Fiinc 



making the large investments required to mine and pro- 

 duce usable fuels from them. For the same reason, sys- 

 tematic exploration for other similar deposits has pro- 

 ceeded slowly. During the past few years, an effort to 

 commercialize production from the Canadian deposits has 

 begun. Given projected increases in the price of pe- 

 troleum, some experts believe that fuels derived from 

 these unconventional sources could begin to penetrate the 

 market in the early 1990s.' 



Oil shale appears to be the most promising unconven- 

 tional source for the United States in the next decades, 

 primarily because plans to proceed with commercialized 

 mining and production have already been announced. 

 Virtually all the readily exploitable U . S . oil shale deposits 

 are located in the Green River formation in a small area at 

 the juncture of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Commer- 

 cial exploitation of shale resources located in Tennessee 

 and Kentucky is more problematic. 



When heated to a sufficiently high temperature, well 

 over 50 percent of the organic material from the Green 

 River shales is recoverable as crude oil or gas. The resul- 

 tant hydrocarbon-containing material can then be pro- 

 cessed to remove residual sulfur, nitrogen, and arsenic 

 compounds and upgraded slightly to serve as a source 

 from which more traditional liquid fuels can be refined. 

 All phases of the process from mining through the produc- 

 tion of upgraded crude oil have been carried through the 

 large pilot plant stage, and current economics suggest 

 commercial viability of existing first generation pro- 

 cesses. Mining and the disposal of solids represent a 

 major fraction of the cost of extracting oil from shale, and 

 are also sources of environmental problems. Additionally, 

 water required for mining, production, upgrading, and 

 revegetation of surface mined areas could severely limit 

 production capacities. However, process improvements in 

 second- and third-generation commercial operations that 

 can enhance production efficiencies, reduce environmen- 

 tal problems, and use water more effectively seem possi- 

 ble (NRC-15). 



COAL AND COAL DERIVATIVES 



There is widespread (though not quite universal) agree- 

 ment that for the remainder of the century there are only 

 three available alternatives to burning petroleum products 

 and natural gas to provide significant amounts of energy: 

 ( I ) burning fuels derived from unconventional hydrocar- 

 bons, (2) burning coal or synthetic fuels made from coal, 

 and (3) producing electricity and (perhaps) industrial 

 process heat from nuclear fission. Liquid fuels produced 

 from peat and plant products could provide a significant 

 supplement in some limited applications — in agriculture, 

 for example. Other alternative energy sources — direct 

 solar production of electricity, advanced nuclear fission 

 and fusion systems — may be options for the longer term 



tioiial Area Problems. Opportunities, and Constraints 53 



future. Hydro, geothermal, wind, and ocean thermal 

 sources could also provide limited though useful supple- 

 ments in .some parts of the country.'* 



DIRECT COAL USE 



The United States has vast known coal resources that 

 compose approximately 30 percent of the world's total, 

 with the overwhelming bulk of remaining known worid 

 reserves located in Australia, the Soviet Union, and the 

 People's Republic of China. Coal was once the preferred 

 fuel source in this country, and at one time was used to 

 produce 45 percent of its electricity. However, during the 

 1940s, economic, environmental safety, transportation, 

 extraction and processing advantages of petroleum and 

 natural gas led to its replacement. All of these factors, 

 with the exception of the direct economic factor, still 

 present significant obstacles to the expanded use of coal — 

 either its direct use as a source of electricity or industrial 

 process heat, or its use as the basis for a synthetic fuels 

 industry. Because of these constraints, present ca- 

 pabilities for mining and burning coal are not being used 

 to full capacity, a fact that has kept down the price of coal 

 and worked as a disincentive to its further exploitation.'^ 

 Even though coal use is expected to expand considerably 

 beginning about the middle of this decade, production 

 capabilities are not expected to be used fully until the 

 1990s (NRC-15; ENERGY: ASTR-II; ASTR-IIl). 



While the country's coal reserves are vast, not all of it 

 can be strip mined, and there are various health and safety 

 problems associated with underground mining. It should 

 be possible to reduce these risks by the continued intro- 

 duction of new technologies such as longwall mining. 

 These technologies can also improve the efficiency of coal 

 extraction. Meanwhile, research that should provide a 

 better understanding about lung diseases common among 

 miners is being pursued. Ultimately, this research should 

 lead to improvements in prevention and cure, though no 

 drastic advances are anticipated during the next 5 years 

 (ENERGY). While many experts believe that health and 

 safety risks to miners can be reduced substantially, few. if 

 any. would claim that they can be eliminated completely. 

 For this reason, promising automated underground min- 

 ing technologies that are also being developed in the 

 United Kingdom and West Germany are viewed with 

 increased interest by the U.S. coal industry and could 

 begin to receive major tests in this country during the next 

 5 years (NRC-14). 



Environmental problems associated with coal include 

 damage to land from strip mining (particularly in the 

 semi-arid Western States where a great deal of U.S. sup- 

 plies are located), solid waste disposal problems, water 

 availability, and atmospheric pollution from burning coal 

 and from processes for its conversion to synthetic fuels. 

 Efforts to deal with some of these problems are high- 

 lighted in Section Il-G. 



