Petroleum fuel still remains the main energy source for an extensive list of consumers' sectors, primarily including transport and heating, but in a number of countries – also electric energy production. Despite the fact that the share of renewable energy sources in overall end-use energy consumption keeps growing steadily, in the coming two-three decades fossil fuel will continue to play a key role in the global energy balance. This...

In the structure of final global primary energy consumption, oil products lead by a significant margin, with the total final consumption of oil exceeding 30%. The uniqueness of raw materials in the form of fossil fuels, in addition to having the physical and chemical properties optimal for the energy sector, lies in the presence of another tremendous advantage – the possibility of its long-term storage. Located in the bowels of the...

Introduction Increasing the use of hydrogen in modern energy is a prerequisite for its transition towards low-carbon forms of energy production and consumption. Hydrogen is unique primarily because it can be used both as an environmentally friendly fuel and as a medium for energy storage. However, the global hydrogen production has so far been dominated by steam methane reforming (SMR), which is the most cost-competitive method, but...

The world's leading patent offices (WIPO, IP5) released key statistics for 2020 at the end of last year. Additional interest in these materials is undoubtedly due to the fact that 2020 was influenced by the coronavirus pandemic and 2019 saw a significant drop in patent activity in China, the most productive country in the world in terms of invention. However, the data presented proved the expected pessimistic predictions wrong. First...

The latest decisions taken on COP-26, including agreements on coal, methane, and limitations on the utilization of fossil fuels make up an important stage in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. However, it will take several decades, numerous organizational arrangements, and immense financial resources for a complete switching of the energy industry to renewable sources. This is related to the fact that presently the share of...

Oil and gas production from low permeability plays in most cases requires the employment of directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies. This is necessary to increase the contact area of the well with a formation rich in oil or gas, and to improve the permeability of the rock. Taking into consideration the increase in the share of hard-to-recover reserves in the global hydrocarbon balance, it becomes clear that the use...

As a continuation of the previous review (UNCONVENTIONAL GAS 2019/ key indicators), the results of patenting activity of major applicants from patent applications, dedicated to unconventional gas production including associated petroleum gas (APG), coal bed methane (CBM) and methane hydrates (GHD) are briefly evaluated here. In total, 564 documents were selected for consideration, which were submitted by 270 applicants from 17...

This review provides key statistical results of the analysis of patent applications filed with world patent offices in 2019 on topics related to unconventional gas production including associated petroleum gas (APG), coal bed methane (CBM) and methane hydrates (GHD) which were collected from generally-accessible sources as of the date of this publication. In total, 564 documents were selected for consideration, which were submitted by...

The IP5 Global Dossier Task Force (GDTF) released another progress report on the patent activity of the five leading patent offices of the world (IP5 Offices) in 2019. A total of 2.7 million patent applications were filed and 1.25 million patents were granted at USPTO (USA), EPO (Europe), CNIPA (China), JPO (Japan) and KIPO (South Korea). As for patent applications, there is a slight decrease in the number of documents – one year...

Hydrogen production via electrochemical water splitting is a promising area for storing solar energy. For this technology to be economically competitive it is crucial to develop water-splitting systems with high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiencies. Usually, expensive solar cells or costly semiconductors are used for this. Now (2021), scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated that modifying the top layer of...