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I'll do what I can!
Davin :. — (archived)

Gary:

I am no expert, but here is what I understand about Shale Oil and Tar Sands: They are the Energy Source of the Future, like Fusion, and probably always will be. Simply put, even the best extraction and refining methods results in much more input of money (and energy) than you get out[*]. There are a very few sweet-spots, I believe, in Canada where the density and quality of the tar-sand allows reasonable extraction, but not much.

Now what we could do is transition to Nuke power and then use Tar Sands for our Chemical Engineering needs (asphalt, pharma, etc), and maybe for things that you REALLY need oil for. Its still a losing proposition as far as energy-in-energy-out, but Gas is a lot more useful in some situations than propane or hydrogen.

And I *believe* it [tar sand] is like Coal for the most part, its very dirty even if you can refine it down, so refining it and burning it could be the same sort of proposition as the '50 years of Coal' solution to Oil running out: Even if you could, you really don't want to go there.

You can make a diesel-like fuel out of Coal and a refinery, too, BTW...

Davin L.

*: There is an 'Anything into Oil' process, that supposedly can turn simple hydrocarbons in chicken parts and pig poop into light sweet crude with little pollution and for less energy in than you get out. It was profiled in Discovery Magazine. I have followed it ever since, and why it has not yet turned a profit, technically it has not yet been proven invalid or intractable. I often wonder if it can work on Chicken Guts, why can't it work on Tar Sands? While it doesn't solve the extraction problem, it solves the refining and pollution problems! But I am not a chemical engineer, so its all guessing here.

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