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Study concludes permanent loss of peatlands in open-pit oil sands mining adds significantly to carbon burden of oil sands production

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Researchers at the University of Alberta (Canada) have quantified the transformation of the boreal landscape by open-pit oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada to evaluate its effect on carbon storage and sequestration. Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massive loss of peatland and stored carbon. —Rooney et al.

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New study finds GHG emissions from palm oil production significantly underestimated; palm oil biofuels could be more climate-damaging than oil sands fuels

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The majority (62%) of the plantations were located on the island of Sumatra, and more than two-thirds (69%) of all industrial plantations were developed for oil palm cultivation, with the remainder mostly being Acacia plantations for paper pulp production. Earlier post.).

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Researcher urges more effort on assessment of land and water impacts of oil sands production; reference point for other unconventional fuels

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Bitumen production from the Canadian oil sands provides a point of reference that could be used to observe and better manage the land and water impacts of a rapid transition to unconventional fuels, suggests Dr. Sarah Jordaan of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University.

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State Department releases final environmental impact statement on Keystone XL Pipeline Project; analysis of GHG emissions

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Comparison of the percent differential for WTW (well-to-wheel) GHGs from gasoline produced from WCSB oil sands using different production processes relative to gasoline produced from reference crudes. The proposed Project is not likely to impact the amount of crude oil produced from the oil sands.

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New petroleum refining lifecycle model finds the variability in GHG emissions from refining different crudes as significant as magnitude expected in upstream operations

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Comparison of GHGenius, JACOBS, TIAX, and the new PRELIM gasoline greenhouse gas (GHG) estimates using base case estimates and variations from the scenario analysis. The configurations are differentiated by the presence of gas oil hydrocracking; fluid catalytic cracking (FCC); delayed coking; and residual hydrocracking.

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Coskata Unveils Semi-Commercial Feedstock-Flexible Ethanol Facility; Springboard for Full-Scale Commercial Rollout

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By comparison, the theoretical yield of ethanol from a dry ton of corn is 124.4 The process also uses less than half the water per gallon than required for the production of gasoline from conventional crude, and about one-third to one-quarter of the water per gallon required for the production of gasoline from oil sands oil, Bolson said.

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Argonne releases GREET 2014 lifecycle analysis software; unified graphical toolbox and database

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The user interface comes with a units system allowing the user to interact with the data using his or her preferred choice, in addition to performing conversions. The results of different vehicles can be viewed side by side for comparison. Expanded oil sands modeling with more detailed and refined operation data.

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