Week 1 Blog Post:

Blog 1: Please go to the eia.gov website(link is external) and find the most recent data about the supply of petroleum fuels. Once you have a good understanding of the data, write a blog post to review the most recent supply of petroleum fuels from the data given at eia.gov and comment on how petroleum refining addresses environmental concerns from combustion of petroleum fuels in internal combustion engines. Your post should be 1-2 pages long or between 500-600 words.

As our nation’s population increases so does our demand for energy. In the U.S. with petroleum currently being used as the number one source for energy generation, it is in very high demand. The petroleum field is growing which can have both positive and negative effects. It creates jobs and lowers (even though it isn’t doing so much currently) the price of gasoline, which is our nations #1 consumed bi-product of crude oil. The number of barrels produced per day is consistently growing. It is currently at its highest peak since back in October of 1973. Also with a higher production of crude oil we are also increasing our exports which is good for our economy. However, it is not so good in the aspect of its rising price and also harmful emissions and bi-products.

From eia.gov’s most recent spreadsheet of supply and disposition based off of March 2014, the U.S. is currently producing on average 18,526 thousand barrels a day of crude oil and petroleum products. 3,858 of which are exports being almost 21% of our overall produced in the field. There is also 2,378 thousand barrels a day of NGPL’s and LPG’s produced with only 415 (17%) being exports. It should be noticed too however that we are currently importing roughly 50% of what we are producing. In my own opinion, I believe that we should take the money that we are spending on imports and use it to create renewable power plants. Slowly cut it back until our imports hit zero. Purchasing sources of energy from other countries is doing nothing but hurting our nation’s economy by putting us further into debt. We can fully supply our nation’s energy from within our own borders with the technology that has come about.

I did see however, that crude oils have different quality characteristics. Dependent upon where they come from the crude oils have different density (API gravity) and sulfur contents, which range from about 0-3.5%. Density ranges from light to heavy and sulfur content ranges from sweet to sour. Light and sweet crude oils are priced higher than heavy and sour crude oils. This is because both gasoline and diesel fuel, which are two of the primary bi-products, are more easily refined from light and sweet crude. It appears that the best quality crude oil comes from Algeria and Malaysia.  Maybe this explains why we import crude oil, because we are importing a more desirable crude than what we are exporting.

In the internal combustion engines petroleum refining addresses environmental concerns because the more and more it gets refined, the less harmful to the environment it becomes. It contains fewer C-C bonds and becomes easier to break apart or even combust. Because of this, these fuel sources when burned will have a fewer amount of emissions that could possibly harm the environment.

Info from: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_sum_snd_d_nus_mbblpd_m_cur.htm

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=7110

Ever since the first oil well was drilled in 1859, there has been an increased demand in petroleum in the United States.¹ This is because petroleum was found to have many different uses since it could have different properties depending on what temperatures the petroleum was distilled at. In order to do this process, oil refineries were built in order to get useful products while removing the harmful side products of the process. The first refinery in the United States was opened in 1861.¹ This shows that people saw the importance of processing the petroleum and moved quickly to build a refinery to do so. With the invention of the internal combustion engine the demand for gasoline has grown dramatically over the years.

In 2013 the United States had a total oil production of 12.316 million barrels.² Even though this is a large amount that was produced, it was still less than the consumption of 18.49 million barrels in 2013.² Therefore the United States needed to import oil in order to meet this demand. Data from 2012 shows that approximately 40% of the petroleum consumed was from exports.³ Surprisingly a little over 50% of the imports came from the Western Hemisphere with Canada being the largest crude oil supplier to the United States.³ This shows that there is less of a demand in the political unrest in the Middle Eastern region. Since 2005 the demand for imported oil has declined. After the recession in 2008 the consumption of oil was lesser and there was a focus on increasing the efficiency as well as the increase in the use of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.³ The discovery of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations in Pennsylvania has led to the finding of tight oil that adds to the total oil reserves in the United States, which makes it possible for the United States to import less.⁶

In 2012 37% of energy in the United States came from the consumption of petroleum.⁴ Even though renewable fuels and natural gas are having a greater impact, petroleum is still the largest energy source. This means that oil refineries have a large job to fulfill. The refineries have the capacity to process large amounts of crude oil, but also must take into consideration the environmental impact that the refineries have. Refineries consume a large amount themselves as they are distilling the crude oil to form the final products. There are restrictions on the CO₂ emissions as well as on the hazardous byproducts of the process. When petroleum products are burned in an internal combustion engine several harmful products are created. These include carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter.⁵ All of these negatively impact the environment and human health. Therefore the government strictly enforcing regulations on refineries and how they process the crude oil in order to limit the harmful byproducts. It does not mean there will be a large decrease in the consumption of petroleum fuels in internal combustion engines, but that refineries will be forces to formulate the fuels in a way that limit the environmental and health concerns.

References

1.)    Gary, James H., Handwerk, Glenn E., Kaiser, Mark J. Petroleum Refining Technology and Economics. Taylor and Francis Group. Florida. 2007. Print.

2.)    http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=US

3.)    http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/article/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm

4.)    http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/er/early_fuel.cfm

5.)    http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_environment

6.)    http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=847&t=6

Fig. 1 Finished Motor Gasoline does not include blending components

The EIA provides a plethora of data on U.S. petroleum fuels production. The “Weekly U.S. Refiner Net Production” graph (Fig. 1) illustrates the comprehensive “Weekly Petroleum Status Report”. The “WPSR Highlights” provide a condensed sketch of the report. During the week ending May 16, 2014, U.S. refineries operated at 88.7% capacity, consuming 15.9 million barrels of crude oil per day and producing 9.6 million barrels of gasoline and 5.0 milion barrels of distillate fuel oil. The U.S. imported 6.5 million barrels per day as well as over 1.1 million barrels of finished gasoline, gasoline blending components, and distillate fuel. Given that roughly 60% of a barrel of crude oil is used to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil, and thus that imports account for 3.5 times that of finished imports, it is safe to say that U.S. refineries are essential components in the U.S. As my classmate readily points out, the U.S. is bridging the gap between imports and exports. However, it is unclear whether the domestic production is sustainable. As tight oil extraction continues, the world is only one subsea engineering feat away from revitalizing easy oil.

Along with weekly reviews, the EIA provides quarterly forecasts of the petroleum fuels market. As Memorial Day approaches and summer vacations commence, the EIA predicts the price of gasoline to increase slightly above the prices from this time last year before dipping below last year’s numbers for the remainder of the year. This trend correlates to crude oil prices, and ultimately results from an expected overproduction from the non-OPEC supply, especially in North America.

The most notable trend in Fig. 1 is noted in the Annual Energy Outlook 2014: gasoline production is declining while distillate fuel production increases. The EIA anticipates more gasoline-producing refineries to either convert to distillates or increase capacity to meet the market demand.

U.S. crude oil stocks are very high compared to the 5-year average. The distillate fuel stock is below average which might also imply a regression to the mean with increased imports and domestic refinery capacity.

Fig. 2 Distillate fuel oil includes No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 distillate

Notably, the conflict in Crimea may not have noticeably impacted the recent refinery outputs, but it may account for the decline in U.S. exports of distillate fuel oil. While distillate fuel oil consists of many uses, from space heating to diesel engines, “Distillate Fuel Oil Imports and Exports” (Fig. 2) displays a sharp decrease in exports and imports after the week of Russia’s occupation of Crimea. Despite this period of March, April, and May being termed the refinery maintenance season, this span of time includes a critical period of market uncertainty. Crimea already faces fuel shortages. Germany could face price surges, as pressure increases to diversify crude oil and natural gas imports.

The refinery exemplifies the peak of fuel chemistry application, with each refinery having unique capacity, inputs, and products. The environmental concerns posed by greenhouse gas emissions from internal combustion engines is mitigated within the refining process. A baghouse is used to capture particulate matter. Sulfur content may be removed through hydrodesulfurization or hydrotreating. Volatile metallic compounds are extracted by precipitation using a solvent such as propane. All of these processes are either energy-intensive and/or materials intensive, and would greatly benefit from regenerative solvents and materials.

References:

1. Pricing Highlights: http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/marketing/monthly/pdf/hilites.pdf
2. Supply Overview: http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/supply/weekly/pdf/highlights.pdf
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/world/europe/in-taking-crimea-putin-gains-a-sea-of-fuel-reserves.html?_r=0
4. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/25/ukraine-crisis-crimea-energy-idUSL6N0NH4NR20140425
5. http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/special/summer/2014_summer_fuels.pdf
6. Supply Data: “blog 1 data.xls”
7. Petroleum Refining

On US Energy information administration (eia) website, it provides the date of US petroleum supply from 1956 to early 2014. From this data, the US ending stocks of crude oil and petroleum products has a trend of increasing during these decades. During 1950’s to 1980’s, the ending stocks increase rapidly. From 1990’s to 2003, it has a few down times and up times. From 2003 to now, it has two large increasing time periods. However, during the most recent a few months, the ending stocks decreased compare to that in early 2013. If looking at US product supply of crude oil and petroleum products, the product supply increase steady from 1981 to 2008. Then it is a down curve from 2008 to 2013. It may due to the recession in 2008, but the products supply increase in early 2014. The average US product supply of crude oil and petroleum product is 18,541 thousand barrels per month. Overall, the products supply of US crude oil and products is recovering from the recession. The trend of ending stocks and product supply is keeping increasing.

Refer to lesson 1 slides, US expects to switch from an importer to an exporter during these decades. If looking at the US imports of crude oil and petroleum products, the amounts of imports is in an increasing trend from 1981 to 2006. In 2006, it reached a peak of amounts of imports. US imported 5,003,082 thousand barrels in 2006. On the other hand, the US exports of crude oil and petroleum products are always in an increasing trend from 1981 to 2014. In 1981, US exported 217,024 thousand barrels. In 2013, US exported about 1,311,830 thousand barrels. The amount of exports of crude oil and petroleum products is about six times as many as that in 1981. The imports of crude oil and petroleum products are decreasing while the exports of crude oil and petroleum products are increasing. Also with an increasing US ending stocks and product supplied of crude oil  and petroleum products, US actually is switching from an importer to an exporter right now. In the future, as the technology of refining and producing of petroleum, US will be an exporter of crude oil and petroleum products sooner than later.

As the supply and demand of petroleum increase in the future, environment issues occur during refining process. Like the lesson one slide stated, there are three types of pollution produced during the refining process. As air pollution, CO, PM, NO, SO and H2S are produced during refining process. The more effective gas collect process is necessary for refining process.  As water pollution, it affects both ground water and surface water. The polluted water comes from various process of refining such as cracking, desalting, and cooling. This kind of water should go through some process to be cleaned before release. As solid pollution, it is probably less harmful compare to air pollution. The solid waste could be recycled by several processes and could be cleaned up by bacteria which eat these by-products. In order to help environment issue from refining process, help from government and understanding from community are needed. There are many acts and policies help to regular the pollution from refining process. As refining technologies improving in the future, there will be less pollution during process but more efficient petroleum products.

References

1. Summary of Environment and Social Impacts for Activates Associated with Petroleum Refining and the Storage of Petroleum Products

Click to access Impact_Summary_Petroleum_Refineries_and_Storage.pdf

2. Supply and disposition of crude oil and petroleum products, US Energy information administration

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_sum_snd_d_nus_mbbl_m_cur.htm

3. Speight, J. G. (2005). Environmental analysis and technology for the refining industry. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Interscience.