The Global Energy and Materials system Flashcards
The energy and Materials systems is composed of which two sides.
Supply
Demand
What is the relation between materials and energy?
Energy is important for material production.
Materials are important for energy production
What are undiscovered resources?
Undiscovered bodies of mineral-bearing material whose existence is surmised from broad (regional) knowledge
and theory.
What is a resource?
A concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid, or gaseous materials in or on the earth’s crust in such form that economic extraction of a commodity is regarded as feasible, either currently or at some future time.
What is an identified resource?
A resource whose location, grade, quality, and quantity are known or can be estimated from specific geologic evidence. (Identified resources include economic, marginally economic and sub-economic resources.)
Name three types of identified resources
Economic
Marginally economic
Subeconomic
What is a reserve
That portion of an identified resource from which a usable mineral or energy commodity can be economically and legally extracted at the time of determination.
Measured reserve
Material whose quality and quantity have been determined by quantitative data from closely spaced and geologically well-known sample sites.
(Aka: They know for sure that it’s there trough proper research.)
Indicated reserves
Materials whose quality and quantity have been estimated partly for analyses and measurement and partly from reasonable geologic inferences.
(aka, Estimated)
Demonstrated reserves
A collective term for Measured reserves and Indicated reserves
Inferred
Materials in identified but unexplored deposits whose quality and quantity have been estimated from geologic projections.
(Aka: we know something is there, and experience tells us it might be something like this…)
Hypothetical resources
Undiscovered materials that may reasonably be expected to exist in known mining districts under known geologic conditions.
Speculative resources
Undiscovered material that may occur in known types of deposits in geologic settings where no previous discoveries have been made or in as-yet-unknown types of deposits that remain to be recognized.
What is the R/P ratio?
Reserves (R) divided by Production (P)
What does the R/P ratio indicate?
The amount of years an energy resource or material can be mined..
.. at frozen production level and without addition of new reserves
Why should we deal carefully with R/P ratios?
- Technical and economic conditions change
- Demand is not frozen
- Knowledge of known reservoirs/mines improves
- Declining exploration efficiency (energy)
- Data issues (reliability, methods)
Two reasons demand can decline.
- More recycling of materials
- Resource substitution
Peak energy/material
the point at which the maximum rate in (global) production is reached
Reaching peak oil (uncertainty)
Lots of uncertainties. Depends on different measuring methods, calculations and data on reserves.
“Current numbers are not very accurate, accurate numbers are not very current and there are conflicting versions of some important historical series”.
Factors that affect peak oil
- Uncertainty
- Rate of extraction dependent on geopolitics (-), physical properties (-), ability/willingness to invest (+)
- Oil substitution/improvement alternatives (+)
- Net energy gains decrease
Crude oil - additional EOR
EOR = enhanced oil recovery. So the oil that can now be recovered due to improved techniques.
Current world oil production…
would have been lower than in 2005 if unconventional resources were not available
The date of peak oil…
may have already passed. There is current debate on this and it is very much dependent on what is classified as “oil”
The growth of oil production…
appears to be reaching a plateau compared to the historical growth at least
