Petroleum Refining, Oil Spills, Coal, and Alternatives.
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Transcript of Petroleum Refining, Oil Spills, Coal, and Alternatives.
Petroleum Refining,Oil Spills, Coal,and Alternatives
Petroleum
• Also used for raw materials
• Less than ½ recovered – economics
• Demand will outstrip supply in this decade– Price?
• Why is OPEC keeping the price of oil so low?
Refining of Petroleum
• Petroleum is a complex mixture of many sized mostly linear hydrocarbon molecules
• First step is separating out different size groups– Fractional distillation– A fraction is a portion of the crude oil in which
the molecules fall in a range of sizes or boiling points.
Petroleum Refining
• Catalytic cracking– Uses a catalyst– Breaks up large molecules into smaller ones– From less valuable fractions to more valuable– Produces some alkenes – Boosts octane rating
Petroleum Refining
• Straight-run gasoline is low quality– Octane rating of ~55
• Catalytic reforming– Uses a catalyst– Converts straight chain HC’s to branched
ones and aromatics and other unsaturated HC’s
– Boosts octane rating
Lead compoundsused to be usedto boost octane
Lead pollution became a problem
Reformulated Gasoline
• Add oxygen containing compounds– Ethanol– Methanol– MTBE– ETBE
• Required in high pollution areas– In Utah?
Oil Spills
• Many natural ones – California coast
• Can harm the environment, at least short term
• Long term, nature has ways of cleaning up– Mostly consumed by bacteria and oxidized.
• Other sources –– Normal tanker operations, tanker accidents– Blow-outs, changing oil
Coal
• Largest supply 250 - 1500 years worth
• Different types of coal - age
• Much more complex
Coal• 88% of coal burned in US generates
electricity
• Dirtier burning – ash, sulfur, etc.
• Not very mobile
• Best bet: Gasification or Liquifaction– Break up into smaller molecules and add
hydrogen– Central removal of pollution– Held back by economics– Called “clean coal technologies”
Coal Mining
• Dangerous– Over 100,000 killed in US in last century– Getting safer all the time
• Strip mining – “stripping” off covering and scooping out coal– Less dangerous– Harder on the environment
Alternatives
• Methanol– ½ the energy content of gasoline– ½ the cost of gasoline– Very corrosive to the fuel system– M85 and M100– E85 and E100– FFV’s
Alternatives• Electricity – secondary source (converted)
– 36% of energy in the US is used to produce electricity
– Average efficiency – 31% Lost?– More mobile and clean
• Garbage, burn or ferment• Geothermal• Wind• Temperature difference in oceans• Biomass, burn or ferment• Solar
H12 – C4
• 33, 36 - 39, 41, 55, 65 - 67