HIDDEN TREASURE

1
HIDDEN TREASURE

• Claude D. Baker, Ph.D.
• Professor of Biology
• Southern Arkansas University

2
Do you remember ???October 17, 1973

• OAPEC Arab Oil Embargo
• 55 speed limit
• Oil Stockpile (SPR value 90 billion 58 day
  supply)
• Energy Department (DOE)
• Gas ration tickets printed (never used)
• People turned down their thermostats in winter
• We searched and studied alternatives to achieve
  energy independence

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Oil Prices
Gas 38 cents
Source EIA
4
Search for Alternatives--Then

• Nuclear
• --I worked on site plans and environmental impact
  statements for offshore floating nuclear power
  plants, plants in the Philippines and Iran
• Oil Shale
• -- I was beginning to work on reclamation ideas
  tanked
• Tar Sands
• -- Didnt work on directly, but colleagues
  considered this a real find idea was to strip
  mine it just like coal
• Coal and Lignite
• -- Many projects involving environmental
  considerations AR work
• Gasification
• -- Idea was to bolster up natural gas production
  DOE RD Concept to plant in North Dakota
• Renewables
• -- Ideas Use the power of the tides,
  hydroelectric, home electric plants, geothermal
  (Arkansas has at least 3 geothermal hot spots)

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What Happened??
Price of oil went down
Source EIA
6
Nuclear Power--2008

• Power--Number active between 400 and 500
• France 75 power from 55 plants
• Outlook 34 new (Source Congress)
• Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville
• New Generation Nuclear Hydrogen (Source
  Entergy) Why not us?

Source of photo www.flickr.com/photos/
zormsk/499870475/
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Oil Shale--2008

• 800 billion barrels or more or 3X Saudi reserves
• Millions spent
• Our service area
• Haynesville Shale

Source www.dailyreckoning.com/ rpt/oilshale1.JPG
Source NY Times
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Oil Shale Reserves Comparison
(Source blog.myarchive.us/?p273)
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Tar Sands--2008
-- If you count the tar or oil sands, then
Canada is No. 2 in oil reserves -- 1.75 trillion
barrels in Canada -- 1978 Biggest mine in the
world --This hidden treasure has resulted in
Canada being the major exporter to US
Source Wikipedia Commons Media File
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Coal and Lignite--2008

• 275 Billion Tons of Reserve 250 year supply
  (Source EIA 2005)

What about us?
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ARKANSAS LIGNITE
Source Bob Cooper Farrell Cooper Mining Company
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ArkansasDiverse Geology
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ARKANSAS LIGNITE

• One large hidden treasure
• 9 billion tons of lignite in South Arkansas
  (Prior et al., 1985) lt150 ft cover
• Very little is being used at this time
• Great potential for synfuels
• With CO2 sequestration, we can rejuvenate oil
  fields
• Extend the bromine industry in South Arkansas by
  over a hundred years
• Bromine 1st in world with over 40 of production.

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Carbon Sequestration Potential
What about us?
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Sequestration Potential
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The Future
OPEC members increase production at a rate that
keeps world oil prices in the range of 50 to 60
per barrel (2005 dollars) over the projection
period, reflecting a view that allowing oil
prices to remain above that level for an extended
period could lower their long-run profits by
encouraging more investment in non-OPEC
conventional and unconventional supplies and
discouraging consumption of liquids worldwide.
(Source EIA)
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Teaching a Dinosaur to Dance

• Some didnt learn and became extinct
• -- Buggy Whip Manufacturers
• -- Mainframe Computer Makers
• -- Can we teach automakers to dance?

Tesla Roadster
18
Southern Arkansas University Thinking Beyond
the Box

• On a mission to promote our local
  treasures--lignite, bromine, oil, gas, nuclear,
  geothermal, biofuels
• Provide an incubator for economic growth and
  development
• Research renewable and sustainable resources
• SAU may be the real hidden treasure