Why is tar sands oil so bad?
- Enormous GHG emissions.
- Relatively low net energy return compared to other sources.
- Large amounts of water required: roughly 3:1.
- Water pollution.
- Destructive to major boreal forest.
- Widespread habitat destruction, both on land and water.
- Requires expensive and risky pipelines.
Is the development of oil shale and tar sands environmentally destructive?
The development of "oil shale" (not to be confused with "shale oil") and "tar sands" has been shown to be environmentally destructive, and water and energy intensive.
What are tar sands?
Tar sands are a combination of clay, sand, water and bitumen, which is a heavy hydrocarbon. Like the kerogen in oil shale, tar sands' bitumen can be upgraded to synthetic crude oil. Because developing fossil fuels from these resources is different and more intensive than traditional energy production,...
How much oil is locked in oil shales and tar sands?
There are much more than about 2,000 trillion barrels of oil locked in Oil Shales, and about 6 trillion in Tar Sands. Most of it cannot be recovered but as methods for extraction improve, the expected yields continue to rise. By comparison, there are less than 1 trillion barrels of recoverable conventional oil in the Middle East.
Will there be market participation from oil sands and oil shale?
Although there will surely be some market participation from the oil sands and oil shale, akin to niche market players in other industries, they will never likely participate on the scale of conventional reserves without massively higher prices and widespread economic turmoil, and all the geopolitical unrest that comes with it.
What is the problem with oil shale?
Because oil shale requires mining and energy-intensive refining processes, it's a substantially dirtier energy source than conventional liquid oil. Estimates vary, but turning oil shale into gasoline or diesel may lead to three or more times as many heat-trapping gas emissions than conventional oil.
What are 3 of the problems with the tar sands?
Tar sands extraction emits up to three times more global warming pollution than does producing the same quantity of conventional crude. It also depletes and pollutes freshwater resources and creates giant ponds of toxic waste. Refining the sticky black substance produces piles of petroleum coke, a hazardous by-product.
What is a major problem associated with tar sands quizlet?
Production declines once reserves are 75% depleted. What is a major problem of oil shale and tar sands? A. Mining for them destroys the land.
What are the problems associated with the recovery of energy from oil shales tar sands and coal?
These reserves alone could satisfy the world's oil needs for about 100 years. Environmental problems associated with oil shale recovery include: large amounts of water needed for processing, disposal of toxic waste water, and disruption of large areas of surface lands.
What is a major problem associated with tar sands?
Besides helping push us toward global warming catastrophe, oil shale and tar sands development destroys species habitat, wastes enormous volumes of water, pollutes air and water, and degrades and defiles vast swaths of land.
What are the negatives to oil sands?
Enormous GHG emissions. ... Relatively low net energy return compared to other sources.Alberta, with only 10 percent of the population, emits the most GHG emissions of any province. ... Large amounts of water required: roughly 3:1.Water pollution. ... Destructive to major boreal forest, an important carbon sink.More items...•
What are some negative effects associated with mining oil shale and oil sands quizlet?
The process uses up great amounts of freshwater, and contaminates it with salts, radioactive elements, and toxic chemicals. Oil sand extraction requires clear cutting, and toxic wastewater that results is dumped into huge reservoirs, damaging unsuspecting wildlife.
What is one of the major drawbacks of using tar sands as a source of oil choose the correct answer?
For every gallon of gasoline produced by tar sands, about 5.9 gallons of freshwater are consumed during the extraction, upgrading, and refining process. That's roughly three times as much as used for conventional oil. Much of this water is polluted by toxic substances harmful to human health and the environment.
What is a disadvantage when mining for tar sands oil that is not needed when using conventional methods for crude oil or fracking for shale gas oil?
Because it requires so much energy and water to extract, oil from Alberta's tar sands, generates much more of the pollution responsible for climate change than conventional oil. Heavy tar sands oil can also sink when spilled, resulting in devastating oil spills, which are virtually impossible to fully clean up.
What are two negative effects of mining for oil shale?
The production of oil from shales has a potentially serious impact on the environment. Four specific areas of concern dominate discussion regarding development of the resource: greenhouse gas output, water consumption and pollution, surface disturbance, and socioeconomic effects.
What were the negative effects of the oil well?
Oil and gas drilling has a serious impact on our wildlands and communities. Drilling projects operate around the clock generating pollution, fueling climate change, disrupting wildlife and damaging public lands that were set aside to benefit all people.
What is the main threat of shale gas to the environment?
Shale gas production can affect ground and surface water resources—including water quantity and water quality—during well pad construction, drilling, hydraulic fracturing, completed well operation and pipeline transmission.
How does tar sands affect animals?
n Tar Sands Mining Causes Bird Habitat Loss: The projected strip mining of 740,000 acres (300,000 hectares) of forests and wetlands in the tar sands will result in the loss of breeding habitat for between 480,000 and 3.6 million adult birds.
Can tar sands catch fire?
No, if they could they would have burned centuries ago Back to video. The short answer is no.
How do tar sands pollute water?
Tar sands development produces huge amounts of toxic wastewater. Mining companies don't send the toxic, sludgy wastewater left over from tar sands production back into the river—at least not directly. Instead, they store it—three million gallons' worth every day—in vast, open pools.
How does tar sands affect climate change?
Tar sands oil is one of the most carbon intensive form of energy—substituting it for conventional oil increases global warming emissions by 20%, when of course we need to reduce emissions more than 20% in the near future.
What is oil shale?
The United States holds more than half the world’s oil shale, a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which petroleum products may be distilled. Although it has long been seen as a potential source of secure, reliable, and affordable energy, the technology to produce oil from oil shale in commercial quantities has been ...
Where are tar sands found?
The largest deposits of tar sands in the world are found in Canada, and Venezuela, and much of the rest is found in various countries in the Middle East. In the United States, tar sands resources are primarily concentrated in eastern Utah, mostly on public lands.
What is the compound that can be refined into oil?
Also present but largely undeveloped on public lands is tar sands, sedimentary rocks containing a heavy hydrocarbon compound called bitumen, which can be refined into oil. While production of oil from Canadian tar sands in Alberta is common and abundant, U.S. tar sands have different properties and would require different – and as yet undiscovered – processing techniques.
When was the oil shale RD&D program started?
The Federal Oil Shale RD&D program, initiated in response to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, began with a call for nominates published in the Federal Register.
Where is the largest oil shale deposit in the world?
The largest known deposits of oil shale are in a 16,000-square mile area of the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming with a total in-place oil shale resources estimated at 4.3 trillion barrels.
Can BLM issue commercial leases?
The BLM could issue a commercial lease after a lessee satisfies the conditions of its RD&D lease and meets all Federal regulations for conversion to a commercial lease. The final PEIS also includes provisions for wildlife habitat conservation including Greater Sage-Grouse habitat.
Where do oil shales and tar sands occur?
Oil shales and tar sands are oil-rich rock formations which occur in every continent of the world and are especially abundant in the US and Canada and elsewhere .. They are usually not associated with the other fossil fuels - coal and conventional oil - though they do occur in related sedimentary formations and, like coal and oil, ...
Why did oil shale burn?
Many a homesteader has built his cabin around a natural rock fireplace, only to find that when he first lit a big fire, the chimney caught fire and burned everything to the ground. The cause was simply due to oil sweating from the rocks when they were heated, and catching fire. Fire seems to have been a common cause of failure of the many attempts to extract oil from oil shales by heating them in high temperature retorts. A natural exposure of oil shale (Kimmeridge shale) on the coast in southern England burned for many years (about 1826) and caused the local population to be antagonistic to proposals for a commercial venture in 1848.
What are the barriers to oil extraction?
The only significant barrier to exploiting oil from both tar sands and oil shales is cost. They contain much more oil than is controlled by OPEC producers and represent a very rich oil resource. As conventional oil supplies diminish, it is very likely that these sources of oil will become much more important than they are at present, but extraction and transportation will be a major issue.
How is oil shale formed?
The oil in oil shale is known as Kerogen and was formed from fresh water and marine algae or phytoplankton - a process still going on very slowly today in some areas of the world. It is solid, totally unlike conventional petroleum, and can only be recovered by heating the rock strongly in retorts to distil off the oil fractions.
How long does it take to develop oil shale?
However, their development requires long-term planning as it takes about seven years to bring a large project into significant production. There are much more than about 2,000 trillion barrels of oil locked in Oil Shales, and about 6 trillion in Tar Sands.
Where is oil shales used?
Oil shales have also been used for oil production since 1916 in other areas of the former USSR (the world's biggest producer of conventional oil for the last few years), and since 1909 in Manchuria which has the biggest commercial oil shale industry in operation today, yielding about 40,000 barrels of oil per day.
How much oil is in the Middle East?
By comparison, there are less than 1 trillion barrels of recoverable conventional oil in the Middle East. The world is NOT short of oil. Although there are about 2,000 trillion barrels of oil in oil shales, economically recoverable reserves are a mere fraction of this at about 2 trillion barrels.
