Primal polyethylene and petroleum

[HydrogenBond]

I like messing with slow boat theory. Here is a faster way for the earth to make petroleum products. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that the early earth had methane. Methane can form ethylene. Picture the primal earth making polyethylene (PE) from ethylene (we only need to provide some free radicals ) as ethylene bubbles up from the crust, say within pools of water (causes phase separation of ethylene so it will focus on the active end of polymerizing PE). This primal PE could provide the basis for lipids from which cells would emerge. Larger blobs of PE would become the basis for petroleum and coal. That latter would phase separate from the water and thicken as heat is applied due to geological changes. If life and minerials get trapped in the goo than humans need to work harder to get clean fuel.

[UncleAl]

How much ethylene is there in natural gas deposits? Essentially none. Ethylene is insufficiently stable to survive geological conditions. It cracks to graphite and methane. Free radical polymerization of ethylene requires outrageous pressures and gives you severely branched product (LDPE) and Flory distribution of molecular weights. Chemical polymerization of ethylene requires air- and water-sensitive chemistries (e.g., Zieglar-Natta and In-Site catalysts). It ain't gonna happen in dirt.

[HydrogenBond]

Polyethylene polymerization as I proposed, happened within water. The early earth didn't have much of an oxygen atmosphere therefore plenty of UV for free radical formation within surface water. The lighter stuff would float and the heavier molecules would sink and stop growing without the sun. The stuff of oil and coal is not all linear; even processed gasoline is octane equivilent and not all linear octane. Natural gas deposits are mostly methane implcit of reduction potential. Ethlene implies oxidation potential relative to methane; hydrogen is removed from methane to form water and ethylene.

 

The existance of oil, coal and natural gas reserves and carbonates disproves the meteor scenario for starting life on earth since there was plenty of carbon and nitrogen (atmosphere) on the early earth, way more than asteroids could bring. If one also considers the amount of hydrogen in the surface water and fuel deposits, why didn't the sun keep or gather this hydrogen from the earth when the earth was young and still plasma, especially if science assumes that density differences caused heavies like iron to sink to the core and the light weights to float to the top of the plasma ball. The early earth has a stronger attraction potential for hydrogen beyond its own gravity or solar gravity and fusion,ie., terrestrial fusion.