Posted on 12/26/2009 11:31:21 AM PST by Military family member
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Refineries could trim millions of dollars in energy costs annually by using a new method developed at Purdue University to rearrange the distillation sequence needed to separate crude petroleum into products.
The researchers have demonstrated their method on petroleum plants that separate crude, showing that 70 of the new sequences they identified could enable oil refineries to improve the energy efficiency of this step anywhere from 6 percent to 48 percent, said Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.
(Excerpt) Read more at wabashvalleyjournalonline.com ...
Nice, try. The caveat is at the bottom of the article.
(Fits in nicely with Sarah's "drill baby drill" and with green--less energy to process the oil).
Cheers!
...and Merry Christmas.
Yeah. The companies that own these refineries, with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of energy flowing through them every year, have been waiting for Perdue University to come up with the idea of checking different permutations of the refining steps to see if they can get the amount of energy they use in the refining process down below 2% of the total throughput.
I’m so glad I believe everything written by jounalism school graduates.
For the record, I posted it. I didn’t write it.
You mean about the patent? What of it? Isn’t it beneficial to the refineries to be able to cut production costs? Isn’t that how capitalism works?
Thanks for the article.
“”Separations are a huge part of what chemical plants do,” Agrawal said. “Improving efficiency by only a few percentage points translates into major savings. For every 100 barrels of oil distilled, nearly two barrels go into supplying energy for distillation. That’s a lot of oil.”
Well,,,, perhaps they should build nuclear power plants, and they won’t have to use oil to distill oil.
: )
Now Liberals will take this as evidence that they can mandate this change to save energy at no cost when this is flatly not the case.
Look for a New EPA Rule.
I meant to type “jourinalism,” of course.
[[Method makes refineries more efficient]]
So apaprently gasoline is goign to drop to $1.00 again? No need to answer- we all know that is never goign to happen despite refineries cutting costs- they’ll simply pocket the extra profits leaving prices right where they are
No, you really do need a different form of heat energy (at different rates and temperatures from a steam boiler, and from direct heaters/burners for some other processes) in an oil refinery.
Nuke steam can be either too hot (for the low temp heating they need, or “too cold” for the higher-temp processes that use superheated steam to get the oils and tars heated up enough. Dirac burners are far, fr more efficient at heating stuff that secondary-derived energy like electric power or steam.
Best efficiency I’ve seen comes from a combined cycle plant inside an oil refinery: the dirty and bad refinery wastes were burned in a boiler to make process steam at high temperatures, the cleaner residues were burned in gas turbine to make refinery electric power, the hot gasses and air form the gas turbine went up and stack and through a heat exchanger, which make lowerer temeorature steam tat fed a second generator from the otherwise wasted fuel.
Free power is good - but you have to pay for the second generator pipie and cooling water., the extra steam genrrtor in the stck, the extra.
So, what would you do? Especially, given that...
The researchers also determined, however, that 70 of the new sequences identified have potential to consume less energy than the sequence now used by industry. Those 70 sequences range from being 6 percent to 48 percent more energy efficient than the method currently in use."However, just because a particular sequence would be more energy efficient doesn't mean it would be practical for industry to implement," Agrawal said. "There are a lot of challenges. Some are easy to build and just involve trivial retrofitting, and some are more difficult. So we'll need to work with companies and refinery experts to determine which sequences could be built."
Given that refineries already have an energy cost of less than 2%, a 6-48% energy savings isn't going to translate to more than a penny or two at the pump. And, if the re-sequencing requires any major capital investment, it's not going to be worth it.
Big Oil currently returns a profit of about a dime a gallon on gasoline. How much of that would you want them to "give back" so you wouldn't resent their making a profit?
In the interest of full disclosure: I do not now, nor have I ever, worked for an oil company.
Maybe their ideas could help when planning a new refinery. (There aren’t many new refineries being built, however.) Changing the sequence of fractionation columns in an existing refinery could be a very expensive undertaking.
I mispoke- You’re right, the companies don’t profit- the govenrment does State and federal. I don’t resent the company making a profit- What I do resent are congress’ stipulations on oil refineries which are artifically keeping prices high- again, you’re right, it’s not hte companies fault the prices are high0- it’s the speculators and govenrments fault- their restrictions on the amount of refineries allowed, and the amount by which they can refine, have artifically driven up the prices- What I should have said was that government iwll pocket the extra savings while keeping hte prices high-
Barack has stated many times he wishes to see prices around $6.00 a gallon, and He’ll no doubt be enacting new guidlines and fees and restricitons which will further drive up the prices
[[(There aren’t many new refineries being built, however.)]]
And htere’s a reason for that- congress won’t allow them to build hte necessary refineries which would drop prices to where they should be- We have a glut of unrefined oil, but not enough facilities to process the crude- what refineries we do have are workign at near maximum capacity, and can’t efficiently meet the whole need of consumers (or just barely)- as well, tankers have been sitting off the coasts just wating for prices to rise again (no thanks to hte speculators) before brinign in their oil when hte oil dropped back around $1.90 not long ago.
It’s all one big freakin game with the govenrment and suppliers and speculators- meanwhile. familes in colder regions have to suffer because they can’t afford the price increases- sitting around in coats and hats i ntheir homes during winter months- soem familes even havign to go without heat altogether for short periods
Barack has stated many times he wishes to see prices around $6.00 a gallon, and He’ll no doubt be enacting new guidlines and fees and restricitons which will further drive up the prices while requiring hte refineries ot be even more efficient which will mean more profit for hte government (and it’ll be more than a penny or two per gallon)
Our govenrment has put very heavy restrictions on refineries, made htem jump through hoops, being hte cleanest and most efficient companies i nthe world at great cost to the companies, and our govenrment has tremendously profitted off oil, and then obama and the dems have hte nerve to turn around and villify ‘big oil’?
thanks, bfl
Okay, glad to see that we're basically in agreement. One point of difference, though. I wouldn't blame the "speculators", either. These people are simply involved in making a market for commodities.
And, if you see a Democrat Congress taking over in 2006, a Congress that is dead set against drilling anywhere in the U.S. or offshore, and is proclaiming it to the world, wouldn't you bet that oil prices are headed upward, too?
The "speculators" did what they do...and they can't be blamed for oil prices rising. They just bet that, under the circumstances, they were bound to.
In the meantime, we have a President who -- as you said -- would love to see $6.00/gal gasoline. And will do everything within his power to get it.
btrl
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