation is large.

There is strong evidence that the converted ES and SE signals occur at twice the frequency of the source waveform and may contain other harmonics of the fundamental frequency. Harmonics of the source fundamental frequency are generated when conversion occurs at the interface between reservoir rock and adjacent rock. Such an interface contains a gradient in compositions for both the rock matrix and the pore fluid. The physics is exactly analogous to the p-n junction in semiconductor physics. The gradient in compositions produces an internal electric potential gradient that couples to an applied electric field. Just as for a p-n junction or transistor, an AC current is rectified, and internal stresses alternate during an AC cycle. The alternating internal stresses produce seismic waves. The ExxonMobil work finds that electrical inhomogeneity in reservoirs and the internal electric fields at boundaries between different kinds of rock can increase the ES coupling efficiency by several orders of magnitude.

The nonlinear, frequency-doubling of electroseismic conversion is a qualitatively new observation in geophysics that could have broad implications. Frequency doubling increases the spatial resolution of the image and should occur in electromagnetic surveying and in spontaneous potential logging.

Large ES amplitudes require both high resistivity and mobile fluid. When resistive hydrocarbon displaces saline solution in pores, the ES amplitude increases by a factor of 100 to 1000. Reservoirs generate high amplitude conversions when the signals from deep aquifers are too small to detect. When there are mobile fluids, an applied electric field polarizes internal electric fields, changes the internal stresses, and generates a seismic wave. When pores are so small that fluids are immobile, the polarization is suppressed, and the amplitude is reduced. Granites, shale, and other tight rock do not yield large ES signals. No other remote detection method or combination of methods is sensitive to these variables while providing seismic resolution.

ES amplitude is not sensitive to the rock compressibility. A hard rock, such as a carbonate, that has good permeability and hydrocarbon saturation will respond with large ES amplitudes. Seismology is relatively insensitive to the presence of hydrocarbon in hard rock because the seismic properties are dominated by the matrix properties, independent of the pore saturation.

The ES amplitude is further enhanced when there is gas in the pore space. So the identity of the pore fluid may be revealed by the amplitude of the ES conversion. The ES amplitude from oil is much larger than that from water. The amplitude from gas is larger than oil, and the seismic amplitude from gas has a distinct angular dependence.

On land, the logistics and costs of electroseismic surveying are similar to seismic surveys. As techniques are improved, it is anticipated that ES surveying will be less expensive than seismology because operating the electromagnetic source is less expensive than operating vibrators, and ES surveying requires a smaller footprint on land. Off-shore applications are feasible, but they are untested.

1. A.H. Thompson, S. Hornbostel, J. Burns, T. Murray, R. Raschke, J. Wride, P. McCammon, J. Sumner, G. Haake, M. Bixby, W. Ross, B.S. White, M. Zhou, P. Peczak, Geophysics, 72, N1–N9 (2007); doi: 10.1190/1.2399458.
2. A.H. Thompson, G.A. Gist, The Leading Edge, 12, 1169 (1993); doi: 10.1190/1.1436931.

What Can Be Done About The BP Oil Spill?

By Russell Chianelli

When the BP oil well, located 50 miles off the coast of the U.S. in the Gulf of Mexico and one mile below the ocean surface, blew out, I couldn’t help but think back to the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

At the time, I was working as an Exxon’s Corporate Research Laboratory and was designated as the lead scientist for the bioremediation project to clean the beaches in Alaska .

People remember the Exxon Valdez spill, but they don’t realize that it wasn’t the biggest tanker spill; this was the Amoco Cadiz accident in 1978 off the coast of France in Brittany . The Amoco Cadiz was about five times larger (approximately 220,000 tons vs. approximately 40,000 tons). However the largest oil spill in the world before the Gulf War was the 1979 Ixtoc Blow-Out in the Bahia de Campeche, Mexico. When PEMEX drilled a deep exploratory well, similar to the BP blowout, the sea bottom gave way and in nine months approximately 400,000 tons of oil was released. That’s more than 10 times the amount released by the Exxon Valdez. The Ixtoc Blow-Out lasted for 9 months until a relief well was drilled. Estimates ranged from 4000 barrels to 30,000 barrels per day being released, illustrating the difficulty in knowing exactly the amount being released from drilling blow-outs.

The Ixtoc Blow-Out was very similar to what we’re experiencing with the BP spill. Yet, in the Ixtoc Blow-Out very little of this huge amount of oil ever reached the shores of Padre Island, Texas, approximately 600 miles away. Why? Because of hydrocarbon-eating microbes called hydrocarbon degraders.

Hydrocarbon degraders are microorganisms that can consume oil, creating CO₂, H₂O and more of themselves. Approximately 50 percent of the petroleum goes to make more hydrocarbon degraders. The hydrocarbon degraders are then consumed by higher organisms (plankton) which provides food for marine life such as fish.

Every year 2 million to 12 million tons of oil naturally seep from the ocean floor and into the sea. In fact, many of the deposits in the Gulf of Mexico were discovered by observing these oil seeps, which is why the hydrocarbon degraders are everywhere, waiting for their “dinner” or fuel. They in turn provide “dinner” for plankton and then fish. Fishermen should be prepared for the extra catches that are coming because after every major oil spill there’s an explosion of local fish.

But before a fish explosion can happen, the microorganisms need to be able to get to the oil and digest it. Since oil and water don’t mix, adding a dispersant will accelerate the breakdown of the oil by making it more available to the microorganisms.

The best option for oil in open water is to use an EPA approved dispersant, such as COREXIT. BP has begun using dispersants. It is important to remember that the dispersants remove a surface oil slick by dispersing it in the water and this accelerates the ability of the hydrocarbon degraders to consume the oil. Removal of the surface slick also protects the beaches. In the case of the Exxon Valdez a storm came before dispersant were used and the storm covered the beaches with oil. A look at the beaches in Prince William Sound after the storm (www.materials forenergy.org) show a thick coating of fresh oil everywhere. This is not the case in the current spill because of the use of dispersants.

What would make this clean-up even more effective would be to use nutrient enhanced bioremediation. The hydrocarbon degraders like any living organism need nitrogen and phosphorous (nutrients) to make more of themselves. In the open sea the rate at which they consume the oil is limited by the availability of the nutrients. Nutrient enhanced bioremediation, the project I worked on in Valdez is the addition of nutrients to accelerate the natural rate of biodegradation. It is just like adding fertilizer to your garden plants.

The science of hydrocarbon degraders on oil spills was originally investigated by Dr. Ronald Atlas, now of the University of Louisville, who studied the Amoco Cadiz oil spill, which occurred on March 16, 1978 . The Amoco Cadiz was the largest tanker spill ever, 220,000 tons of crude oil on the beaches of Brittany, France. Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) from farms above the beach enhanced the growth of the hydrocarbon degraders giving rise to the concept of nutrient enhanced bioremediation for dealing with oiled beaches.

It was this idea that Ron Atlas and myself developed for the beaches in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This was the largest successful bioremediation project ever attempted. The materials used were INIPOL EAP-22, an oleophilic (sticking to oil) nutrient and CUSTOMBLEND, a typical agricultural fertilizer. These nutrients were successfully used on the beaches in Alaska and not on oil in the open water. The oil on the beaches was consumed in approximately two weeks. This was in the cold waters of Prince William Sound. In the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico this process should be even faster.

 

Bioremediation: Helping Nature’s Microbial Scavengers, R.R.Chianelli, Proceedings of the Royal Institution, vol.65, 105-126(1994). Download Bioremediation Technology Development and Application to the Alaskan Spill

Microbial Degradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons: an Environmental Perspective, Ronald M. Atlas, Microbiological Reviews, Vol.45, No.1,180-209(1981).

The Worst Major Oil Spills in History

IXTOC I well, Bahia de Campeche, Mexico, Oil Spill (1979)

Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill (1978)

The Gulf of Mexico: Black Storm Rising

Cleanup Tool Helps Break Up Slick

Gulf Oil Spill Is Bad, But How Bad

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Bioremediation Video

Welcome

Welcome to the Materials Research Society’s (MRS) “MATERIALS FOR ENERGY” blog. I am your host Russell R. Chianelli, MRS president in 1990 and career researcher in energy materials: batteries, catalysts, hydrogen storage and solar cells.

We all recognize the importance of energy in the coming years for global economic growth and security. We also recognize that energy production in any form has environmental consequences that must be considered. Materials research is key to the development and maintenance of reliable and safe energy sources which are affordable and environmentally acceptable.

It is the purpose of the “MATERIALS FOR ENERGY” blog to discuss the scientific issues surrounding all areas of materials for energy: basic research, scale-up and commercialization, deployment, environmental impact including raw materials acquisition and finally disposal technologies. In order to effectively discuss these issues we have invited a series of experts as co-hosts to assist in guiding the discussions and to present current articles and resources for discussion. We encourage all interested parties in engaging in the discussions and suggest the April 2008 issue of the MRS Bulletin – Harnessing Materials for Energy.

 

 

Welcome and Blog On!!