Tuesday, February 7, 1S34
Daily Ncbrsskan
Pc:3 7
Gas may fulfill energy needs
hJ mm
By Donna GIsson
Future natural gas use
will increase more than
ever before, said a speak
er Monday at the UNL
colo;:y department.
Richard Wyman, direc
tor of research at Cana
dian Hunter Exploration
Ltd. in Alberta, Canada,
said energy sources have
evolved through history,
coal replaced wood, oil
replaced coal, and now
natural gas which has
yet to reach its peak
will replace oil
Wyman, whose lecture
is sponsored by the Amer
ican Association of Pet
roleum Geologists, is the
first AAPG speaker of the
semester. AAPG is the larg
est geological society in
the world and usually spon
sors two or three speak
ers per semester at UNL,
said Samuel Treves, chair
man of the geology depart
ment. y
Wyman outlines two
sides of the natural gas
question: supply and de
mand. The potential sup
plies of natural gas are
enormous, Wyman said.
Currently, there are
10,000 trillion cubic feet
(TCF) of proven conven
tional natural gas re
serves, he said. Of this,
the world uses 17-20 TCF
per year. Nebraska con
sumes .128 TCF of natu
ral gas annually, Wyman
said.
Other gas reserves are
tied up in non-conventional
forms, Wyman said.
Two non-conventional
forms with which geolo-.
gists have worked are
tight gas formations and
coal seams, he said.
By the end of the cen
tury, Wyman said, tight
gas formations could sup
ply 10 TCF of gas. That
means tight gas forms
could provide half of the
world's energy, he said.
Removing gas from
coal seams involves extract
ing methane that the
coal has absorbed, Wy
man said. Typically,
water is extracted from
these basins which repre
sent a great potential for
the field of hydraulics, he
said. .
Other potential sources
of natural gas are coal
gassification, geopres-
Library looks
for voluntary
assistance
The Nebraska Library
for the Blind and Physi
cally Handicapped is re
cruiting volunteers to
work with the blind and
handicapped so they
may have access to re
corded books and maga
zines. "We are always looking
for new volunteers," said
James Terry, volunteer
services coordinator for
the Nebraska library Com
mission. "We're just like any
other library," Terry said.
The only difference is
that all our books are
either on record or cas
sette or published in
large print or braille."
Of the 4,000 people
using the library, about
20 percent are UNL stu
dents, Terry said. Inter
ested students can call
471-2045 for more infor
mation.. . -
sured aquifers, hydrates, has huge potential," Wy-
peat aquifers and bio- man said. "It is a good
mass. Totaled, these altern- motor fuel because it is
atives have the potential practical, safe, easy on
of producing 30,000 TCF 1 the engine and lowers main-
cf ga3, Wyman said. When tenance costs and pollu-
added to the convention
al reserves available, a
possible 41,000 TCF of
natural gas could ulti
mately be recovered, he
said.
Biomass is relatively un
developed, Wyman said,
but it is almost unlimited
in supply. An example of
biomass: garbage. Twelve
thousand Los Angeles
homes heat their gas
from a garbage dump, he
said.
"On the supply side,
there is little to worry
about," Wyman said. He
said economics will deter
mine how fast the gas will
be tapped.
How much energy gets
tapped depends on de
mand and the market
side, Wyman said.
Future uses probably
will include transportat
ion, cogeneration, utili
ties and fuel cells, he said.
"Transportation is one
area where we barely use
natural gas but where it
tion," he said.
Natural gas in trans
portation began in Italy
in the 1920's, Wyman
said. Wyman owns two
cars that run on natural
gas. he said it costs
$1,800 to convert each
car, but they run for half
the cost of regular gaso
line. "The talk of deregulat
ing the industry is a
bunch of politics," Wy
man said. "It's already es
sentially deregulated be
cause it competes with
other energies. The pro
ducer who used to get $9
for a million cubic feet is
now lucky to get $3.
"An understanding of
how gas can replace
other fuels along with an
appreciation of the incre
dible resource base leads
to a much brighter out
look for the world energy
future than we imagined
even a few years ago,"
Wyman said.
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