Oil and Gas

You still have to refine the oil which of course creates gasoline as a by product. What are you going to do with that gasoline?

 

Aviation fuel is kerosene and so what are you going to do with all that gas? Kerosene is also a by product of refinement.

 

You obviously haven’t been to Taco Bell lately. Can’t get enough to get gas for $2 at Taco Bell?

 

I’m sure we can find some innovative purposes that don’t involve combusting it and dumping unmitigated waste products into the atmosphere.l by the billions of metric tonnage.

 

25 cents was to the ending of the state gas tax holiday.

 

Refineries have the ability to adjust the percentage of the various products they make. And you can produce chemical industry raw materials from gasoline, which is a mixture of about 2,000+ different chemicals, by further distilling the gasoline into individual component chemicals. It takes more energy to do all this distillation, but the distilled products are worth more. These chemicals might wind up in plastics, inks, lubricants, or any number of non-fuel product uses.

 

Are you really concerned that we won’t have a use for the nominal amount of by products from creating lubricating oil?

The world will not be eliminating ICE engines any time soon, if ever.

 

I was surprised to see an on-line newsletter from a used chemical plant equipment dealer offering a pair of unused 100,000 gallon natural gas tanks (likely bullet tanks, typically about 14'-dia x 90') for sale. Some company had them built but shut down the facility they were to be used in before the facility ever started up. I would have guessed that some European country would have quickly snapped those up and shipped them overseas.

 

Such as? Of all the things we use gasoline for transportation is king. It is also used for portable equipment, generators, etc... Other than that there isn't anything in the mix that doesn't burn the gasoline. What is a barrel of oil? 46% is gasoline, 26% diesel and other fuels, 9% jet fuel, 3% asphalt, 1% lubricants, bottom of the barrel 15% other.

It would be a waste of resources to refine that barrel and toss 46% of it out.

 

All of that comes from the lower end of the barrel and requires steam / thermal cracking. I will add there is a potential to use electricity versus steam / thermal cracking. However you have to produce the electricity.

Here is an article that addresses cracking furnaces. What is missing is what will be used to produce the electricity. Natural gas, hydro, nuclear? The there's the question of how much plastics does the world need and what to do with all the excess that we currently toss away? Recycling has always been an option but the processes for recycling of all plastic materials is not in the cards.

Greener chemicals: steam cracking could go electric by 2023

Juergen Nowicki, CEO of Linde Engineering, said: “With this project we are singling out a particular industrial CO2 producer. Cracking furnaces are one of the largest CO2 emission sources in the whole petrochemical value chain. This is a time-tested, optimised technology that we are now putting on a completely new footing, not in the laboratory, but on a large industrial scale. The effect this project will have is significant.”
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Why can't all plastics be recycled?

Right now it isn't possible to sell all kinds of plastics to a factory to make new products.Either the markets do not exist or they are so far away that it is too expensive to ship the plastics to them. Recycling arrows on a plastic container does not automatically mean that the container can be recycled.
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I agree ICE engines are not going away any time soon. You still need that gasoline / diesel and to think we can eliminate the necessity fossil fuels in our lifetime by turning off the spigot is fantasy.

 

Not my area of expertise, but is that 46% number fixed? Are you saying 46% of every barrel has to be made into gasoline? That seems.... Unlikely.

 

When you refine oil the first product created our of every barrel is butane and lighter products as you increase the heat next comes gasoline. Here is the break down of what occurs. Simply raising the heat to get to residual fuel oil does not make the entire barrel residual fuel oil.

Oil and petroleum products explained

Inside the distillation units, the liquids and vapors separate into petroleum components called fractions according to their boiling points. Heavy fractions are on the bottom and light fractions are on the top.


The lightest fractions, including gasoline and liquefied refinery gases, vaporize and rise to the top of the distillation tower, where they condense back to liquids.


Medium weight liquids, including kerosene and distillates, stay in the middle of the distillation tower.


Heavier liquids, called gas oils, separate lower down in the distillation tower, while the heaviest fractions with the highest boiling points settle at the bottom of the tower.​

 

I think I'm being thick. Not intended.

If I wanted to turn a barrel of oil into plastic or asphalt, could I? Or do I have to make half of it gas?

 

My question is along the same lines. I doubt that representation is for each barrel of oil, but more likely in average. I do recall that different classes of oil are used for different things - like middle eastern oil for gasoline but oil from North America other things

I suspect the ratios are somewhat dependent on the demand and the value of the use. If demand for ICE use goes down perhaps more goes to other uses?

Im not an expert so just spitballing here.

 

Who said spending work hours on social media isn't productive?!?

 

As you tell naphtha comes after gasoline in the refinement process.
How Is Oil Used To Make Plastic?

Naphtha is the name given to the primary portion of oil that is utilized in the manufacturing of plastics.The composition of crude oil is extremely complex, since it contains thousands of distinct natural constituents in a jumbled up state.When it comes to the manufacturing of plastics, not all of these ingredients are beneficial.After that, naphtha and the other components of crude oil that are necessary for the creation of plastic go through further processing.​