The Oil Drum: Net Energy Discussions about Energy and Our Future Unconventional Oil: Tar Sands and Shale Oil -EROI on the Web, Part 3 of 6 APPENDIX D TAR SANDS/OIL SANDS (original) (raw)

Posted by Nate Hagens on April 15, 2008-11:00am in The Oil Drum: Net Energy Topic: Supply/Production Tags: charles hall, eroei, eroi, net energy, oil sands, oil shale, tar sands [list all tags] This is third in a series of six guest posts by Professor Charles Hall of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry describing the energy statistic, "EROI" for various fuels. As has been discussed often on this site, net energy analysis is a vitally important concept-just as we primarily care about our take home pay which is our salary minus the taxes, we should care about our 'take home' energy, which is what is left after energy costs have been accounted for. As important as it is, this measure is not easy to quantify, as: a)data is almost always measured in $ as opposed to energy terms, b) parsing non-energy inputs (and outputs) into energy terms is difficult, and c) analysis boundaries (including environmental impacts) are very disparate. As such, there is not (has not yet been) a consistent formula for EROI applied to all energy studies that has led to policymakers and analysts speaking the same language in useful ways. The lead paper in this months Royal Academy of Sweden's journal AMBIO will be about such an EROI framework, and we will link to it when it comes online. Professor Hall has been working in this area for over 30 years. Below are net energy analysis from Hall's group on the unconventional oil sources from tar sands and oil shaletwo resources that theoretically are enormous in energy scale, but practically are limited by flow rates, costs, and externalities. Just how limited is the subject of todays two-part informative post is below the fold. Remember, any specific numerical help via referenced literature, personal experience or knowledge to better inform Dr. Hall and his students would be appreciated. Definition Oil sands, also called tar sands, consist of bitumen mixed with sand. Bitumen or " very heavy " oil is composed of carbon rich, hydrogen poor, long chain molecules and is in a semi-solid or solid form. It has not been " cooked properly " by geological processes to yield the lighter fractions we The Oil Drum: Net Energy | Unconventional Oil: Tar Sands and Shale Oil-EROI on the Web, Part 3 of 6