RAJ AISHWARY JAIN
2010
EMWS
4/30/2010
OIL ESSAY
Topic: “An overview of the current and future importance of oil in
the world in terms of energy and resources”.
THE NATURE OF OIL :-
How Was Oil Formed ?
Oil is formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived
millions of years ago in a marine, water, environment. Over millions
of years the remains of these animals and plants were enclosed by
layers of sand. Heat and the pressure from these layers helped the
remains turn into what we now call oil (crude oil). The word
"petroleum" means "rock oil" or "oil from the earth".
Crude oil is a smelly, yellow or black liquid and is usually found
beneath the earth’s surface. That area is known as reservoirs.
Scientists and engineers explore a chosen area by studying rock
samples from the earth. When the well is finished, the drilled well
will bring a steady flow of oil to the surface
> Russia
> Saudi Arabia
> United States
> Iran
> China
About 53% of the crude oil and petroleum products used in the United States
in 2009 came from other countries.
After you get the oil on the surface then you have to refine it. The
process goes somewhat like this:-
Refining is carried out in three main steps they are:-
> Step 1 :- Separation
The oil is separated into its constituents by distillation, and some of
these components are further separated with chemical reactions
and by using solvents which dissolve one component of a mixture.
> Step 2 - Conversion
The various hydrocarbons produced are then chemically altered to
make them more suitable for their intended purpose. and
naphthenic into aromatics. These reactions often use catalysis, and
so sulfur is
removed from the hydrocarbons before they are reacted, as it would
'poison' the catalysts
used.
> Step3 - Purification
The hydrogen sulfide gas which was extracted from the refinery gas
in Step 1 is converted to sulfur, which is sold in liquid form to
fertilizer manufacturers.
The oil industry:-
Advantages :-
> Easily combustible, and produces high energy upon combustion
helping in locomotion and in the generation of electricity and
various other forms of energy;
> Widely and easily distributed all over the world through rail and
sea tankers
> Comparatively inexpensive due to large reserves and easy
accessibility
> Good availability
>Inexpensive
> Very large amounts of electricity can be generated in one place
using oil, fairly cheaply.
> Oil-fired power stations are very efficient.
> An oil-fuelled power station can be built almost anywhere, so long
as you can get large quantities of fuel to it.
Disadvantages :-
> it is non-renewable and fast depleting;
> burning it releases carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas,
that had been stored in the earth for millions of years
> it leaves behind harmful by-products upon combustion, thereby
causing a lot of pollution;
> mining of oil leads to irreversible damage to the adjoining
environment;
> Oil spills as well as evaporation and fumes pollutes the
environment;
> Used oil is difficult to recycle.
> The price of oil is rising, especially if the real cost of its carbon is
included.
> Burning it produces carbon dioxide, a major cause of global
warming.
"Are We 'Running Out'? I Thought
There Was 40 Years of the Stuff Left"
Oil will not just "run out" because all oil production follows a bell
curve. This is true whether we're talking about an individual field or
on the planet as a whole.
Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve,
increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of
the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil
has been 50 percent depleted oil production begins to go down
while cost begins to go up.
In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that
if 2005 was the year of global Peak Oil worldwide oil production in
the year 2030 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the
world’s population in 2030 will be both much larger and much more
industrialized than it was in 1980.
The issue is not one of "running out" so much as it is not having
enough to keep our economy running. In this regard, the
ramifications of Peak Oil for our civilization are similar to the
ramifications of dehydration for the human body. The body of a 200
pound man thus holds 140 pounds of water. Because water is so
crucial to everything the human body does, the man doesn't need to
lose all 140 pounds of water weight before collapsing due to
dehydration.
Reference
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