Heavy Oil Is Dead. Long Live Heavy Oil -- February 12, 2022

Heavy oil is dead. Long live heavy oil. 

Bottom line:

• batteries need a cathode and an anode
• cathode: lithium
• anode: graphite
• synthetic graphite in only graphite "modern" batteries will use
• natural graphite does not meet criteria for "modern" batteries
• synthetic graphite is made from heavy oil

derivatives:

• explains why western Canadian oil is so "valuable" (think Keystone XL pipeline)
• had the Keystone XL been built, it's very possible a "graphite" refinery would have been built somewhere in Texas to provide the graphic Tesla needs for its batteries
  
• there are two reasons we never hear about the anode:
• the use of heavy oil destroys the narrative; and,
• there is absolutely no shortage of synthetic graphite

Links:

• greentechmedia, all the way back to 2019, this problem was identified;
• Ed Conway's thread on twitter, September 12, 2022
• no mention of need for synthetic graphite
• better explanation?
• manufacturing synthetic graphite

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Trivia

The link to Ed Conway's thread has a fair amount of material on the Phillips 66 refinery in "northeast England." It is located near the small village of South Killingholme on the south side of the Humber Estuary, across the water from Hull. Yorkshire is to the north of estuary; to the south, Lincolnshire. Specifically, the Humber Estuary forms the border between Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. 

The city Hull was a major trans-North Atlantic city during the great Scandinavian emigration to America. My Norwegian grandfather took a ship from Trondheim, Norway, to Hull, where he disembarked, caught a train to Liverpool on the west coast, and caught a cargo/passenger ship to America.  

While in Yorkshire in the early 2000s, I had the opportunity to visit Hull. I was not impressed; it had turned into a drab, dreary industrial city. I’m sure I missed the nicer part and more scenic areas of the city and surrounding area. I certainly missed the geographical importance and historical importance of Hull, having familiarized myself with it only after returning to the states.

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The Book Page

Again, if interested in origin of solar system, earth, fossil fuel, origin of life, this is currently the best new book on the market right now for armchair / amateur biologists, geologists, fossil fuel aficionados. 

• How The Mountains Grew
• John Dvorak
• c. 2021
• Pegasus Books, August 2021

Life on earth began with three major events, as they were; life on earth began with fits and starts.

Reminder:

• the Super Event: 2.7 bya
• Colombia: 1.8 bya
• the Boring Billion: 2.1 bya - 1.1 bya
• maybe only one organism during this period: Grypania, at 2.1 bya; evolving life came to an end;
• from 2.1 bya into the Ediararan period 
• so when you say, "the Boring Billion," one organism: Grypania.
  
• Rodinia: 1.1 bya
• [Gondwana: 0.6 bya]
• Pangea: 0.3 bya

Pre-Cambria:

• until recently, there was no evidence of life prior to the Phanerzoic eon, Paleozoic era, Cambrian period
• but now, the black shale of the pre-Cambrian: Aspidella terranovica
• Aspidella
• 610 - 555 million years ago; could date as far back as 770 million years ago;
• Ediacaran disk-shaped fossil; uncertain affinity: animal or plant?
• one single species: A. terranovica
• 4 to 10 mm in size
• jellyfish? Refuted. Movement may have resembled modern sea anemones (Cnidaria -- the "c" is silent; pronounced "ni-daria" -- root word same as "knife" -- from "burning / cutting" sensation when stung by a jellyfish)
• Ediacara Hills: south Australia.

Ediacaran period:

• follows the Cryogenian Period (635 mya)
• ends with the beginning of the Cambrian period (541 mya)
• marks end of the Proterozoic Eon and the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon

Of note:

• there is evidence for a mass extinction during this period from early animals changing the environment;
• the relative proximity of the Moon at this time meant that tides were stronger and more rapid than they are now.
• Tieds were necessary for life to begin on earth

So, the first attempt at life on earth: died out completely or came to close to dying out completely.

• I need to go back and re-read Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould.

The Cambrian explosion:

• did some Ediacarans survive the Ediacaran extinction?

The Permian extinction: 

The Cretaceous extinction: