The second edition of The Biomarker Guide is a fully updated and expanded version of this essential reference. Now in two volumes, it provides a comprehensive account of the role that biomarker technology plays both in petroleum exploration and in understanding Earth history and processes. Biomarkers and Isotopes in the Environment and Human History details the origins of biomarkers and introduces basic chemical principles relevant to their study. It discusses analytical techniques, and applications of biomarkers to environmental and archaeological problems. The Biomarker Guide is an invaluable resource for geologists, petroleum geochemists, biogeochemists, environmental scientists and archaeologists.

The Biomarker Guide

At temperatures up to about 80 °C, petroleum in subsurface reservoirs is often biologically degraded, over geological timescales, by microorganisms that destroy hydrocarbons and other components to produce altered, denser 'heavy oils'. This temperature threshold for hydrocarbon biodegradation might represent the maximum temperature boundary for life in the deep nutrient-depleted Earth. Most of the world's oil was biodegraded under anaerobic conditions, with methane, a valuable commodity, often being a major by-product, which suggests alternative approaches to recovering the world's vast heavy oil resource that otherwise will remain largely unproduced.

Biological activity in the deep subsurface and the origin of heavy oil

Asphaltenes, the most aromatic of the heaviest components of crude oil, are critical to all aspects of petroleum use, including production, transportation, refining, upgrading, and heavy-end use in paving and coating materials. As such, efficiency in these diverse disciplines mandates proper chemical accounting of structure−function relations of crude oils and asphaltenes, the vision of petroleomics (Asphaltenes, Heavy Oils and Petroleomics; Mullins, O. C., Sheu, E. Y., Hammami, A., Marshall, A. G., Eds.; Springer: New York, 2007). Indeed, the molecular characterization of asphaltenes is required as well as the detailed understanding of the hierarchical colloidal structures of asphaltenes and petroleum. With great prescience, Professor Teh Fu Yen and co-workers proposed a hierarchical model of asphaltenes to account for many of their characteristics known at that time (Dickie, J. P.; Yen, T. F. Macrostrucutres of asphaltic fractions by various instrumental methods. Anal. Chem. 1967, 39, 1847−1852). This m...

The Modified Yen Model

The Yen–Mullins model, also known as the modified Yen model, specifies the predominant molecular and colloidal structure of asphaltenes in crude oils and laboratory solvents and consists of the following: The most probable asphaltene molecular weight is ∼750 g/mol, with the island molecular architecture dominant. At sufficient concentration, asphaltene molecules form nanoaggregates with an aggregation number less than 10. At higher concentrations, nanoaggregates form clusters again with small aggregation numbers. The Yen–Mullins model is consistent with numerous molecular and colloidal studies employing a broad array of methodologies. Moreover, the Yen–Mullins model provides a foundation for the development of the first asphaltene equation of state for predicting asphaltene gradients in oil reservoirs, the Flory–Huggins–Zuo equation of state (FHZ EoS). In turn, the FHZ EoS has proven applicability in oil reservoirs containing condensates, black oils, and heavy oils. While the development of the Yen–Mullin...

Advances in Asphaltene Science and the Yen–Mullins Model

The information available on the biological activity of hydrogen sulfide has been examined for present status of critical results pertaining to the toxicity of hydrogen sulfide. This review of the literature is intended as an evaluative report rather than an annotated bibliography of all the source material examined on hydrogen sulfide. The information was selected as it might relate to potential toxic effects of hydrogen sulfide to man and summarized, noting information gaps that may require further investigation. Several recommendations are listed for possible consideration for either toxicological research or additional short- and long-term tests. Two bibliographies have been provided to assist in locating references considered in this report: (1) literature examined but not cited and (2) reference citations. The majority of the references in the first bibliography were considered peripheral information and less appropriate for inclusion in this report.

A Critical Review of the Literature on Hydrogen Sulfide Toxicity

The molecular structure of asphaltene : an unfolding story

Mechanism of the homogeneous oxidation of sulfur dioxide in the troposphere

The conformation of lowest energy of an asphaltene molecule of the Athabasca sand oil was calculated through molecular mechanics. The molecule has a complex globular shape with small internal cavities. This shape resulted mostly from the existence of polymethylene bridges connecting the aromatic regions. Molecular aggregates formed with the asphaltene and with nine resins from the same oil, and with n-octane and toluene, were also studied. The resins showed higher affinities for the asphaltene than toluene and n-octane and also exhibited a noticeable selectivity for some of the external sites of the asphaltene. This selectivity based on the molecular recognition of the site depends on the fit between the resins and the site of the asphaltene. The selectivity explains why resins of one oil may not solubilize asphaltenes from other crudes. An analysis of the changes in the enthalpic and entropic contributions to the free energy showed that both contributions should be considered when the stability of the as...

Molecular Recognition in Aggregates Formed by Asphaltene and Resin Molecules from the Athabasca Oil Sand

Problems surrounding molecular aggregation, covalent molecular weight, and their experimental investigation in asphaltene chemistry are reviewed. Chromatographic, fluorescence spectroscopic, and mass spectroscopic (MS) methods for the investigation of these problems are surveyed and their merits and limitations discussed. Dissociation of asphaltene in dilute solution can be followed in time by monitoring the gel permeation retention time variation with the age of the solution. This way, Athabasca asphaltene was reported to dissociate from several thousand to less than about 1000 g mol-1 molecular weight (MW) species in CH2Cl2 solution to an extent of at least 80% in 14 days' time. The dissociation products represent the monomeric covalent molecules of asphaltene, and the remaining undissociated 20% could be slowly dissociating aggregates or high-MW covalent asphaltenes. The vapor pressure osmometry (VPO) determined number average MW of the same asphaltene was of the order of 4000 g mol-1, manifesting the ...

Otto P. Strausz

Papers

The molecular structure of asphaltene : an unfolding story

Mechanism of the homogeneous oxidation of sulfur dioxide in the troposphere

Molecular Recognition in Aggregates Formed by Asphaltene and Resin Molecules from the Athabasca Oil Sand

About the Colloidal Nature of Asphaltenes and the MW of Covalent Monomeric Units

Pyrolysis of asphaltenes: a source of geochemical information