Search This Blog

Petroleum Depletion (overconsumption of crude oil) Solutions

All the easy oil with higher net energy returns on investments gone; long ago pumped up & refined into fuels & other products consumed & depleted during globalization as the human population on Earth doubled since 1950.


Not just for the production of gasoline, diesel & jet fuel, petroleum reserves depleted of all the easy oil. Today Canadian groups are using prodigious amounts of water & natural gas to cook crude oil out of tar sands. Special polymers are pumped into existing oil wells to try & extract more oil. Drills are making L shaped horizontal holes many miles underground to frack out every last feasibly extractable drop of oil. 

Gasoline High Prices Today (Dec. 2021) 

Fuel Prices Will Rise 3X market prices today in late 2021 / you will see gasoline sold for $5 USD / liter or $15-20 per gallon. In some parts of Europe gasoline already selling for $8+ / US gal- of course sold by the liter in euro currency, so $EU 2.595/L in Hong Kong, & similar in the Netherlands, Israel, Central African Republic, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Monaco, Barbados. People in the UK think their prices seem even higher, but the imperial gallon equal to 4.5 liters, 4500 ml whereas a US gallon equal to 3.8 liters or 3,800 ml.

Gasoline Energy Content

When comparing other energy sources like battery electric vehicles, think of GGE gasoline gallon equivalent, the amount of alternative (fuel/ energy) it takes to equal the chemical energy content of one liquid gallon or 3.8 liters of gasoline. Regular gasoline contains 12.7 kWh/kg energy density by mass (weight) & 8.76 kWh/L energy density by volume in liters. In physics this equals 45.7 MJ/kg Mega Joules per Kilogram. In America that means about 33,307 Wh/ Gal. or Watt Hours per Gallon, such that a single gallon of regular gasoline has as much chemical energy as about 33.3 kWh & at $0.14/ kWh worth about $4.66 of electricity from a utility company.

Gasoline Engine Efficiency

Common gasoline vehicle engines only convert about 30% of gasolines chemical energy into rotational torque work to move the vehicle. A whole range of factors like the age of the car, its fueling system pressure & injector type, ECU settings, emissions controls, displacement, lubrication oil type & how often the engine oil changed, air filter flow rate vs dirty & clogged, proper spark plug operation gapped correctly, effective piston ring sealing rate to prevent pressure loss blowby or oil dilution problems like that 1.5L Earth Dreams Turbo engine from Honda (chasing thermal efficiency without better quality control) The best gasoline naturally aspirated engine efficiency achieved by Toyota in their Prius lineup, with 40% energy conversion of the fuel energy to mechanical work to move the vehicle.

Better Engine Thermal Efficiency Gains

Using new HCCI homogenous charge compression with head integrated turbocharging with low mass high rotation velocity variable boost turbocharging & direct gasoline injection & very cleaver continually variable valves & variable compression & super cleaver ECU dynamic mapping, up to 55% of the gasolines chemical energy can be converted to useful acceleration power. Thermal efficiencies over %50 hard to achieve & thus engines that do this cost more to develop & manufacture. Hyundai significantly exiting the engine R&D space recently to focus on electric motor & battery developments for future electric vehicles.

EV Batteries 

Today's electric vehicles typically use dozens of large prismatic or polymer batteries or thousands of smaller cylindrical batteries, with one of several Lithium-Ion chemistries.
Nissan, maker of the Nissan LEAF leading electric affordable family vehicle, commercialized manganese spinel laminate lithium ion. A123 developed LFP or lithium-iron phosphate. Sony invented & commercialized Lithium Cobalt Oxide the most common type of Lithium-Ion battery in consumer electronics back in 1991 for the Walkman audio cassette player.

Further Lithium-Ion battery optimizations with NCA & NMC by Panasonic/ Tesla/ Toyota were achieved. NGK the world's preeminent makers of sparkplugs & Kyocera maker of exceptional ceramics, are partnering with Yamaha/ Toyota to make ceramic lithium ion batteries & solid-state lithium ion batteries to address the problem of liquid flammable electrolyte in which soft short dendrites are prone to forming, making traditional lipo's fragile to charging while frozen, high temperature & prone to venting with flame if punctured or ripped open, something that happened to me when I was removing an aftermarket battery from an iPhone that had its battery changed in Vietnam, where the tech that changed the OEM battery used epoxy resin adhesive instead of polymer pull tabs which are more common in iPhone battery securing applications by the OEM & most device repair shops like Batteries + where I used to work as a Level 2 device repair technician. 

Weak Lithium-Ion Fading 

When lithium-ion batteries are 100% charged, its damages the battery. When lithium-ion batteries are deeply discharge, it damages the battery. To get long life out of common lithium-ion batteries, you have to short cycle charge for 10-40 minutes & aim to stay away from the top 10% between 90% & 100% charged, as that top range where most of the damage occurs. Avoid draining below 15% too, as similar damage occurs. Never charge when the batteries are frozen bellow 41 F & never charge when the batteries are hot above 122 F, as both freezing & hot charging radically shorten the useful life of the batteries. There is a whole wiki series of Lithium-Ion Battery Fade in Nissan Leaf's operated in Hot Climates like Texas & Arizona or Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Centra Africa & Australia, in deserts & dry hot arid places where the heat loading fades the lithium-ion batteries by robbing them of capacity faster by causing more entropy or decay in the anode & cathode faster. 

Limited Mining Capacity Growth & Lithium Resource Depletion 

Lithium-Ion a dead end because the mining of Li- already fully matured industry with little room for added production capacity growth & near-term depletion consumption levels that justify the development of feasible lithium-ion battery recycling for the copper & aluminum foil, the cobalt & nickel & lithium. Thankfully there are more than 100 different alternative battery chemistries being developed. Sulfur ion & sodium ion have the most potential because of the abundance of those elements in a cheap easily recoverable ways near the surface of Earth's crust where practical mining can produce prodigious amounts of sulfur & sodium, from volcanic vents in sulfurs case to sea water desalination in the case of sodium. 

Electric Motors

Electric induction motors & IPM types with rare earth magnets can convert 85-95% of the battery energy into rotation torque or useful work for acceleration. Brake energy regeneration can capture between 10-30% of the inertial energy when you are going down hills or slowing to a stop in brake regen settings that can typically be adjusted to enable one pedal driving (throttle control) as letting off the throttle a bit activates regen to slow the vehicle, where the brake pedal only used to come to a complete stop at a stop sign or light controlled intersection or to complete yield stop at a roundabout.

Exceptional Electric Vehicles  
 
Telsa Motors in California been selling electric performance luxury cars worldwide since 2010. Their Model S lineup used induction motors without rare earth magnets. At the time, China, the world's largest producer of the rare earth elements used in strong high-performance magnets, raised the price of those elements by 500%, almost bankrupting magnet manufactures in America & Europe. IPM or integral permanent magnet motors derive slightly better compact higher efficiency because they make use of magnetic flux stored as structural atomic spin type in the atoms of the magnets, thus the electromagnetic energized windings are the only part consuming electricity within the motor. Insider induction motors the rotor & the stator are both energized by the battery electricity via the variable frequency controller, resulting in slightly more mass & slightly less efficiency. 

Making Synthetic Gasoline

Shell GTL or gas to liquids processes can convert methane CH4 or similar mixtures of alkane gases like butane & propane & even hydrogen & carbon - into gasoline, diesel, jet A or 100LL replacement fuel for small piston powered helicopters. GTL fuels are more expensive to make this way because of the energetic chemical processing required. Expect to pay $10+ per US. Gallon for synfuel. Via clean coal gasification with noble & toxic metal recovery, gasoline & diesel fuels can be made from coal resources. Hydrates on the Sea floor of Earth's oceans can also be mined for hydrocarbons & hydrogen, liquids & gases. 

Biogas in Bioreactors from Organic Waste 

Bio-gasoline can be made with trans genetic bacteria, fungi & algae in bioreactors, by converting yard waste, food scraps, agricultural waste, plant waste from clearing lands of invasive species, waste from food processing plants, breweries, wineries, spoiled or rotted foods from grocery stores or markets. These plant & animal resources can produce oils & gases that can be refined drop in replacement fuels that you can refuel your existing piston engine & turbine engines in vehicles & generators & power equipment! 

Oil Recycling Opportunities 

Engine, transmission & hydraulic fluid, power steering fluid & brake fluid, many fluids used in vehicles can be collected in large corrosion resistant metal bins common at mechanics shops, Autoparts stores, vehicle service centers, mechanical garages, they even collect waste cooking oil to make biodiesel from grocery stores & some restaurants. Wasted oxidized rancid cooking oils, veggie oils & plant oils, seed oils, peanut oil & similar can be converted into gasoline & diesel & new lubrication oils, hydrogen & carbon fiber or graphene & other higher value-added chemicals. 

Humans Creative Problem Solvers 

Working together to solve Climate Change & Air Pollution, we can make cleaner biofuels & synthetic fuels that burn more completely & more efficiently, that drop into existing vehicles. Consider biodiesel & hydro-diesel today, as better than the typical low sulfur on road diesel used by trucks & busses mostly. Humans are resilient, intelligent, passionate people that can solve all the world's problems, faster if we work together with more global collaboration & less social division, war & senseless chaos!

Air Pollution

When hydrocarbons combusted (burned) in Air which is mostly nitrogen N2 with some O2, 78% & 21% respectively, oxides of nitrogen formed as carbon & hydrogen ions from the fuel react with oxygen & nitrogen. Impurities in the fuel, metals, metal oxides, gums, waxes, esters, tar, bitumen, sulfur, none metal elements, isomers, alkenes, isomers, triple bonds, & others react to make ground level ozone, oxides of sulfur, fine & super fine particles called particulate matter like PM2.5 & PM5 & PM10 that lodge deep in human lungs causing COPD & Cancers just like smoking tobacco. Some of that radioactive metal ions in fuels, present at 1 part per trillion, produce decay products like polonium 210 oxide & uranium oxide & thorium oxide & radon 222 gas, also present in natural gas as a tiny concentration trace pollutant thats very hard to feasible remove. Coal the most prevalent source of radioactive metal emissions in the fly ash of coal power plants, as radioactive naturally occurring metal oxides that form when these elements are combusted with the carbon in the coal power plant to make heat *thermal* energy to boil water to turn the generator turbines to make electricity to export via transformer voltage multiplication high voltage overhead wire distribution networks for grid power systems, electrical energy later sold to end users by utility companies that have regulated monopolies since the end user can only normally buy electricity from one company. Most household & commercial & industrial energy, including electricity used at oil refineries, comes from a mix of carbon thermal *natural gas, oil, coal* generation, hydroelectric, wind power & solar thermal, solar PV generation capacity, & nuclear fission reactors that convert neutron decay from uranium or concentrated uranium into heat energy to boil water to spin generator turbines to make electricity, though the high temperature heat available from nuclear plants can also be used to desalinate sea water & to produce hydrogen from the desalinated water (with ions added back in precise amounts) / interestingly sea water contains enough uranium ions & inorganic uranium to power existing Gen 2 reactor technologies for thousands of years. 

Air Pollutants Toxic to Human Cells 

Air pollutants from burning gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, oils, toxic to human lung, brain, kidney, nose, mouth, throat & stomach & intestinal & colon cells. The radioactive naturally occurring emissions produce ionizing radiation inside the body that damages DNA. Some of the metals like arsenic & cadmium & chromium released when crude hydrocarbon fuels & coal are burned, are toxic to the body because they similarly damage DNA. Where DNA damaged by a pollutant or toxin, mutagenic cells processes tend to occur. Where mutagenic cell process occur we seem to see uncontrolled cell growth which is the basis for many cancers. 

American Dream Energy Intensive

American's, are the largest energy consumers in the world due to a variety of lifestyle & economic factors, like Urban Sprawl & large poorly insulated low quality wood homes with poorly sealed gaps & cracks, a problem in the UK as well & surely other countries. Coal power was once the dominate form of fuel energy to heat homes, to cook, to make electricity. Coal pollution emissions foul the air with brown soot that obscures sunlight & smells & tastes nasty, something the UK dealt with so much that they started phasing out coal use systemically at all levels. Making solar PV panels requires a lot of energy because of the high temperatures to make purified crystalline silicon in giant boules, to slice into wafers for computer chip making or solar cell production. Much of the PV industry reuses used computer chip making equipment from older bigger node processes that are no longer able to make market competitive chipsets. The same purified silicon ingot making & slicing equipment utilized by solar PV manufacturing & chip foundries. Gallium Arsenide makes better PV & chips, but costs a lot more & far more toxic making it more expensive to process & makes recycling more complicated at EOL or end of life recycling of electronics. 

Clean Gasification of Coal with Valuable Metal Extraction Profit Subsidies 

Clean coal gasification provides an alternative way to make natural gas, gasoline, diesel & jet fuel & all of those toxic heavy & radioactive metals from the coal can be efficiently captured from the exhaust products & concentrated to commercially valuable useful products for use as fuel in nuclear reactors & for other uses of gold & platinum & uranium & thorium & tin & lead & mercury & silver & palladium & rhodium. Some kinds of coal contains much more noble & valuable metals. Converting the coal to a slurry & using ion floatation bubble extraction can pre clean the carbon, remove sulfur & extract the valuable metals & metal oxides for profit generating to help pay for the coal cleaning operations. 

Climate Change Imperative

We must phase out carbon energy & embrace decarbonization in order to address human caused climate change from dumping trillions of tons of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere. Using oxygen in the air to make energy also reducing oxygen concentrations. Earth's atmosphere used to contain 40% oxygen, enabling higher brain function & better athletic performance, but because of coal burning & fossil fuel use, now down to 21% & declining. 

Polluting the Air of Earth Unethical & Immoral 

Not only have humans treated the atmosphere as a toxic waste dump with air pollutants but the acidic gases NOX, CO2 & SOX make acid rain toxic to bodies of water on earth, rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, by acidifying the water. When NOX's mix with clouds, nitric acid forms; when SOX mixes with clouds, sulfuric acid forms, when CO2 mixes with clouds, carbonic acid forms. 

Acid Rain Corrosion & Fish Stock Depletion / Expensive 

Acidification of natural bodies of water reduces fish populations which causes losses to the fishing industry & increase species extinction rates that reduce biological diversity in nature, turning the Earth into a polluted wasteland slowly day after day with more pollution emitted by more people trying to live the bad example that American's set of higher standards of living with energy intensive low intelligence wasteful lifestyles of frivolous pursuits & waste of time liberated by excess energy availability; lights left running 24/7 to the enjoyment of no one & the production of light pollution, wasted energy expenses & wasted electricity & wasted bulb life & annoying stupid waste that does not make sense when motion controller LED uses up to 99% less energy & more than pays for its cost premium quickly with fast ROI, for example. 

Extreme Weather Changes

Impacts on farms of all scales will drive up food prices even more. Look forward to more intense storms, colder winters, hotter summers, more droughts that last longer,  more intense flooding, power outages, sea levels rising, poles of Earth ice melting, less fresh water more polluted, more air pollution, more climate change; if everyone on Earth lived like an American it would create 4X faster toxic dystopian fallout in the climate & make climate change faster & even worse & much more costly to everyone. 

We Can Solve All of These Problems 

People we are fouling the earth with carbon emissions faster & faster every day! Its insane & needs to be steadily phased out & replaced with nuclear reactor energy, more electricity from renewables & much more applied energy storage systems in homes, business, industrial plants, manufacturing, government buildings, schools, at every level of society we need to apply more energy storage, mechanical, battery chemical, capacitor electrostatic, compressed air, heavy mass elevator crane concrete block regen, pumped hydro, ground storage heat capacity geothermal systems for warming & cold air conditioning & natural refrigeration. We need broad wasteful bulb & lamp replacements with more warm white LED's, magnetic fridges, energy efficient heating & cooling, more insulation in buildings using NASA intelligent methods on the cheap with abundant materials that are affordable & a DIY YouTube information revolution in all languages, so that more people around the world can help themselves by reducing their energy use & still enjoying life more! 

No comments:

Post a Comment