Is crude oil biogenic or Abiogenic? Where does crude come from?
what is the origin of crude oil?
Crude is naturally formed in the layers of earth through chemical reaction of various minerals over thousands of years and basically contains hydrogen and carbon compounds making it combustible.
It is a natural product but it is available only in limited areas on earth. After initial exploration, oil wells are dug and crude oil is pumped up, refined and cleaned and during this process, various products are extracted- kerosene, petrol, methane gas etc, which are used as fuel for homes, vehicles and industries.
Because it is a natural product formed over thousands of years, it is estimated that we may not have enough fuel left after a few decades. So the research about alternative sources of energy like solar energy is picking up.
Crude oil is natural and biodegradable, however the process is slow because of the nature of the material.
The action of living organisms and carbon deposits is thought to be Abiogenic
Crude oil comes from deep within sea bed and is a composite mixture of organic materials and is biogenic.
I would think it is biogeneic as it comes from plant matter hundred of millions of years old that was subjected to heat and pressure over time; ancient forests of the Jurassic and Triassic periods, c. 100 million years ago, plus. These vast forests covered the land masses and evenutally decomposed over time, and were later covered in sediments. Coal comes from the same process.
The natural form of oil is called crude oil. Oil is developed from once living organisms that were transformed over geologic time into hydrocarbons from heat and pressure as the organisms were being buried and lithified. Straight from the earth, crude oil contains hydrocarbons plus small amounts of oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, salt, water, and trace amounts of certain metals. Oil is found primarily in sedimentary rocks including limestone, sandstone, and shale. Crude oil is found in varying viscosities (thickness) depending on variabilities in the environment in which it was formed. The types and thickness of oil is determined by the number of carbon atoms that make up the hydrocarbon chain molecule. The more carbon atoms the thicker the oil. Oil refineries, using heating and distillation processes, break up long-chain hydrocarbons and separate crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, lubricating oils, waxes and asphalt. After further processing at petrochemical plants, crude oil can be converted to fertilizer and plastics. Note that "bedrock" is the solid rock that underlies loose materials such as dirt, clay, sand, and gravel on the surface of the ground. Oil is ALWAYS found below bedrock. Oil cannot be found at any depth below about 30,000 feet. Large oil/gas discoveries have been found at just a few hundred feet in Appalachia, whereas offshore drilling prospects in say the gulf coast could reach depths of 20,000 feet or more. And this whole process of oil formation is classified into two, the biogenic process and abiogenic process. Biogenic meaning formation from decomposition of dead and decayed matter (organically formed), while Abiogenic is the formation from deposited minerals gotten from the earth itself (inorganically formed).
Has anyone researched this? I think the idea that crude comes from deep deep deep in the earth is very interesting.....
"Statistical thermodynamic analysis has established clearly that hydrocarbon molecules which comprise petroleum require very high pressures for their spontaneous formation, comparable to the pressures required for the same of diamond. In that sense, hydrocarbon molecules are the high-pressure polymorphs of the reduced carbon system as is diamond of elemental carbon. Any notion which might suggest that hydrocarbon molecules spontaneously evolve in the regimes of temperature and pressure characterized by the near-surface of the Earth, which are the regimes of methane creation and hydrocarbon destruction, does not even deserve consideration."
http://www.csun.edu/~vcgeo005/Energy.html
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