PEAK OIL

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#6 How Do Oil Refineries Work? The oil that is extracted from the reservoirs is prepared for transportation to the refinery, by essentially separating it roughly from sediments and water. Following these initial processing stages, it is referred to as crude oil and delivered by ship or pipeline to the refinery. The liquid mixture is processed into saleable products using special distillation methods. Advanced technology makes it possible that none of the substances contained in crude oil remains unused. In an oil refinery, the oil undergoes cleaning, distillation and conversion to make products such as petrol, diesel fuel, heating oil or kerosene. Oil purification / desalting Oil is freed of sand and water already at the reservoir site. To protect the processing facilities from corrosion, the crude oil is desalted (salt content < 10 ppm). By adding water, an emulsion of crude oil and water is produced, in which the salt dissolves. In an electrostatic desalter, the emulsion is then separated again. The saline water settles on the floor and is fed into appropriate processing systems. The desalted crude oil is pumped to the distillation unit. Primary processing After being desalted, the crude oil is heated to a temperature of up to 400°C. The heated oil is separated into its components using a thermal separation method (rectification) in a distillation tower (column) measuring up to 50 m in height. The crude oil enters the column in a two-phase flow (gas/liquid). The temperature decreases towards the top and, in accordance with their density, the individual components settle on the various levels in such a way that, from top to bottom, the following products are formed: liquid gas, petrol, kerosene, diesel, heating oil, bitumen and lubricants. Conversion process Following the primary processing phase, a series of refining processes is used to separate catalyst pollutants and to improve the quality of the intermediate products. Almost all oil products that come from the refinery have not been distilled or rectified from oil only. Various intermediate products and components are mixed together to produce for example motor fuel, diesel fuel and heating oil. 106
#7 What Is the Significance of EROI for the Price of Oil?216 To generate energy, energy is needed. EROI – Energy Return on Investment – specifies the relation between the energy generated and the energy that is used directly and indirectly for energy production. Net energy is the energy that remains after the energy production costs have been deducted. Energy production costs not only include the energy input necessary for recovering oil (direct) but also the input needed to find new sources or for the transport of energy (indirect). The EROI is decreasing, because oil is increasingly found in reservoirs that are difficult to access, coal with lower energy content is used, and longer oil pipelines have to be built through difficult terrain. It is difficult to accurately calculate the EROI, but there are estimates that the EROI of American oil fell from 100:1 in the 1930s to 30:1 in the 1970s and eventually to between 11:1 and 18:1 today, and that the EROI of global oil and natural gas production lies at 18:1. These are average values. The value of new production facilities, however, is even lower. Oil shale, for example, has an EROI of 1.5:1 to 4:1. With conventional oil decreasing in quantity, unconventional oils from biofuels, tar sands, etc. are used (no mutual dependences assumed). 100 joules of conventional oil with an EROI of 11:1 cost 9 joules to manufacture and provide 91 joules of usable energy. If this oil were replaced with bioethanol, 25 joules would be needed for production with an EROI of 4:1, which only yields 75 joules. The result is an even more rapid decrease in usable energy and, thus, an increase in energy costs. Figure 13: EROI Estimation for Energy Sources Source: cf. Heinberg, R. 217 216 Cf. David Korowicz, Tipping Point. Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production. An Outline Review, The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (March 2010), 13 ff., http://www.feasta.org/documents/risk_resilience/Tipping_Point.pdf (accessed on 13 October 2010). 107
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Armed Forces, Capabilities and Tech
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Foreword The Bundeswehr Transformat
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Frequent questions #1 What Does Pea
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1. Introduction In this first part
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production development of oil field
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2. The Importance of Oil 2.1. Oil a
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identifies the maintaining of free
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utilizable for small non-state grou
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and, in turn, on the respective pro
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Note: Producer countries as well as
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Figure 2: The Overall Potential of
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3. Possible Developments after Glob
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demanded resource and (2) by succes
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Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) bo
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diplomacy and the provision of attr
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y bilateral agreements, the intensi
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3.1.2 Changed Distribution of Roles
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Figure 4: Variance in the Relation
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its fundamental philosophy. 94 As a
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3.1.3 Exploration of Further and Al
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Natural gas as an extension of the
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With an increasing transfer of nucl
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Figure 5: International Land Leases
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area, adapting it optimally to the
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Food sector uncertainties If nothin
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Upheaval in economic structures Sin
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marketing and using motor vehicles
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Page 112: Further Peak Oil Task Force Reports
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