4/4/23

Fossil Fuels and the Environment

Week (Month) Date Topic Chapters Textbook

1 (Jan) Tue 01/17 Introduction

Thu 01/19 Key Themes in Environmental Sciences 1

2 Tue 01/24 Critical Thinking about the Environment 1

Thu 01/26 Economics of Environmental Issues 2
3 Tue 01/31 The Big Picture: Systems of Change I See Canvas site

(Feb) Thu 02/02 The Big Picture: Systems of Change II See Canvas site

4 Tue 02/07 Human Population and the Environment 8

Thu 02/09 Ecosystems I 3+6
5 Tue 02/14 Ecosystems II – Energetic Aspects 3
Thu 02/16 Biogeochemical Cycles 4
6 Tue 02/21 Biogeochemical Cycles II & Environmental Health 4+7

Thu 02/23 Environmental Health 7

7 Tue 02/28 Biological Diversity I 5 + pp.310-320
(Mar) Thu 03/02 Biological Diversity II 5 + pp.310-320
8 Tue 03/07 Spring break – no class
Thu 03/09 Spring break – no class
9 Tue 03/14 Biological Diversity III + Restoration pp.281-288
pp.322-329
Thu 03/16 Restoration II & Agriculture
10 Tue 03/21 Agriculture & Aquaculture 18+22
Thu 03/23 Landscapes 6+17
11 Tue 03/28 Wildlife, Fisheries, & Endangered Species 16
Thu 03/30 Energy Basics 10 + pp.40-45
12 (Apr) Tue 04/04 Fossil Fuels 11
Thu 04/06 The Secret Of Eldorado
13 Tue 04/11 Alternative Energy 12 (pp. 225-236)
Thu 04/13 Nuclear Energy 12 (pp. 236-246)
14 Tue 04/18 Water Supply 13
Thu 04/20 Water Pollution 21
Tue 04/25 Atmosphere & Climate 20
15 Thu 04/27 Air pollution 19

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Overview
n Fossil Fuels
n Oil
n Natural Gas
n Shale Gas – Hydraulic Fracturing
n Environmental Effects
n Methane Hydrates
n Coal

Oil in the Twenty-First Century

n Proven oil reserves estimates

n Oil and natural gas will last only a few
decades
n When will we reach peak production?
n Likely to be between 2005–2030
n Will have to adjust to potential changes in
lifestyle and economies in a post-petroleum
era

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n Resources are the total amount of oil and

gas present in the rocks

n Reserves are that portion of the resource

that is identified and is currently available
to be legally extracted at a profit

Oil in the Twenty-First Century

n For every three barrels of oil consumed,

one is found
n Forecasts that predict a decline in
production of oil suggest it will be in the
next few decades
n U.S. production of oil as we know it will
end by 2090
n World production as we know it by 2100

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Oil in the Twenty-First Century

n Before shortages occur, need appropriate action
to avoid
n Military confrontation
n Food shortages
n Social disruption
n Need to develop alternative energy sources
n Solar energy
n Wind power
n Nuclear power

Fossil Fuels

n Fossil fuels are forms of stored solar

energy
n Plants convert solar energy to chemical
energy through photosynthesis
n Oil, natural gas, and coal
n Formed from incompletely decomposed organic
matter converted by chemical reactions
n Provide 87% of energy consumed worldwide

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Lignin
“Wood polymer”

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Anoxic
decomposition of
organic matter

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Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio

Volta, 1745 – 1827
Italian physicist, chemist, and a pioneer of electricity
and power, who is credited as the inventor of the
electrical battery.

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Swamp gas – Volta experiment

Daniel Bond, BTI, UMN Woods Hole Microbial Diversity Course

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Crude Oil and

Natural Gas
n Reservoir rock
n Coarser grained and
relatively porous
n Ex: sandstone and
porous limestone

n Trap
n Cap rock (often shale)
blocks natural upward
migration of the oil and
gas
n Often form in anticlines
or faults

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Oil
n Continuous oil and gas resources
n Continuous oil resources are regional in
extent, occurring in broad geologic basins
n Bakken formation in North Dakota

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Petroleum Production

n Primary production
n Involves pumping oil from wells
n Recovers only 25% of petroleum in reservoir
n Enhanced recovery
n Increases the amount recovered to ~60%
n Steam, water, or chemicals injected into the
reservoir to push oil towards wells

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Petroleum Production
n Proven oil reserves
n Portion of total resource that has been
identified and can be extracted at a profit

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Oil Shale

n Fine grained sedimentary rock containing

organic matter (kerogen)
n When heated to 500o C oil shale yields oil
n Destructive distillation
n Oil from shale called synfuel

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Oil Shale

n Recovery performed on both surface and

subsurface
n Disposal of waste a problem because shale
must be retorted (crushed and heated)
n Volume of waste 20–30% greater than
original volume
n Oil shale mining will develop as oil prices
rise

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Natural Gas
n Only begun to utilize this resource
n Pipelines technology is much better today
n Recoverable gas
n Worldwide estimates = 100 years
n New supplies are being found
n Considered a “clean” fuel
n Produces fewer pollutants than burning oil or
coal
n Could be a transition fuel to alternative energy

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Shale Gas
n Natural gas within tiny openings of shale rock
n Shale has a lot of open space between grains
n Fluids are held tightly

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Shale Gas—Methane
n Methane is distributed throughout the black
shale as a continuous gas resource
n Found in geologic basins in parts of Ohio, New
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky
n Recovery of the methane is costly
n Requires deep wells at horizontal position
n Water and other chemicals used to fracture the rocks
(hydrologic fracturing, sometimes called fracking) to
recover the gas

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Shale Gas—Tight Gas

n Natural gas produced from continuous deposits
(reservoirs) of dense sandstone or limestone
n Originally produced in organic-rich sediments
and has migrated to reservoir rock
n Held tightly (hence the name tight gas)
n Many gas recovery wells in tight gas rock
reservoirs drilled horizontally and fracked to
enhance production
n The tight gas resource in the United States
supplies about 25% of all the natural gas
produced in the country today

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U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves

From the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

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U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves

From the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

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U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves

From the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

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Watch video on hydraulic fracturing posted on

YouTube by Marathon Oil.

• The topic of fracking has become a highly

politicized discussion

• What pros and cons associated with hydraulic

fracturing can you think of?

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Shale gas extraction

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PNAS 2011 108 (20) 8172-8176

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PNAS 2012 109 (30) 11961-11966

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PNAS 2013 110 (28) 11250-11255

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PNAS 2015 112 (43) 13184-13189

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March 16, 2016

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Silica sand mining

Southeastern and south-central Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin have

extensive deposits of sand that meets the specifications required for hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” a drilling method used for natural gas and oil wells. Mining of
these deposits has been occurring in the region for many years, however recent years
have seen an increase of activity.

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Environmental concerns associated with hydraulic fracturing

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Map of methane concentrations in Boston

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