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| August 2007 Newsletter |
2007-10-26 |
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Motormouth here,
A warm round of golf claps for our brand new Car Connection Club members! This month’s initiation task took a great deal of thought to come up with, all Car Connection Club “newbies” will be responsible for providing outdoor air conditioning services to all senior club members. Allow me to explain newbies, how would you like to have your very own FAN Club? Well now you can! Each Newbie will be presented with their very own; you guessed it, palm leaf fan! Your assignment will be providing cool air flow to all senior club members at all times while they are outside of the club house away from the cool comfort of air conditioning.
Newbies your duty is to make certain that our senior club members do not break into a sweat! Soft towels will also be provided to you just in case you need to wipe their brow! What a great way to serve others, feel free to take advantage of your own fan when your not busy fanning senior club members.
Well folks, Mamamotormouth continues to keep Axel and I out of the printing room this month while she puts together yet another awesome segment to her “gas pains” investigation! Axel and I have had a little time on our hands this summer so we have done a little investigating on our own! Yes it has been hot enough to cook a pancake on the hood of your car with chocolate sprinkles on! Now, if we could only figure out how we are going to get that 3ft diameter pancake off the hood of Mamamotormouth’s car before she finds out Axel and I will be in great shape! Any suggestions! Have fun enjoy the rest of your summer 2007.
Understanding the Squeeze at the pumps
Part 3
Well it’s that time again, and so far we have learnt that Americans drive more that 2.5 trillion miles a year in cars, light trucks and SUV’s and that our personal vehicles alone use 140 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel per year. The average consumption in the United States is 20 million barrels of oil per day. 45% of that is used for motor gasoline. The rest is used for distillate fuel oil, jet fuel and other oils. Each barrel equals 42 US gallons/159 L and yields 19 to 20 gallons/75 L of gasoline. In the United States an average of 178 million gallons of gasoline is consumed daily.
The biggest factor is the cost of crude oil. Statistics for April 2007 show that crude oil made up 50% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline. So if a gallon of gas costs $2.85, crude oil accounts for about $1.43 of that.
OPEC is a conglomerate of 12 countries: Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Together these 12 countries are responsible for 40% of the world’s oil production and 2/3 of the world’s oil reserve. So, when OPEC wants to raise the price of crude oil, it simply reduces production.
In this month’s newsletter we will be begin to explore the Refining process which makes up 28% of the cost of gasoline.
Raw oil or “crude” oil is not useful in its natural state. Although “light, sweet” oil, has been used directly as a fuel for steam vessel propulsion, the lighter elements form highly explosive vapors in the fuel tanks. This is especially dangerous in warships, so for this and many other uses the oil needs to be separated and redefined before being used for fuels and lubricants, and before some of the byproducts can be used in petrochemical processes to from such things as plastic and foam.
Petroleum fossil fuels are used in shop, automotive and aircraft engines. These different hydrocarbons all have different boiling points. This means that they can be separated by distillation. Since lighter liquid elements are in higher demand for use in internal combustion engines, a modern refinery will convert heavier hydrocarbons and lighter elements into higher value products using complex and energy intensive processes.
Oil has so many various uses because it contains hydrocarbons of different molecular structures such as paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes (or cycloalkanes), alkenes, dienes and alkynes. Hydrocarbons are molecules of varying lengths and complexity. They consist of only hydrogen and carbon atoms. Their different structures give them differing properties and uses. The trick in the oil refining process is separating and purifying these molecules.
Basically a refinery is a factory or industrial process plant where crude oil is turned into petroleum products such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, etc. They are large sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping that carries streams of fluids between chemical processing units.
A typical refinery costs billions of dollars to build and millions to maintain and upgrade. It runs 24/7, 365 days a year. It employs hundreds of people and takes up as much land as several football fields. In fact workers ride bicycles from one station to another in a lot of cases because they are so sprawled out. Refineries can process anywhere from a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil per day. Because of this high capacity, many of the units are operated continuously or at steady state (the constant flow of material through a system, filling or draining of a tank with material would be an example of a transient state) or approximately steady state for long periods of time (months to years).
These amazing operations had a very humble beginning. Primitive stills, about the size of a garage, were used to heat oil at a rate of 25 to 40 barrels a day. This “oil boiling” produced kerosene, lubricants, waxes and gasoline – a clear light weight liquid that was generally discarded and a useless by product.
In 1892 Charles Duryea built the first U.S. gas-powered automobile and Gasoline’s lowly status quickly rose from there.
Common process units found in refineries
Desalter Unit: washes salt out from the crude oil before it goes into the atmospheric distillation unit
Atmospheric Distillation Unit: distills the crude oil into fractions. This is a continuous distillation process, where crude oil is continuously fed into distillation process and separated fractions are removed continuously.
Vacuum Distillation Unit: this process further distills the residue at the bottom after the atmospheric distillation.
Naphtha Hydrotreater Unit: uses hydrogen to desuflerize naphtha from atmospheric distillation. Naphtha must be hydrotreated before it is sent to a Catalytic Reformer Unit.
Catalytic Reformer Unit: this is where catalysts are used to convert naphtha-boiling range molecules into higher octane reformate (reformer product). The reformate has a higher content of aromatics, olefins, and cyclic hydrocarbons. Hydrogen is used either in the hydroteaters and hydrocracker.
Distillate Hydrotreater Unit: desulfurizes distillate (diesel) after atmospheric distillation.
Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Unit: Upgrades heavier fractions into lighter, more valuables products.
Merox treater: may be used to oxidize mercaptans to organic disulfides for products such as jet fuel and kerosene.
Coking Unit: processes asphalt into gasoline and diesel fuel, leaving coke as a residual product.
Alkylation unit: produces high octane components for gasoline blending.
Dimerization Unit
Ismoerization Unit: converts linear molecules to higher octane branched molecules for blending into gasoline or to feed alkylation units.
Steam reforming Unit: produces hydrogen for the hydrotreater of hydrocracker.
Liquified gas storage unit: for propane and similar gaseous fuels at a pressure sufficient to maintain it in a liquid form.
Storage tanks: for crude oil and the finished products. Usually cylindrical in shape, with a vapor enclosure, and surrounded by a berm to contain spills.
Amine gas teater, Claus unit, and tail gas treatment for processing hydrogen sulfide from hydordeslfurization.
Utility units: such as cooling towers, boiler plants, instrument air systems and electrical substation.
Wastewater: collection and treating systems consisting of API separators (a device designed to separate gross amounts of oil and suspended solids from the wastewater effluents of oil refineries), dissolved air floatation (DAF) units (water treatment process that clarifies wastewaters (or other waters) by the removal of suspended matter such as oil or solids), and some type of further treatment to make the water suitable for reuse or disposal.
Today, with the advancements in technology, some refiners can turn more than half of every 42 gallon barrel of crude oil into gasoline. That is a remarkable advancement compared to 70 years ago when only 11 gallons of gasoline could be produced. How can they do this? Basically, refining breaks the crude oil down into its various components, which can then be selectively reconfigured into new products.
This process takes place inside a maze of hardware that can easily be described as a metal spaghetti factory. Employees monitor the refinery operations from within highly automated control rooms. Refineries are surprisingly quiet places because most activities happen out of site. The only sound is the constant, low hum of the equipment.
The complexity of this equipment varies in each refinery. In general though, the more advanced a refinery, the better its ability to upgrade crude oil into high-value products.
Whether simple or advanced all refineries perfume three basic steps:
• Separation: Heavy on the Bottom, Light on the Top
• Conversion: Cracking and Rearranging Molecules to Add Value
• Treatment: the Finishing Touch
Well, I think that’s enough for this month. We will delve a little deeper into refining next month.
Gas Saving Tips
7. Take A Hike. For shorter trips, sometimes it makes more sense to walk, or ride a bike. Not only is it good for your wallet but its good for you as well.
8. Take A Cruise. Using your cruise control can give you some surprising increases in fuel economy. If your car comes equipped, try using it on the highway to keep your speed consistent.
9. Critical Mass. If you live in the city, try taking the bus, subway or other forms of mass transit and leave the car at home.
Air Conditioning Tip# 5: save gas and reduce engine load dramatically by turning off your vehicles air conditioning system when approaching steep grades. Set the fan speed to the low position allowing air flow to continue to pull the coldest air through the evaporator core. Turning off the A/C system on your vehicle on steep grades reduces engine load providing the engine with an increase in horse power. At the same time reducing heat build up in the engine. When it comes to engines folks’ heat is not its friend. Your vehicle will stay relatively cool inside. Once your vehicle has reached the top of the steep grade turn you’re A/C back on. Air conditioning systems rob engines of 10 to 15 % horsepower! Turning the A/C off on steep grades will prevent
having to press the accelerator pedal that much harder to get your vehicle to the top!
Air Conditioning Tip# 6: turn you’re A/C system off prior to arriving at your destination! This is a BIGGIE folks! When you know that you are aprox. 10 to 15 minutes away from reaching your destination point turn off you’re vehicles A/C system. Leave the an on low speed. The fan will continue to pull the coolest air through the evaporator core while at the same time melting frost build up on the evaporator core fins. The air flow in turn will work to dry up any moisture on the evaporator core fins. Moisture left on the surface of the evaporator core fins tends to collect along with hair, dust and dirt creating a great breeding ground for mold to grow causing your vehicle to smell like an old gym locker when you turn your vehicles A/C system on.
Remember folks, “Vehicle maintenance doesn’t cost….it pays, by giving you a vehicle that is reliable and maintains it’s value.”
‘Till next time, drive safe, have fun and keep it under 100!!!!
“Motormouth” and Axel
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