Lunch

Benefits of Fischer-Tropsch Diesel Fuel for Passenger Vehicle Applications
Robert Freerks, director of product development, Rentech
Most passenger vehicles have gasoline engines in North America that provide a high level of customer satisfaction in all regards except for fuel efficiency. As more emphasis is being placed on Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ), engines and vehicles will have to be changed significantly to meet proposed CAFÉ standards.
          One option being considered is the increased use of diesel engine power. Diesel engines inherently have better fuel efficiency than gasoline engines due to their design. However, North American drivers have not embraced the diesel engine because of perceptions and prior poor experience with diesel fuel and vehicles.
          F-T diesel fuel will provide important benefits over gasoline fuels with regards to both CO2 emissions and energy efficiency. F-T diesel will also provide a higher level of customer satisfaction over conventional diesel because of the properties of the fuel. The benefits of F-T fuels over conventional fuels apply to both legacy vehicles and current production vehicles that meet all emissions standards.

Synfuels International Process Surpasses FT Technology
Ed Peterson, process engineer, Synfuels International
The Synfuels International, Inc. process converts methane or natural gas to ethylene or gasoline blendstock economically. Engineering through conceptual design (FEL2) is complete. Synfuels has a pilot plant in Bryan, Texas that has been successfully demonstrating the complete process since mid 2006. Synfuels' technology is in response to the international need to reduce flaring of stranded natural gas and capture the value of that gas as a liquid product. Most natural gas to liquid fuel technology is based on Fisher-Tropsch, which is about a century old and produces paraffinic diesel from carbon monoxide. Synfuels patented technology is new and produces high octane gasoline blendstock via an isolatable and valuable ethylene intermediate. Additionally, the Synfuels process is economical for smaller gas sources than other GTL system providers, increasing the market as well as the potential for reducing natural gas emission by flaring or venting. Recently, AREF of Kuwait has partnered with Synfuels to market this technology to the world.

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North American Heavy Oil Potential
George Stapleton, chairman and chief executive officer, MegaWest Corp.
North American heavy-oil and bitumen deposits contain more than 3 trillion barrels. While most of this resource is in Canada, the US has 155 billion barrels of heavy-oil-and-bitumen resource primarily in California, Utah, Alaska, Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri. Even if only a one-third or 50 billion barrels were produced out of the 155-billion-bbl total, it could significantly reduce the requirement for imported oil for a number of years.
          This is the time to develop non-conventional heavy-oil-and-bitumen supplies to support North American energy security. Besides California's heavy-oil production, hardly any of remaining US heavy-oil-and-bitumen resource has been produced to date.
          George Stapleton will address the potential for increasing domestic petroleum supplies by producing unconventional hydrocarbons that are now economically viable with sustained high prices and increasing demand for transportation fuel.
          "We had $30/bbl oil in the late 1970s that fell to $10/bbl in the 1980s - uneconomical pricing levels to produce heavy oil," he explained. "Today we have WTI at over $100/bbl."

Hybrid Oil-Shale Process Combines Gasification, Retort
Erik Ericksen, corporate legal director, Syntec Energy
Economic and environmentally clean surface retorting of mined oil shale can now be accomplished with a new hybrid technology that combines coal-gasification technology and a rotary kiln for extraction of oil from shale.
          Exothermic heat from the gasification step is used to release the oil-containing kerogen that is locked in the shale. The technologically advanced process is claimed to use about 75% less water per barrel than other conventional shale-oil recovery processes.
          The Smith process involves the use of proven surface and underground mining coupled with a patented retort technology that allows for immediate fractionation of the reclaimed product to increase efficiency and reduce costs to produce commercially usable distillates.
          The process achieves very high yields and co-produces salable products such as hydrogen, anhydrous liquid ammonia and / or electricity. Technology provider Syntec Energy has been at the forefront of developing techniques to optimize the reclamation of kerogen using a patented process, utilizing a combination of commercially available technologies.

Government Policy, Today's Critical Challenge for Oil Shale
Tom Corcoran, managing director, The Center for Unconventional Fuels
In the Energy Policy Act of 2005 Congress took the initiative to direct key Federal agencies to inventory and begin to develop our Nation's unconventional resources for our future energy security and prosperity; however, funding for these initiatives has been negligible except for the Task Force Report On Strategic Unconventional Fuels and BLM's implementation of the Research, Development & Demonstration oil shale lease program.
          Now the new Congress elected in 2006 wants to roll back key provisions of EPACT 2005 including: legislation in the annual funding bill for Interior prohibits BLM from spending money on the commercial development of oil shale on Federal lands; legislation passed the House of Representatives to eliminate EPACT 2005 incentives for the commercial development of oil shale and oil sands; and climate-change legislation to be considered by the full Senate requires U.S. EPA to create a low-carbon life-cycle standard with provisions that unfairly penalize unconventional fuels.
          Enactment into law, Section 526 of Public Law 110-140 that prohibits all federal agencies from buying any synthetic fuel for transportation purposes, other than for research and testing, unless its life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions factor is equal to or better than fuels from conventional sources.

Potential Implications of the Peaking of Fossil Fuels Production for Forecasts of World CO2 Emissions and Atmospheric Concentrations
Roger Bezdek, president, MISI - Management Information Services, Inc.
This presentation analyzes the maximum production potential for the major fossil fuels - oil, natural gas, and coal, forecasts the peaking of each of these fuels and of total fossil fuel production, and then estimates the potential impact of fossil fuel production peaking on future CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations.
          The company finds that total world fossil fuel production and CO2 emissions may peak in 2017, and world atmospheric CO2 concentrations may peak in 2042 at 430 ppm - perhaps below the minimum levels that may be required to avert climate change. Thus, geologically-induced resource constraints may limit and control CO2 emissions sooner and more effectively than legislative intervention and GHG control mandates. And, significantly, the potential peaking of world fossil fuels production may be the controlling factor in determining future world CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations.
          It is emphasized that the data available on fossil fuel resources, reserves, availability, production potential, and likely future production are incomplete, of poor quality, and are often unavailable. The data deficiencies for natural gas and coal are even more serious than those for world oil data. Recommendations are made for improving data quality and for further research on the relationship between fossil fuel production limitations and CO2 emissions.

CO2 / EOR System Improves Gasification Project Financing
N. Clay Jones, director, project finance, Société Générale
Uncertainty over proposed CO2 emissions regulations have caused gasification projects to be canceled or delayed. Having a defined and approved CO2 management plan that deals with the project’s expected CO2 emissions will help assure financial lenders that the project will be able to meet future US federal laws, which are expected to significantly curtail CO2 emissions.

Testing CO2 Enhanced Recovery in the Devonian Shales of Kentucky
Brandon Nuttall, geologist, energy and minerals section, Geological Survey, University of Kentucky
Black shales are continuous, low permeability units are commonly considered to be regional seals in petroleum exploration. The Devonian New Albany (Illinois Basin), and Ohio (Appalachian Basin) Shales are organic-rich gas shales that may provide CO2 storage and enhanced natural gas recovery. In gas shales, significant amounts of natural gas are adsorbed onto dispersed organic matter. Injected CO2 is expected to displace that natural gas and trap the CO2 analogous to enhanced coalbed methane recovery. These shales are being characterized and CO2 capacity assessments compiled for the US DOE-funded Regional Sequestration Partnerships are being refined. A total of 226 billion metric ton of CO2 might be sequestered in these shales. In an Aug. 2007, the Kentucky Legislature passed a CTL and coal gasification incentive bill that provides funding and mandates carbon storage research in several areas including a test of the CO2 storage and enhanced natural gas recovery possibilities in the Devonian Shale.

Forum Ends