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Platapus · 07-26-08, 02:04 PM

If we still need X amount of gasoline than we will need to continue to import sufficient quantities of crude oil to distill X amount of gasoline.

Crude Oil produces a mixture type product as opposed to a specific product. We can't say that this tanker of Crude Oil is for Diesel and the other tanker of Crude Oil is for gasoline. Oil is oil. Getting the separate products (gasoline and Diesel for example, is dependent on the cracking or fractionating of the Crude Oil.

When Crude Oil is cracked, there specific ratios of petroleum products produced. While these can be manipulated a little with the processes, generally speaking they are set by chemistry. You can't take a barrel of Crude and decide, this barrel will only produce gasoline. About 40%* of Crude Oil will distill into Gasoline (not directly though there are precursor products and steps in between). The rest will be a mixture of the lighter gases, Medium distillates, and the Heavy products.

So if I need a 1,000 barrels of Gasoline, I will need to crack 2,500 barrels of oil.

Regardless of how much jet fuel or diesel I can get from Oil Shale, I will still need to obtain and crack 2,500 barrels of Crude Oil to get my needed 1,000 barrels of Gasoline.

I could get 100% of all my Jet fuel and diesel fuel needs met with Oil Shale and I will still have to obtain (import?) the same amount of Crude Oil in order to get my gasoline.

This is why I posted that using Shale Oil to obtain other fuels may not necessarily reduce our need to obtain (import) Crude Oil for our gasoline needs.

I think Shale Oil technology is great and needs to be investigated and invested in. However, it has not been demonstrated that Shale Oil will affect our oil needs (imports) concerning the production of gasoline.

Now if we ditched the gasoline engine and moved everything to diesel.....

* This is the base conversion. Using post processing techniques called "reforming" this ration can be upped to about 50%.

07-26-08, 02:04 PM	#10
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 19,362 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	If we still need X amount of gasoline than we will need to continue to import sufficient quantities of crude oil to distill X amount of gasoline. Crude Oil produces a mixture type product as opposed to a specific product. We can't say that this tanker of Crude Oil is for Diesel and the other tanker of Crude Oil is for gasoline. Oil is oil. Getting the separate products (gasoline and Diesel for example, is dependent on the cracking or fractionating of the Crude Oil. When Crude Oil is cracked, there specific ratios of petroleum products produced. While these can be manipulated a little with the processes, generally speaking they are set by chemistry. You can't take a barrel of Crude and decide, this barrel will only produce gasoline. About 40%* of Crude Oil will distill into Gasoline (not directly though there are precursor products and steps in between). The rest will be a mixture of the lighter gases, Medium distillates, and the Heavy products. So if I need a 1,000 barrels of Gasoline, I will need to crack 2,500 barrels of oil. Regardless of how much jet fuel or diesel I can get from Oil Shale, I will still need to obtain and crack 2,500 barrels of Crude Oil to get my needed 1,000 barrels of Gasoline. I could get 100% of all my Jet fuel and diesel fuel needs met with Oil Shale and I will still have to obtain (import?) the same amount of Crude Oil in order to get my gasoline. This is why I posted that using Shale Oil to obtain other fuels may not necessarily reduce our need to obtain (import) Crude Oil for our gasoline needs. I think Shale Oil technology is great and needs to be investigated and invested in. However, it has not been demonstrated that Shale Oil will affect our oil needs (imports) concerning the production of gasoline. Now if we ditched the gasoline engine and moved everything to diesel..... * This is the base conversion. Using post processing techniques called "reforming" this ration can be upped to about 50%. __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.