Liquid fuels petroleum

Table 4-3. Barrel Oil Equivalents of Petroleum Liquid Fuels...

It s easy to say that the key to commercial implementation of biomass pyrolysis for tar production will be the identification of economically competitive technology for the production of higher-valued products. As the primary virtues of pyrolysis oils are those attributable to petroleum (liquid fuels and, under some pyrolytic conditionsi also olefins), it can be assumed that pyrolysis can become an avenue to petroleum-type products from renewable biomass. Is biomass pyrolysis, coupled with oil upgrading, the renewable route to petroleum Pyrolysis, after all, allows for the production of biomass-derived fuels in efficient-to-use petroleum forms. 

The flash point of a petroleum liquid is the temperature to which it must be brought so that the vapor evolved burns spontaneously in the presence of a flame. For diesel fuel, the test is conducted according to a closed cup technique (NF T 60-103). The French specifications stipulate that the flash point should be between 55°C and 120°C. That constitutes a safety criterion during storage and distribution operations. Moreover, from an official viewpoint, petroleum products are classified in several groups according to their flash points which should never be exceeded. 

Liquid Fuels via Methanol Synthesis and Conversion. Methanol is produced catalyticaHy from synthesis gas. By-products such as ethers, formates, and higher hydrocarbons are formed in side reactions and are found in the cmde methanol product. Whereas for many years methanol was produced from coal, after World War II low cost natural gas and light petroleum fractions replaced coal as the feedstock. 

John D. Bacha, Ph.D., Consulting Scientist, Chevron Products Company Member, ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), Committee D02 on Petroleum Products and Lubricants American Chemical Society International Association for Stability and Handling of Liquid Fuels, Steering Committee (Section 27, Energy Resources, Conversion, and Utilization)... 

The hydrogen content of petroleum fuels can be calculated from density with the following formula, with an accuracy of about 1 percent for petroleum liquids that contain no sulfur, water, or ash ... 

The heating of a fuel affects the overall size of the fuel system. Generally, fuel heating is a more important concern in connection with gaseous fuels, since liquid fuels all come from petroleum crude and show narrow heating-value variations. Gaseous fuels, on the other hand, can vary from llOOBtu/ft (41,000 KJ/m ) for natural gas to (11,184 KJ/m ) or below for process gas. The fuel system will of necessity have to be larger for the process gas, since more is required for the same temperature rise. 

All liquid fuels and oils manufactured and sold in the United States since 1919 must comply with the engineering standards and quality specifications published by the American Petroleum Institute... 

Natural gas is a mixture of naturally-occurring methane (CH ) with other hydrocarbons and inert gases. The 2.3 trillion cubic meters (Tcm) or 81 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas marketed and consumed globally in 1997 accounted for about 24 percent of the world s primary energy, ranking third among fuels after petroleum liquids (40%) and coal (25%). 

American Petroleum Institute. (1987). Liquid Fuels from Maturol Gas. Petrol Information, API. 34-.S2.Sn. Washington, DC Author. 

Regional scarcities of coal initially drove these uses. As petroleum became more abundant and as its price fell, oil became more attractive. In firing boilers, fuel oil possessed only a slight advantage over good-quality coal in Btus per unit volume. But liquid fuels were much easier to handle and store than coal. Competitive pressures kept the prices per Btu of residual oil and coal quite close. 

The co-processing of coal with heavy crude oil or its heavier fractions is being developed to lower capital requirements for coal hquefaction and to integrate processing of the products of coal conversion into existing petroleum refineries. This development appears to represent the main route by which coal-based liquid fuels will supplement and perhaps someday displace petroleum-based fuels. 

FIGURE 6.9 Flexicoking is a commercial process for refining petroleum that has been applied to heavy oil and tar sand fractions. The process employs circulating fluidized beds and operates at moderate temperatures and pressures. The reactor produces liquid fuels and excess coke. The latter is allowed to react with a gas-air mixture in the gasifier fluidized bed to provide a low-value heating gas that can be desulfurized and used as a plant fuel. Courtesy, Exxon Research and Engineering Company. 

After petroleum resource are depleted, methanol is the logical liquid fuel for the above-mentioned and other applications, because it can be... 

Most of the liquid fuels in use today are obtained from crude oil, also called petroleum, a brownish-green to black colored viscous oil found under the crust of the Earth either on shore or off shore. This oil either flows out by itself due to underground gas or hydrostatic pressure, or it is mechanically pumped out. Petroleum almost always occurs along with gas called natural gas. When the oil well contains both oil and gas it is called a wet well, and when it contains only gas it is called a dry well. 

The fractional distillation process is carried out in a fractionating still (its modern version is also called a topping still). The three most important liquid fuels derived from petroleum are gasoline or petrol, kerosene, and diesel oil. 

As one more common example of liquid fuels present reference may be drawn to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) or bottled gas or refinery gas. This fuel is obtained as a by-product during the cracking of heavy oils or from natural gas. It is dehydrated, desulfurized and traces of odours organic sulfides (mercaptans) are added in order to identify whether a gas leak has occurred. Supply of LPG is carried out under pressure in containers under different trade names. It consists of hydrocarbons of great volatility such that they can occur in the gaseous state under atmospheric pressure, but are readily liquifiable under high pressures. The principal constituents of LPG are n-butane, iso-butane, butylene and propane,... 

The design of propellants for solid fuel rockets differs considerably from that for ordnance, because of the lower operating pressures, usually below 15 MPa. To understand the principles involved it is first necessary to give a brief account of rocket propulsion. In this account considerations will be restricted to motors based on solid propellants. Motors based on liquid fuels, such as petroleum fractions and liquid oxygen, depend on combustion processes of non-explosive type. 

In the approach followed in this invention [29], a biocatalytic agent converts the sulfur heterocycles into different molecules that do not exhibit the hydrophobic interactions. This is achieved by selectively cleaving carbon-sulfur bonds. The selectivity of the biocatalytic agent employed is limited to the carbon-sulfur bonds and no attack to the carbon-carbon skeleton was reported. Thus, it is expected that the proposed biocatalytic reduction of viscosity would not diminish the fuel value of the treated petroleum liquids. The biocatalyst employed consisted of the strain ATCC No. 53968 (see Section 20 and references therein), in an aqueous culture conventionally prepared by fermentation under aerobic conditions. The fermenting bioreactor is fed with a suitable nutrient medium, which comprises a conventional carbon source (dextrose and glycerol are recommended carbon sources. To confer maximal biocatalytic activity for the desired cleavage of organic C—S bonds, the bacteria was kept in a state of sulfur deprivation. 

HYTORT A process for making gaseous and liquid fuels from oil shale. Developed by the Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, in 1959. It uses high-pressure hydrogenation, which recovers more of the carbon from shale than does pyrolysis. In 1981 a joint venture of IGT with the Phillips Petroleum Company was formed in order to make a feasibility study. 

Gasification technologies offer the potential of clean and efficient energy. The technologies enable the production of synthetic gas from low or negative-value carbon-based feedstocks such as coal, petroleum coke, high sulfur fuel oil, materials that would otherwise be disposed as waste, and biomass. The gas can be used in place of natural gas to generate electricity, or as a basic raw material to produce chemicals and liquid fuels. 

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