PETROLEUM for humanity

[Dr.Masih Rezvani + 27]

 

Petroleum’s importance to humankind took a giant leap in the late 1800’s when it replaced coal as the primary fuel for the machines of the industrial revolution. In today's industrialized society , petroleum means power .
It provides the mechanical power to run machines and industries and also the political power that comes from being able to shut down the machines and industries of those who depend on you for their oil supply.

[James Regan + 1,776]

1 minute ago, Dr.Masih Rezvani said:

 

Petroleum’s importance to humankind took a giant leap in the late 1800’s when it replaced coal as the primary fuel for the machines of the industrial revolution. In today's industrialized society , petroleum means power .
It provides the mechanical power to run machines and industries and also the political power that comes from being able to shut down the machines and industries of those who depend on you for their oil supply.

Personally I would have said that it wasn't coal that provided the leap in the 1800s but the Industrial revolution and in Particular Railroads, most certainly the second part of your statement I would agree with and don't really see anything changing for the next 100 years, I am yet to see a thorough thesis or plan which lays out the weening of the human population from fossil fuels and feedstocks for manufacturing. Plenty of segments which may dent the fossil fuel industry but nothing that can replace it. Its a one stop shop - OIL. The infrastructures and non existent comparable feedstocks for manufacturing required to replace oil are flawed and carry an agenda which is not achievable or tainted with Industrial and political motives, or haven't been invented yet.

Correct- OIL IS POWER

So lets get used to another 100 years of Carbon addiction.

[Dr.Masih Rezvani + 27]

Can i ask you to calculated how long our present known supplies of oil will last today's consumption rate????.

[Dr.Masih Rezvani + 27]

One thing that is certain, however, is that the air pollution resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal is of increasing concern to the inhabitants of planet Earth. Thus the search for a non-polluting replacement energy source is one of the most important challenges faced by humankind

[PE Scott + 563]

7 minutes ago, Dr.Masih Rezvani said:

Can i ask you to calculated how long our present known supplies of oil will last today's consumption rate????.

It seems like this number would hardly mean anything. The price of oil determines what's recoverable vs uneconomical. The bigger concern would be the decreased budget for exploration. 

This is something I see the general consensus flip back and forth on. Will demand out pace supply or will demand evaporate before recoverable supplies are exhausted? 

It's a hard answer to predict. A lot of that is going to depend on other disruptive technologies speed of development and exploration moving forward. I'm with James on this though, there are a lot of things that could be disruptive to fossil fuel demand, but there's nothing, yet, that can completely replace it.

 

[Dr.Masih Rezvani + 27]

As long as we depend on oil to fuel the engines of the world , it will continue to play a major role in our lives, But research is ongoing in many countires to find ways to harness new sources of energy.

Perhaps on day our cars will have electricity powered engines and run on batteries that must be recharged every few hundred kilometers . Or, perhaps the batteries will draw on the sun's energy and recharge even as we drive. Who knows what the future holds ?

One thing that is certain, however, is that the air pollution resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal is of increasing concern to the inhabitants of planet Earth. Thus the search for a non-polluting replacement energy source is one of the most important challenges faced by humankind

[PE Scott + 563]

1 minute ago, Dr.Masih Rezvani said:

One thing that is certain, however, is that the air pollution resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal is of increasing concern to the inhabitants of planet Earth. Thus the search for a non-polluting replacement energy source is one of the most important challenges faced by humankind

Would it not be equally viable to work on means of capturing harmful exhaust and sequestering C02? Personal transportation is one part of the industry that I think will evolve more and more towards BEV. Power generation, shipping, airtravel, and chemical manufacturing are likely to increase and heavily rely on fossil fuels for a long time. 

Alternative energy projects shouldn't be abandoned, but we have a lot of room left to improve current infrastructure and designs if the goal is net zero emissions. 

[Dr.Masih Rezvani + 27]

So ??

[PE Scott + 563]

So, if we concede that emissions from fossil fuels are a problem, then there must be an efficient way to address the issue.

Currently there are developments in everything from tidal power to nuclear fusion that look promising over the next 100+ years. Storage technologies are being developed that could, eventually, help balance out the electric supply.

Oil and gas infrastructure, meanwhile, has already been widely adapted and is the predominant form of cheap energy/fuel world wide. If time is a factor is our action against climate change, then the quickest way to address emissions is to address the current source. The replacement of oil and gas with alternatives, even if the technology was available today, would likely take decades for the world populace to adopt.

However, working within our current economic framework (ie. Using tax subsidies, or punitive taxes, Grant's, etc.) Emissions can be regulated and carbon sequestering could be more practical. New power generation facilities can be built to utilize natural gas and capture nearly 100% of emissions. Older plants can be updated, coal can be scrapped in most developed countries. Restrictions can be placed on flaring, infastructure to get that gas to market could be encouraged, strict regulations can be placed on methane emissions, etc.

There are already examples of this kind of technology:

https://carbonengineering.com/worlds-largest-direct-air-capture-and-sequestration-plant/

The important thing, in my opinion, is that we work with these industries, not against them. All of this is predicated on a rather weak understanding of climate modeling and alarmist dialogue. I think it's only fair that consideration be given to all sides of the argument and that the reality of our dependence on fossil fuels is considered when developing our energy infastructure moving forward.

[Guest]

Use ethanol.

Sorted. 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Guest

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

‘Perhaps on day our cars will have electricity powered engines and run on batteries that must be recharged everyfew hundred kilometers’

Just as an aside, if it is powered by electricity, it is a motor, not an engine.

[PE Scott + 563]

6 hours ago, DayTrader said:

Use ethanol.

Sorted. 

Lol, you're going to make sure that follows me

Interestingly, there was an article on this recently:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-Much-Crude-Oil-Does-Plastic-Production-Really-Consume.amp.html

I was always under the impression plastics were developed from actual oil as opposed to gas. I'm not certain of the validity of this, but it was interesting if true.

[Guest]

Haha sorry, could never quite get over ''grow food and feed the world or go for a drive..?''    Twat.

I'll check article out in a sec ...

@Douglas Buckland , is this link accurate?

Edited October 14, 2019 by Guest
advice from sage

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

54 minutes ago, DayTrader said:

Haha sorry, could never quite get over ''grow food and feed the world or go for a drive..?''    Twat.

I'll check article out in a sec ...

@Douglas Buckland , is this link accurate?

DT, I can’t really comment as I am not a refining guy,

I thought that it was interesting that the article mentioned that plastics are not derived directly from crude oil, but that the oil is the source of ‘feedstocks’ from which the plastics are derived. That is merely semantics....if you don’t have the crude, then you do not have the necessary components, then you can not produce plastic.

The article, if I am reading it correctly, indicates that a significant volume of plastics come from natural gas or natural gas liquids, it then states that these were used primarily for fuel. This would be comparing apples to oranges as this natural gas and natural gas liquids do not have the necessary components to provide the necessary feedstocks for plastics production.

[PE Scott + 563]

This fact itself raises questions such as, “How many barrels of oil go into plastic packaging?” A question that is quite difficult to answer. The Energy Information Administration absolutely refuses to answer it, saying that it collects no data in this segment. Yet data from a few years ago, when the EIA still collected information about this, shows that in 2010 some 191 million barrels of LPG and NGL were used for the production of plastics along with 412 billion cu ft of natural gas. The liquids amount constituted about 2.7 percent of the country’s total petroleum consumption. Most of the natural gas used in plastics production was used as a fuel rather than feedstock.

 

I assume the author is saying the 412 billion cu ft of NG were used primarily for fuel to power processes that utilize the 191 million barrels of LPG and NGL to make plastics?

Oddly enough, they didnt teach us much about this sort of thing in Petroleum Engineering classes. Most of it focused on drilling, geology, and production. So I know next to nothing about the downstream side of the business. I'm sure someone on these forums knows all about it though.......

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

‘in PetroleumEngineering classes.’

PE, where did you get your degree?

[PE Scott + 563]

New Mexico Tech

[James Regan + 1,776]

Funny thing happened the other day, While at the hospital in rural Brasil, I bumped into a guy from Leeds England, this is not a common occurrence in Brasil, ie gringos meeting other gringos out in the boonies. Anyway we did as you do discussed our reasons for being in Brasil, apart from the obvious Weather, Women and Bikes (not necasarily in that order) it turned to work. He was involved with Enzymes, my reply was What??

Then I discovered the world of Enzymes and how they are used like petroleum feedstocks in all our everyday lives, from the Jeans and the colour of them that your wearing to medical supplies etc etc.

Naturally DuPont is one of the biggest players in the game, and what I got out of the conversation was that although in some applications Enzymes could be used as a replacement for Petrochem additives the majority of the time they are used in conjunction. We discussed the weening of the marketplace from Petrochem and his reply was that as long as there was Petrochem there would be Enzymes and vice a versa.

I personally had no clue about the wide use of Enzymes in our everyday life and how they are also used in the production of petrochem products also.

However they do have many features which could be used to replace some of the PC feedstock capacities.

https://www.aocs.org/stay-informed/inform-magazine/featured-articles/how-enzymes-are-transforming-manufacturing-september-2014

[PE Scott + 563]

This enzyme stuff is mostly new to me as well. Now you've shown me an entirely new rabbit hole....

Edited October 14, 2019 by PE Scott

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

As you all probably know, there are about twenty enzymatic reactions used to manufacture high fructose corn syrup, which is one of the biggest plagues to be turned loose on an unsuspecting population: think the obesity of those pictures being posted. I have no doubt that enzymes can be used to make energy more efficient, remove contaminants, especially the gummy ones, and overall make life better. Along the way, some of them will also be harmful. In the GOM, there are millions of methane mounds. They've been there so long that bacteria exist atop them, using their enzymes to feed off the methane. Enzymes occur in all of us, of course, evolved to perform specific functions. Manmade enzymes engineered for a specific purpose are a bit trickier, rather like introducing carp into a bass lake because they grow faster. I'm not opposed to manufactured enzymes, just issuing the usual about unintended consequences.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Gerry Maddoux said:

As you all probably know, there are about twenty enzymatic reactions used to manufacture high fructose corn syrup

Well duh, who didn't know that..?

I think you're giving people here waaaaaay too much credit Gerry, or I'm just thick as pig shit, which is quite possible ...

I was just joking about using corn. It's a long story haha. 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Guest

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

2 hours ago, DayTrader said:

I think you're giving people here waaaaaay too much credit Gerry, or I'm just thick as pig shit, which is quite possible ...

Oh, I don't think so. 

😀

Like running your Mini on ethanol, you don't get from corn on the cob to a sweetener without a little enzyme or two.

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, Gerry Maddoux said:

Like running your Mini on ethanol

Err .... I have a Mini !    Hahahha. Ridiculous!  

And a proper Mini, not this German crap. 

It's year 2000, last ones they made... and British Racing Green ... 💚

Edited October 14, 2019 by Guest

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

Well, don't use ethanol in it. Like corn oil in humans, it'll gum up the works. 

I loved an old MG in British racing green. 

Great color!

 

[Guest]

I disagree. It's a great coloUr.

Damn Yanks butchering our language as always