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Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal are fossil fuels. They account for a large portion of the
Global Energy supply. In 1998, fossil fuels were used to meet about 90% of the
global commercial energy demand. Oil makes up the single largest contribution to the
world energy supply at 40%, followed by coal at 26% and natural gas at 24%. Fossil
fuels are found in large underground deposits formed from the decomposition of
plants and animals under pressure and over millions of years. Fossil fuels are a finite
and exhaustible energy resource, and once the current stores on the earth near
depletion their costs will skyrocket. It is imperative that replacement energy sources
are found and introduced prior to this global shortage of fossil fuels.
Over the past 50 years there have been scores of studies of the Estimated Ultimately
Recoverable (EUR – the total amount of oil that will be pumped from the earth) global
oil. The most likely consensus lies between 1,800 billion barrels to 2,200 billion
barrels. As of the end of 1999, the world had consumed almost 857 billion barrels of
this finite resource, crude oil.
Based on the estimates of EUR global oil and a demand growth of only 2% per year,
peak global production will begin to decline due to resource constraints between 2007
and 2013. This resource reduction will first be felt in the global transportation market,
which at this point is virtually totally dependent on petroleum.
Currently, 45% to 50% of the world’s oil deposits are located in countries that have
unified under OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is
comprised of 11 developing countries. The principal OPEC suppliers include
Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab
Emirates. OPEC is currently responsible for the production of 26 million barrels of
crude oil per day at a cost of about $42 US dollars per barrel. This equates to 1.092
billion dollars of crude oil produced every day, and over 365 billion dollars per year,
just from the OPEC conglomerate.
Conversely, the total recoverable crude oil in the lower 48 United States totals about
190 billion barrels, of which 166 billion barrels (87% of their total volume) had been
produced by 1999. The Alaskan oil fields, which hold about 14.5 million barrels, had
produced 13.8 billion barrels (95% of their total volume) by the end of 1999. It is clear
that the US cannot currently survive without the use of foreign oil.
In 1998, transportation was the largest consumer of oil in the US, accounting for 2/3 of
total consumption. Motor vehicles alone accounted for 53% of this consumption. Jet
aircraft accounted for another 8%. With few alternatives available, transportation
relies almost solely on oil. Industry accounted for 23% of this total oil consumption.
Residential and commercial oil consumption was 6% (half used for heating), and
power production was 4% of the total US oil consumption in 1998.
Threats to the oil industry are taken very seriously. The US waged the Persian Gulf
War with Iraq during 1990-1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait and threatened the Kuwaiti
oil supplies. The US again went to war with Iraq in 2003-2004 under the guise of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. This second war also seemed to be related in no small part
to the protection of the Arab oil reserves.
A renewable fuel is one that is not petroleum based, but rather manufactured from
other raw resources that are renewable. Most non-petroleum fuels are renewable.
Examples include fuels such as hydrogen and those made from grains and corns
(alcohol based), which can be used in gasoline burning engines with minor
modifications to their fuel delivery systems, and those made from soy and vegetable
oils and tallow, which are used in diesel burning engines.
There have been multiple alternative fuel vehicles marketed over the last twenty
years. Electric cars produce no emissions, but have traditionally been slow and have
suffered from a very limited range. Even though electric vehicles produce no tailpipe
emissions, their clean electric power had to be generated somewhere with the use of
coal, oil, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind or solar power. More than likely some pollution
was released into the environment when the electricity used by these cars was
generated at a powerplant.
Hybrid vehicles are the newest entrants to the automotive marketplace. These
vehicles contain both electric drive motors and some type of internal combustion
engine coupled to a generator. If that engine is diesel, than our synthetic diesel fuel
can be used with no modifications. Hybrid vehicles greatly reduce fuel consumption.
The newest discussions revolve around hydrogen fueled vehicles. These vehicles
use a fuel cell to convert stored hydrogen into electricity, with the only by-product
being water. Vehicles must be developed around this new technology, and their
fueling and service infrastructures do not exist.
The limiting factor to the success of any alternative fuel vehicle is the infrastructure
required for their support. The existing infrastructure must either already support or
easily adjust to support the new fuel type. Otherwise, the success of the new fuel
type is largely dependent upon huge capital investments necessary to create the new
infrastructure required to support the new fuel type, as well as their acceptance and
use by general society.
Biodiesel is quickly becoming a buzzword among environmentalists because it is a
renewable diesel engine fuel that can be manufactured relatively easily. It is
becoming more and more popular as a fuel additive to reduce diesel emissions, but it
has multiple drawbacks. Still, it is sold at multiple fuel stations across the US and the
UK, and its popularity is growing fast.
Our synthetic diesel fuel is manufactured from the same raw resources as biodiesel,
but the end result is a much more consistent fuel better suited for diesel engines.
This fuel provides more power and the same fuel biodegradability while reproducing
some if not most of the tailpipe emissions reductions capable with biodiesel. With no
modifications to either the existing fuel sales infrastructure or the fuel systems of all
existing diesel engines, this new synthetic diesel can be immediately introduced
without any restrictions for use in all diesel vehicles.
Diesel fuel is traditionally a refined raw petroleum product, and one of the fuel
by-products of refining. Crude oil is converted to a multitude of fuels and other
materials in a petroleum refinery. Specific refinery processes enable the refinery to
maximize fuel production from crude oil. Engines are manufactured to run on a
specific fuel type. Gasoline engines are restricted to running fuels that ignite at lower
temperatures and pressures, such as gasoline, hydrogen, and alcohol. Diesel
engines will only operate with fuels that ignite under higher temperatures and
pressures, such as diesel fuel, biodiesel, and our new synthetic diesel fuel.
The cetane value of diesel fuel is a description of the combustibility of diesel fuel,
similar to the octane number for gasoline. On-road diesel fuel (light diesel oil) is sold
in the US for use in pollution controlled vehicles driven on US roadways including cars
and both light and heavy trucks, off-highway maintenance and construction vehicles,
and smaller marine diesel engines and small earth-moving equipment. Diesel fuel
must meet a minimum cetane value of about 40 in order to be considered a #2 diesel
fuel. Two variants of this fuel type are available: regular #2 diesel fuel has a cetane
value of 40-45, while premium #2 diesel fuel has a cetane value of 47-50. Lower
cetane diesel fuel is sold in the US as a #1 diesel fuel (heavy diesel oil) for use in
off-highway heavy equipment such as train locomotives, large ships, and heavy
earth-moving equipment.
Once diesel fuel is initially refined (unadditized diesel fuel or raw blending stock) it
does not meet the minimum cetane value for #2 diesel fuel. At this point refineries will
treat this unadditized diesel fuel with a nitrate cetane improver to raise the cetane
value to the minimum acceptable value required for the fuel to meet #2 diesel fuel
requirements (about 40).
Current US laws mandate the reformulation of diesel fuel (RFD) in 2006. This new
diesel fuel will contain lower amounts of both sulfur and aromatic content. Refining
this new diesel fuel will require significant refinery capital investment. Additionally,
because the initial quality of the unadditized diesel fuel must be higher to meet these
new standards, some of the raw crude that would normally be converted into gasoline
will have to instead be converted to diesel fuel. If diesel fuel production is to remain
constant, then there will have to be a reduction in the production of gasoline, because
less raw product will be available for conversion into that fuel type.