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NEED FOR NON CONVENTIONAL ENERGY SOURCES

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 Tar sands
Tar sands (also called oil sands) are a mixture of sand, clay, water, and bitumen. Bitumen is a
thick, sticky, black oil that can form naturally in a variety of ways, usually when lighter oil is
degraded by bacteria. Bitumen has long been used in waterproofing materials for buildings, and
is most familiar today as the binding agent in road asphalt. However, most of the bitumen
produced from tar sands is refined and mixed with lighter oils to produce synthetic crude oil
that can be further refined and used in much the same way as typical crude oil.

Because bitumen is very thick and does not flow easily, it clings to the sand and clay and can’t
be simply pumped out of the ground through wells like conventional oil. Instead, tar sands are
mined in two main ways:

 Open-pit mining – if tar sands are found near the surface, as in Alberta, Canada, they can be
mined directly – much like open-pit coal mining – and then transferred to an extraction plant
where the bitumen can be separated from the sand, clay, and water.
 In-situ mining – if tar sands are too deep to dig up, the bitumen can be extracted by injecting hot
steam or solvents to loosen up the bitumen and allow it to flow through a well to the surface.

The largest deposits of tar sands in the world are found in Alberta (Canada) and Venezuela. The
largest deposits in the United States are found in eastern Utah.

Tar sands represent a potentially vast reserve of oil but come with their own environmental
challenges. Oil production from tar sands uses large amounts of land (for open-pit mining),
water, and energy, when compared to other oil resources. Open-pit mining also produces a lot
of waste (leftover sand, clays, and contaminants contained within the tar sands) that may pose a
risk to nearby water supplies. Some of the existing and planned attempts to mitigate the
environmental impacts of mining tar sands include using non-potable and recycled water,
moving to in-situ rather than open-pit mining to decrease land use and waste, and using carbon
capture and storage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction and use of oil from
tar sands.

Oil shale

Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture
of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to
kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitutes inorganic substance and bitumens. Based
on their deposition environment, oil shales are classified as marine, lacustrine and terrestrial oil
shales. Oil shales differ from oil-bearing shales, shale deposits that contain petroleum (tight oil)
that is sometimes produced from drilled wells. Examples of oil-bearing shales are the Bakken
Formation, Pierre Shale, Niobrara Formation, and Eagle Ford Formation. Accordingly, shale oil
produced from oil shale should not be confused with tight oil, which is also frequently called
shale oil.
Deposits of oil shale occur around the world, including major deposits in the United States. A
2016 estimate of global deposits set the total world resources of oil shale equivalent of 6.05
trillion barrels (962 billion cubic metres) of oil in place. Oil shale has gained attention as a
potential abundant source of oil. However, the various attempts to develop oil shale deposits
have had limited success. Only Estonia and China have well-established oil shale industries, and
Brazil, Germany, and Russia utilize oil shale to some extent.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of NON CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
SOURCES.

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SOLAR CONSTANT

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SOLAR RADIATION ON EARTH SURFACE

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