Oil production around the world

1
Oil production around the world
2
World Oil Production
3
Petroleum From the ground to your gas tank

• What comes out of the ground is not immediately
  useful
• It has to be treated, or refined, to produce
  useful fuels
• First step is fractional distillation
• This process separates the various petroleum
  based products.

4
Fractional Distillation

• The petroleum is heated to about 400 C which
  vaporizes it.
• The vapors are sent into a tower called a
  fractionating column. As they rise and cool
  different fuel products condense at different
  heights.

5
Further treatments

• What comes out of the distillation process is not
  quite ready for use yet. It still needs to be
  modified.
• For example Gasoline needs octane added and tar
  needs heavy molecules removed from it.

6
Treatment processes

• Thermal cracking The product is exposed to high
  temperatures and pressures which break heavy
  molecules into lighter ones.
• Catalytic conversion petroleum vapor is passed
  over a alumina-silicate mixture or clay which
  creates a chemical reaction and adds octane to
  the gas
• Polymerization light hydrocarbon molecules are
  joined and they produce heavier molecules.
  Natural gas is made into high octane fuels this
  way.

7
Alkane Hydrocarbons

• You have heard these names before methane,
  ethane, propane, butane, pentane, hexne, heptane,
  octane.
• Methane and ethane are the main components of
  natural gas
• Propane and butane can be liquefied at fairly low
  pressures, and are well known as liquefied
  petroleum gas (LPG)
• Pentane, nexane, heptane and octane are
  volatile liquids. They are used as fuels in
  internal combustion engines, as they vaporize
  easily on entry into the combustion chamber
  without forming droplets, which would impair the
  uniformity of the combustion.

• Methane
• Carbon atom is black, H atom
• is white
• Ethane

8
How long?

• Good site to look at is http//www.physics.emich.e
  du/ebehringer/FossilFuels/oil_simple.html

9
Natural gas

• Used since the 6th century BCE in China and
  Japan. They used bamboo pipes to carry it to
  lights.
• For the most part, it was considered an annoying
  by product of petroleum exploration and was often
  burned off of oil wells.
• 1821 Fredonia, New York. A pipe provided NG to 30
  burners
• Development was slow due to the lack of pipeline
  infrastructure
• During and after WWII, its use became more
  widespread because it was inexpensive and
  pipelines were laid across the country.

10
Uses

• Power plants gas turbines have a higher
  efficiency in converting the fuel to power than
  steam turbines (we will talk about these turbines
  later) . Plants are cheaper to build and more
  environmentally friendly.
• Transportation Use is growing, but limited by
  range (need to store the fuel in the vehicle
  under high pressure and there is not a widespread
  distribution system).

11
Not the solution!

• Will not solve our energy problems
• Most comes from domestic production, as shipping
  is difficult.
• US has consumed 85 of its available natural gas
  and at the current rate of consumption, we have
  enough for about 30 years.
• Methane from coal beds can be used to produce
  natural gas, which will increase supply somewhat.

12
Coal Formation
13
Coal types

• Peat Youngest form of coal, lowest grade, low
  quality fuel and organic material for gardeners
• Lignite 150 million yrs old, 50 carbon content
• Bituminous 300 million years old, 50-80 carbon
• Anthracite 500 million years old, 95 carbon,
  hardest and cleanest burning coal.

14
US Coal resources
15
World distribution of coal
16
World coal production