8 Introduction to Renewable Biomaterials
Table 1.7Cost of oil production (US$ per barrel)
(Birol, 2008).
Near
East
North
America
Deep
sea
Enhanced
oil recovery Arctic
3–14 10–40 32–65 30–82 32–100
1.2.3 Expectancy of Resources
Common sense suggests that fossil resources are limited and will be consumed
eventually. From a physical point of view, such a statement sounds simple and is
absolutely right. Economically, it is more complex because geological resources differ
in cost of exploitation (Table 1.7).
Geological deposits too costly to be explored today may become competitive tomor-
row. An example is today’s shale gas boom especially in the United States and the ear-
lier oil sand exploitation in Canada. Both deposits remained untouched and were not
included in oil statistics for decades but reached competitiveness because the rising oil
price allowed more expensive oil production methods. Therefore, we need to differenti-
ate between reserves and resources. Resources define the total volume of fossil feedstock
deposited underground, whereas reserves give an idea of what is exploitable today with
the state-of-the-art profitable methods. Economists therefore calculate the “static life-
time,” which is the time range within which a given feedstock will be available under
current economical conditions with current technical means under consideration or
the current consumption.
The total resources in fossil oil are estimated to amount to 752 billion tons. Out of this
volume, 383 billion tons is known as exploitable with today’s technical means at feasible
coast; 167 billion tons or 44% has already been delivered since the beginning of industrial
oil production. About 4 billion tons is produced annually. Nonetheless, oil resources are
of course limited but are not to be expected to run out within a short term. The very
same is true for gas and coal (Table 1.8). Static lifetime expectancy is an important issue
because as long as fossil feedstock is on the market it will be the competitive benchmark
for bio-based raw materials.
1.2.4 Green House Gas (GHG) Emission
Nevertheless, in view of the climate change, we need to ask whether it is wise to use fossil
resources completely. Undoubtedly, producing energy from oil, gas, and coal by burning
Table 1.8Static lifetime (years) of fossil
resources (Harald Andruleit, 2011).
Static lifetime
of reserves
Static lifetime
of resources
Mineral oil 54 146
Natural gas 59 233
Black coal 114 2712
Lignite 282 4400
