On average, how much polyethylene is produced from one barrel of crude
oil and a unit volume of natural gas? If maximized, how much
polyethylene could be produced from one barrel of crude oil and a unit
volume of natural gas? |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
29 Aug 2003 07:57 PDT
Helo felix1-ga,
Interesting question, and I just want to make sure I'm on the right
track in answering it for you.
Most crude oil and natural gas is used to produce energy products --
gasoline, LNG, etc. Only a small amount -- maybe 2% -- is used to
make chemical products such as ethylene and an even smaller fraction
to make polymers like polyethylene. I want to make sure you're
interested in the "big picture" of what happens to a barrel of crude,
rather than the details of conversion at an ethylene production plant.
You seem to be asking:
--on average, how much polyethylene is produced from a barrel of crude
oil (the answer is much less than 1%, but I can pin this down more
precisely for you)?
--if the entire barrel of crude were converted to polyethylene, how
much ethylene would be produced?
--ditto with natural gas -- what's the actual and possible amounts of
polyethylene that are/could be produced?
Please let me know if this seems like the type of information you're
after.
Thanks
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
felix1-ga
on
29 Aug 2003 14:10 PDT
Yes, I want to know the actual and the possible extraction
efficiencies from both a crude oil source and a natural gas source.
Thanks,
Neil
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
29 Aug 2003 19:22 PDT
Hello again,
I've been working on your question and it's largely answerable, I
think, but there are also a few snags that I've run into.
-For the second part of your question -- maximum possible production
of PE from crude and natural gas -- I can answer this by assuming all
the carbon present in a barrel of oil or a barrel of LNG is converted
(with 100% efficiency) into polyethylene. Does that approach meet
your needs?
--For the first part, though -- how much oil and gas is actually
converted into PE -- that's tougher. I can make some pretty good
estimates about how much total *fosil fuel* (oil plus natural gas) is
converted to PE, but I haven't found a way to tease out the separate
contributions of crude oil vs naural gas.
In other words, I can tell you that for the combined quantity of oil
and gas used in the US, 1% (approx -- I haven't done the calculations
yet) is converted to polyethylene. But I don't know if I can break
out the separate contribution of oil vs gas.
Should I go ahead and answer your question with the carbon-balance
approach I mentioned, and given this possible limitation. Or would
you prefer to wait and see if another researcher can offer a more
complete answer.
Let me know your thoughts on this.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
felix1-ga
on
29 Aug 2003 20:42 PDT
The carbon balance solution is not acceptable. I think the facts I
want are known and published somewhere probably in some obscure
esoteric petroleum engineering periodical. I was hoping someone could
provide the numbers I seek and simply direct me to the correct
respectable publication source. I think I'll wait for a different
response. Thanks for trying.
Neil
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
30 Aug 2003 07:03 PDT
OK...thanks for getting back to me. I'll leave this question for
another researcher to try. It will be interesting to see if someone
can come up with a different approach. I can only imagine the carbon
balance approach getting he answer you want, but other reearchers
might be more clever.
Good luck.
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