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