No matter how much you want oil shale production to be ready for prime time there are just no economical and environmentally sound ways to develop the resource yet. Chevron recently briefed the Garfield County Energy Advisory Board on the current state of their efforts to tap the resource, according to The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:
Chevron Corp. is hoping to use chemistry instead of heat as a means of producing fuel from oil shale. The company hopes its method will reduce the amount of energy needed to produce an energy source, a company official said Thursday night. The approach also could produce water rather than consuming it, and result in sequestration of carbon dioxide underground, which could be a means of combating global warming...
[Jim Koffer, an engineer for Chevron's oil shale program] said the company is going back to basic chemistry and taking another look at oil shale at the molecular level to consider how the company might be able to develop the energy source "in situ," meaning in place underground. Chevron is investigating the possible use of supercritical carbon dioxide, whereby CO2 would be deployed under high pressure underground. The intent is for it to act as a solvent to draw out the kerogen fuel from the shale, so that the kerogen could be brought conventionally to the surface by drilling. Koffer said the idea may sound far-fetched, but a similar solvent approach is used to remove caffeine from coffee beans...
Koffer said Chevron is researching whether tight geological formations would contain the CO2 and any additives that would be used in its processes. "We have to know if we put fluids underground, where they're going to go," he said. Koffer said the CO2 gas would act essentially like a liquid when under pressure, which at room temperature could amount to about 1,000 to 1,100 pounds per square inch. He said it's possible the CO2 could bind to the rocks underground, in which case it would be sequestered. Otherwise, the company plans on recycling the CO2, he said. Koffer said Chevron would like to see the BLM proceed with commercial oil shale regulations but not issue commercial leases until workable technology has been demonstrated. He said it probably would be 10 years before the company might reach the stage of building a pilot plant. "We're really concerned about not creating a boomtown situation over here with oil shale. We want to work on this slowly," he said. He added, "If we can't do it environmentally friendly, we're not going to do it."
So please, this election season, keep in mind that any politician that says that oil shale will help in the short run is misinformed. The technical, environmental and resource problems still need to be solved. There may be commercial production in seven (Shell) to ten (Chevron) years but it is not on the horizon today. Renewable energy is here now and should be the lynchpin our energy policy and climate change policy.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
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8:22:36 AM 
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