Word: oils
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There are nine promising alternatives. Some have potential everywhere, and others are limited by the constraints of geography, cost or technology. They range from oil shale and tar sands, which have the supreme advantage of providing petroleum itself, to solar power, wind, waves and other exotic forms, which theoretically can provide huge amounts of electricity but no oil. A situation report on each...
Shale. In a 16,000-sq.-mi. area where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming meet, vast deposits of shale hold an estimated 1.8 trillion bbl. of oil, roughly 60 times the nation's proven reserves of liquid petroleum. Shale is a hard rock, light gray to charcoal in color, that contains a solid organic material called kerogen. When heated to temperatures as high as 900° F, it breaks down into oil and gas. The richest shale deposits yield up to 2 bbl. of oil per ton. Not all shale is recoverable, but it could contribute...
...national average, nearly 20% of all homes rely on wood as a primary heating source. Its use has grown sixfold since 1970 because 1) new, all-enclosed wood stoves increase heat efficiency way above that of open fireplaces, and 2) new central-heating furnaces that burn both wood and oil can save up to 200 gal. of oil for each cord (128 cu. ft.) of wood consumed. A New England Congressional Caucus study optimistically forecasts that 50% of Maine's energy needs could be met by wood in the mid-1980s. Also, about 150 paper and pulp plants burn...
Coal Conversion. The U.S. has just over a quarter of the world's known reserves of coal. But coal is expensive to transport and heavily polluting. One solution: convert it into gas or oil. Neither idea is new; London's street lights last century were powered by coal gas, and during World War II Germany fueled its planes and tanks with coal oil. The conversion involves heating the coal to very high temperatures under high pressure so that it decomposes and gives off oils, carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases, which then have to be passed through a catalyst...
South Africa, loaded with coal but shy on oil and boycotted by most of OPEC, leads the world in coal-to-oil technology. Converting coal since the 1950s, South Africa now produces 10% of its oil and gas from coal. The Pretoria government has commissioned Fluor Corp. to build two new plants for $6.7 billion that will produce more than 80,000 bbl. of oil per day by 1983. The process requires 1 ton of coal for 1 bbl. of oil. South Africa keeps cost figures secret, but outside estimates of close to $30 per bbl. make conversion only...