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Hopefully, after reading this you
will understand why BioDiesel is a much better fuel.
Petroleum Oil - A Fossil Fuel
How Oil Was Formed
Where We Get Oil
Crude Oil is Made into
Different Fuels - like
gasoline,
diesel, and
propane
Oil and the Environment
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Petroleum Oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived millions of
years ago in a marine (water) environment before the dinosaurs. This
removed carbon (a greenhouse gas) from the air & trapped it in the earth. Over the
years, the remains were covered by layers of mud. Heat and pressure from these
layers helped the remains turn into what we today call crude oil. The word
"petroleum" means "rock oil" or "oil from the earth."
Burning this oil releases those old carbons into our present day air and raises
our carbon dioxide levels.
Crude oil a smelly, yellow-to-black liquid is found in
underground areas called oil reservoirs. Geologists and engineers explore an
area by studying rock samples from the earth. Scientific measurements are taken, and if
the site seems promising, drilling for oil begins. Above the drill site a structure called an
oil derrick is built to house the tools and pipes that go into the well.
Once the drilled well is
finished, it will bring a steady flow of oil to the surface and
after refining will eventually find it's way to your cars gas tank.
The world's top five crude oil-producing countries are:
- Saudi Arabia
- Russia
- United States
- Iran
- China
Over one-fourth of the crude oil produced in the United States is produced
offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Alaska has a lot of oil but a lot of oil
drilling is off limits because the area is in a national wildlife preserve. The top crude oil-producing states are:
- Texas
- Alaska
- California
- Louisiana
- New Mexico
The amount of crude oil produced (domestically) in the United States has
been getting smaller each year, even though the use of products made from
crude oil has been growing, making it necessary to bring more oil from other
countries. About 58 percent of the crude oil and petroleum products used in
the United States comes from other countries.
Products Made from a Barrel of Crude Oil
(Gallons)
 After
crude oil is pumped from the ground, it is sent to a
refinery by pipeline, ship or barge. At the
refinery, different parts of the crude oil are separated into useable
petroleum products by a process called distillation. Crude oil is measured in barrels
(abbreviated "bbls"). A
42-U.S. gallon barrel of crude oil provides slightly more than 44 gallons of
petroleum products. This gain in volume from processing the crude oil is
because the products are less dense & take up more room.
note: The gain from processing is
about 5%.
One barrel of crude oil, when
refined, produces about 20 gallons of
gasoline and 7 gallons of
diesel fuel, it also makes other petroleum products. Most of the petroleum products
are used to produce energy. For instance, many people across the United States
use
propane to heat their homes and to fuel their vehicles. Other products made from
petroleum include: ink, crayons, dishwashing liquids, deodorant,
eyeglasses, records, tires, ammonia, heart valves and even bubble gum.
Products made from oil (petroleum products) help us do a
lot of things. We use them to
power our airplanes, cars, and trucks, to heat our houses, and to make things
like medicine and plastics. Even though petroleum products make life easier, it
is not all good. Locating, processing, transporting, and using them can cause problems for our
environment by making air and water pollution. Over the years, new technologies and
laws have helped to reduce problems related to petroleum products. As with any
industry, the government monitors how oil is produced, refined, stored, and sent
to market in order to reduce the impact on the environment and to help control
costs. Since 1990, fuels like
gasoline and diesel fuel have been changed so that they produce less
pollution when we use them, this has come with a cost though. Newer cars have
air pollution equipment installed into them & now they cost a whole lot more
than they used to.
Exploring and drilling for oil may disturb land and ocean
habitats. New technologies have greatly reduced the number and size of areas
disturbed by drilling. Satellites, global positioning systems,
remote sensing devices, as well as 3-D and 4-D seismic technologies, make it possible
to discover oil reserves while drilling fewer wells. This helps to save money &
time. Plus, the use of horizontal
and directional drilling make it possible for a single well to produce oil from
much bigger areas. Today's oil production footprints are only about one-fourth the
size of those 30 years ago, due to the development of movable drilling rigs and
smaller "slimhole" drilling rigs. When the oil in a well is gone, the well
must be plugged below ground, making it hard to tell that it was ever there. As
part of the "rig-to-reefs" program, some old offshore rigs are toppled and left
on the sea floor to become artificial reefs that attract fish and other marine
life. About a year after an oil rig is toppled, it becomes covered
with barnacles, coral, sponges, clams, and other sea creatures.
 If
oil is spilled into rivers or oceans it can harm wildlife. When we talk about
"oil spills" people usually think about oil that leaks from ships when they
crash. Although this type of spill can cause the biggest shock to wildlife
because so much oil is released at one time, only 2 percent of all oil in the
sea comes from ship or barge spills. The amount of oil spilled from ships
dropped a lot after new ships were required to have a
"double-hull" lining to protect against oil spills. While spills from ships are
the most well-known problem with oil, more oil actually gets into water from
natural oil seeps coming out of the ocean floor and from leaks that happen when
we use petroleum products on land. For example, gasoline that sometimes drips
onto the ground when people are filling their gas tanks, motor oil that gets
thrown away after an oil change, or fuel that escapes from a leaky storage tank.
When it rains, the spilled products may get washed into the gutter and eventually
might go
into rivers and finally perhaps the ocean. Another way that oil sometimes gets into water is when
fuel is leaked from boats and jet skis.
An oil refinery is a factory where crude oil is distilled or cracked into petroleum products.
Because many different pollutants can escape from refineries into the air, the
government monitors refineries and other factories to make sure that they meet
certain government regulated minimum environmental standards.
When a leak in a storage tank or pipeline occurs, petroleum products can also
get into the ground, and the ground must be cleaned up. This is a very expensive
process in both time & money. To prevent leaks from
underground storage tanks, all buried tanks are supposed to be replaced by tanks
with a double-lining. In some places where
gasoline has leaked from storage tanks, an ingredient of gasoline called
methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) got into local water supplies.
Since MTBE makes water taste bad and many people are worried about drinking it,
a number of states have banned the use of MTBE in gasoline, and the refining
industry is voluntarily moving away from using it when blending the new reformulated
gasoline.
Generally, gasoline is used in cars, diesel fuel is used in trucks, and heating oil is
used to heat our homes. When petroleum products are burned as fuel, they give
off carbon dioxide, a
greenhouse gas that some say is linked with global warming. The link to
human caused greenhouse gas emissions causing Global Warming is not yet proven &
may never be proved during our life time. The earth has had many periods of
warming up & cooling down long before humans existed. The use of petroleum
products gives off pollutants - carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides,
particulate matter, and unburned hydrocarbons that form air pollution.
Since a lot of air pollution comes from cars and trucks, many environmental laws
have been aimed at changing the make-up of gasoline and diesel fuel so that they
produce fewer emissions. These "reformulated fuels" are cleaner burning
than fuels were in the 1990's. In 2006 the amount of
sulfur contained in diesel fuel was reduced dramatically from 500 parts per
million to 15 parts per million. That may cause many problems for older diesel
vehicles because the process to remove sulfur also removed the aromatic
hydrocarbons which keep the seals from leaking fuel. The new S15 diesel
fuel was developed to be used with new 2007 model diesel engines. These new
technology engines are designed to burn cleaner & produce less pollution. In the
short term though we expect to see a lot of diesel fuel leaking out onto the
ground from many of the older diesel vehicles. Will it be worth the trade off?
Only time will tell.
Sources: Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Annual 2004,
June 2005.
U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Benefits of Advanced Oil and Gas
Exploration and Production Technology, October 1999.
National Academies Press, Oil in the Sea III, Chapter 3, 2003.
Source:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/non-renewable/oil.html
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