Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: chris on 15/12/2011 08:09:52
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I was asked, on average, how many litres of petrol we get out of the average barrel of crude oil?
Any ideas?
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Ok,
Let me write this in US Liquid Gallons (3.79 liters).
I'm seeing various notes. One barrel is 42 gallons of oil.
The oil gets converted into Gasoline, Diesel, Home Heating Oil, various plastics, lighter fuels such as Methane/Propane/Butane, and etc.
Here are some numbers from Here (http://fatknowledge.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-many-gallons-of-gasoline-in-barrel.html). I believe these are US Statistics.
The end products make up about 2.6 gallons more than the original amount of oil, or about 44.6 gallons of end products from a 42 gallon barrel.
Purely distilling the fuel yields about 11 gallons of gasoline per barrel depending on the oil source.
However, cracking and advanced processing can actually yield a maximum return of about 1:1, or about 42 gallons of fuel per 42 gallon barrel of crude (I presume the remainder is either lost in processing, or recovered as lighter fuels).
US Statistics (http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_psup_dc_nus_mbblpd_a.htm) indicate that in 2010, 19,180 barrels/day of crude were consumed in the USA, out of which 8993 barrels of gasoline were produced, or about 19.7 gallons per barrel.
This also includes 3800 barrels of Diesel, 1447 barrels of aviation fuel, and 555 barrels of kerosene and fuel oil, or an additional 12.7 gallons of "fuel" for a total of about 32.4 gallons of "fuel" out of the 42 gallon barrel.
Due to modern advanced processing as well as taxes, each country presumably would have slightly different mixtures of end-products. Europe has more small personal vehicles running on Diesel than the USA, so it is likely that more Diesel is produced. However, fuel taxes are much higher, so a higher percentage of the oil may be used for other purposes than vehicle fuel.