Tech: Environmentally-friendly oil mining

[dracodraconis]

Nature reports that a more environmentally-friendly way to process crude deposits is to allow bacteria to do the work. Scientists are planning to field test the idea of using anaerobic bacteria to convert deeply-buried oil into methane, eliminating the need for steam-injection and refining.

Comments

[ziggy-b.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. That would completely change things out in Alberta. Interesting!

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

That was one of the places that was cited as potentially benefiting from this technology. May be a few years before we see it, though.