Mars Technology to Help Process Unconventional Energy Sources

When the European Space Agency first envisioned its ExoMars mission to the Red Planet, engineers suggested a series of instruments and techniques that could be used on our neighboring planet to liberate organic matter from rocks, for analysis. Initially scheduled for 2016, the mission renounced the equipment, which is now scheduled to fly in 2018, aboard a future NASA rover. Now, experts believe that the techniques could be used on Earth as well, with the purpose of transforming tar sands into conventional petroleum fields.

According to a new study conducted by experts at the Imperial College London (ICL), the technologies could be an effective and inexpensive way to process unconventional resources, and thus reduce their environmental footprint, which has lately become a problem. In Canada especially, oil taken from tar sands has spawned numerous lakes with poisonous water, unmeasurable damage to the wildlife, as well as landscape devastation and increased greenhouse gases output. In charge of the new study that came up with the conclusions was ICL Department of Earth Science and Engineering Professor Mark Sephton.

“The research involves using extraction-helping materials, called surfactants, to liberate organic matter from rock in space to gain a deeper understanding into the biological environment on Mars. We aim to show that the same technique could also be used to recycle the prodigious amounts of water necessary to process tar sand deposits and turn them into conventional petroleum,” he explains.

“Our new technology is an inexpensive approach that can be used to reduce the water demand during treatment of this type of unconventional hydrocarbon deposit. Moreover, these extraction helping materials are environmentally harmless to the extent that they are edible. Our research at Imperial College combines first rate scientific investigation with practical engineering design,” the expert adds.

“This is a truly valuable study, which will not only reveal more about our neighbor Mars, but could also deliver enormous benefits here on Earth. The new research is a direct solution to our worsening energy supply crisis and is a great example of the seamless interaction of pure and applied science with engineering to solve real world environmental and commercial issues. Professor Sephton’s work is well aligned with the current needs of industry and we believe that this ambitious project could be of great benefit to the UK economy,” Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Director of Knowledge Exchange Dr. Liz Towns-Andrews says. The STFC funded the new research.

The new technology can basically clean up heavily oil-infested waters in a matter of minutes to hours, giving clean water back to the environment, and eliminating a serious bottleneck in the production process. Vast amounts of the liquid are required for extracting oil from tar, and even then the efficiency of the industrial method is not optimum.