For those new to the site this is where, on weekends, I often post a small technical talk, explaining some of the aspects of the fossil fuel business, so as to help understanding of some of the topics on the site. There are now two main topic themes developed, those relating to oil, and those to coal. Since this talk relates to oil, at the end I will post the list of topics that relate. It is a very simple explanation, because of space, and those who wish to ask or expound a bit more are invited to do so through the comments.

The Chinese government has authorized an underground coal-gasification project in Lineng of Shandong Province recently. This is a model project combining in-sit-coal gasification and gas-fired power generation.

This is another in the weekend technical talks that pop-up at frequent intervals on this site, It fits in with a series on coal technology that is listed at the end of the post, and more particularly is related to other ways of generating fuel from coal other than just burning it in a boiler to generate steam. As with a number of ideas that are getting more discussion (such as the injection of carbon dioxide back into the ground, and the use of pulverized coal in diesel engines) it is not particularly new, but since it is now getting more attention, the post will attempt, in a relatively simple manner, to explain what it is all about. For those more knowledgeable please do comment, as should those who find the explanation not totally clear.

Below the fold, however, I am going to repeat, with a little update, the post where I described what carbon dioxide injection can do to an existing oil well, and that itself followed an earlier post. These were pre-cursors to what later became the weekend techie talks, and these really relate to those, and from now on I will include this post in that listing. Since the topic largely relates to oilwell production, the listing this week will be for those sites. For those new to the site, on most weekends (though not next week) I will post a simplified explanation of one aspect of fossil energy extraction. So far we have been covering coal this year, after covering aspects of oil and gas production last year.

Carbon dioxide injection is a current DOE program for enhancing oil recovery from an older oil reservoir that has already produced the bulk of the primary oil that it will yield. Just recently Glencoe have started injection in central Alberta, and though the OGJ article on this is behind their wall, a short quote:

Glencoe Resources Ltd., private Calgary independent, is using the gas to improve recovery of primarily light oil from multiple formations in several depleted oil fields about 100 miles north-northeast of Calgary.

The company hopes to boost the recovery factor to as high as 40% from 10-20%. All of the formations are deeper than 1,300 m.

Glencoe has long-term agreements to purchase CO2 from two industrial plants. It operates about 50 miles of CO2 pipelines and has begun injecting gas from the MEGlobal Canada Inc. plant at Prentiss. A second CO2 separation facility being built near the NOVA Chemicals Corp. petrochemical plant is to go into service in early 2006.

The original post related to cleaning up after elephants*, and was written during the time when I frequently compared Saudi Arabia to a sandwich shop (sorry but no-one every noticed the pun!)

For those wondering what this is, on many weekends I post a small technical talk, which tries in a relatively simple way to explain some aspect of fossil energy extraction. I will direct you to earlier talks at the bottom end of this one. For those that are more knowledgeable I recognize that I am often simplifying considerably, however, by knowing some of the basics it may be possible to achieve a better understanding.

This becomes particularly true when one talks about coal mining, since there is often discussion on these pages about the relative investments in energy in a process, relative to the amount of energy recovered. Part of that evaluation involves the nature and structure of coal as it is mined and treated, and I will go into more depth on that subject next time.

It is relevant here, since it is one of the bases of judgment as to how a seam of coal is mined. If you remember, I had suggested that you might think that coal is found as being similar to a layer of cream in a cake. Separated by the layer of rock above, and more rock below, the coal itself is a relatively even thickness of material that can stretch for miles. However you should note the word "relatively" in that description, and look at the rock layers in a road cut the next time that you drive through one. You will see variations in the layer at the top and bottom all along the length. Also the layers do not have to be flat, geological movements may have tilted the seams until they are at angles all the way up to vertical. (The coal is the Urals is often highly angled, as are some of the seams in Washington State).