Clean Coal & Oil Shale Gasification

Coal is a readily combustible sedimentary rock that has been used by humans since the Bronze Age. Coal is mined in over 100 countries, with the largest reserves found in Australia, China, India, Russia, South Africa, and the United States (which is estimated to have approximately 27% of the world’s coal proven reserves). Global proven coal reserves are estimated to amount to approximately 910 billion tons, the equivalent of approximately 4 quadrillion barrels of oil.

Approximately 7 billion tons of coal were consumed globally in 2006, producing about 40% of the world’s electricity and making coal the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity globally. In 2006, China produced approximately 2.4 billion tons of coal, using coal to produce almost 70% of its electricity. The United States consumes approximately 14% of global coal production, generating almost 50% of its electricity from coal. The world is expected to consume almost 10 billion tons of coal each year by 2030.

When coal is used to generate electricity, it is usually pulverized and then burned in a furnace with a boiler. The furnace heat converts boiler water to steam, which is then used to spin turbines which turn generators and create electricity. This process is not very thermodynamically efficient, with even the newest systems reaching efficiencies of less than 60%. This process also does not result in the complete combustion of coal, leading to environmental issues such as greenhouse-gas emissions and air pollution.

Coal gasification offers the most versatile and environmentally-friendly way to convert coal into electricity, hydrogen, and other valuable energy products. This is because gasification, which is a thermo-chemical process, does not burn the coal directly. Instead, it breaks down coal, or  virtually any carbon-based feedstock, into its basic chemical constituents. In this way, Sierra Energy’s FASTOX™ process overcomes these problems and cleanly unlocks the energy in coal, without the emissions produced by current practices and without waste residue. FASTOX™ provides the key to truly clean and enviornmentally-friendly coal.

Oil shale is a sedimentary rock containing significant amounts of kerogen, from which liquid hydrocarbons can be extracted. Deposits of oil shale occur around the world, including major deposits in the United States.

Oil shale contains more oil than rock in a conventional oil reservoir and one ton of oil shale can produce more than 25 gallons of oil. As a result, global oil shale deposits are estimated to contain approximately three trillion barrels of recoverable oil. This is more than twice the amount of oil estimated to be available in proven conventional oil reserves.

The United States is believed to have approximately 60% of the world’s oil shale deposits. These deposits are mainly located in the Green River Formation covering portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Oil shale reserves in the United States alone thus constitute the most concentrated hydrocarbon resource in the world, with more oil reserves than the entire Middle East combined. Brazil and Russia have approximately 25% of the world’s oil shale deposits, with another 30 countries having economically valuable concentrations of oil shale. As of 2008, oil shale is used for the production of oil, power, cement, or chemicals in Brazil, China, Estonia, Germany, Israel, and Russia. Several other countries, including Canada, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey have begun to assess their oil shale reserves or built experimental processing plants.

Humans have used oil shale as a fuel since prehistoric times. And with the rising price of oil, and the desire for independence from foreign oil suppliers, oil shale has again gained attention as an energy resource. However most current extraction methods involve heating the oil shale, in the absence of oxygen, to approximately 900° F, which allows the kerogen in the oil shale to decompose into oil shale gas, condensable shale oil (a synthetic crude oil), and a solid residue. This creates a number of environmental issues relating to water use, waste-water treatment, greenhouse-gas emissions, air pollution, and hazardous waste disposal.

Sierra Energy’s FASTOX™ process avoids the many environmental issues with current oil shale practices and allows our society to unlock all of the energy in oil shale without producing any emissions or waste residues.

Oil sands, also known as tar sands, are naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay, water, and bitumen, an extremely dense and viscous form of petroleum. Oil sands may constitute as much as two-thirds of global oil reserves.

Many countries in the world have large deposits of oil sands, including various countries in the Middle East, Russia, and the United States (primarily in Utah). The largest deposits of oil sands are believed to be in Canada and Venezuela, which together are estimated to have oil sands containing approximately 3.6 trillion barrels of oil, twice the amount of oil estimated to be available in proven conventional oil reserves.

Like oil shale, oil sands have gained attention as an energy resource. Canada’s development of its oil sands reserves has led to approximately half of Canada’s oil production coming from oil sands. As a result of Canada’s production of oil from oil shale, Canada has become the largest supplier of oil and refined products to the United States, ahead of both Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

As with oil shale, current extraction methods for oil sands create a number of environmental issues including the large amount of water needed, the use of toxic chemicals, waste-water treatment, greenhouse-gas emissions, air pollution, and hazardous waste disposal.

Sierra Energy’s FASTOX™ process unlocks the energy in oil sands, without producing emissions and without producing waste residue.

Gasification is the cleanest way to produce electricity from carbon fuels such as coal, oil shale, and oil sands. It is one of the technologies, along with solar and wind power, that can help meet our energy needs and end our dependence on expensive and undependable foreign oil and natural gas. Sierra Energy’s FASTOX™ process can cleanly unlock the energy in coal, oil shale, and oil sands without emissions and without waste residue. FASTOX™ is the key to unlocking our nation’s energy potential in an enviornmentally-friendly way.