Synthetic Fuels Handbook

[sanraj]

McGraw-Hill Company | English | Jun-2008 | PDF | 4.50 MB | 433 pages | RAR Compressed - 2.13 MB | No Password

Introduction
Petroleum-based fuels are well-established products that have served industry and consumers for more than 100 years. For the foreseeable future automotive fuels will still be largely based on liquid hydrocarbons. The specifications of such fuels will however continue to be adjusted as they have been and are still being adjusted to meet changing demands from consumers. Traditional crude oil refining underwent increasing levels of sophistication to produce fuels of appropriate specifications. Increasing operating costs continuously put pressure on refining margins but it remains problematic to convert all refinery streams into products with acceptable specifications at a reasonable return. However, the time is running out and petroleum, once considered inexhaustible, is now being depleted at a rapid rate. As the amount of available petroleum decreases, the need for alternate technologies to produce liquid fuels that could potentially help prolong the liquid fuels culture and mitigate the forthcoming effects of the shortage of transportation fuels that has been suggested to occur under the Hubbert peak oil theory (Hirsch, 2005). To mitigate the influence of the oil peak and the subsequent depletion of supplies, unconventional (or nonpetroleum derived) fuels and synthetic fuels are becoming major issues in the consciousness of oil importing countries. On the other hand, synthetic fuels, such as gasoline and diesel from other sources, are making headway into the fuel balance. For example, biodiesel from plant sources is similar to diesel, but has differences that include higher cetane rating (45–60 compared to 45–50 for petroleum-derived diesel) and it acts as a cleaning agent to get rid of dirt and deposits. As with alcohols and petrol engines, taking advantage of biodiesel’s high cetane rating potentially overcomes the energy deficit compared to ordinary number 2 diesel. For example, coal (coal-to-liquids), natural gas (gas-to-liquids), and oil shale (shaleto- liquids) have been touted for decades. At this time, the potential for liquid fuels from various types of biomass (Chap. 8) is also seeing prominence. Shortages of the supply of petroleum and the wish for various measures of energy independence are a growing part of the national psyche of many countries. However, the production of liquid fuels from sources other than petroleum has a checkered history. The on-again-off-again efforts that are the result of political maneuvering has seen to it that the race to secure self-sufficiency by the production of nonconventional fuels has never got much further than the starting gate! This is due in no small part to the price fluctuations of crude oil (currently in excess of $90 per barrel) and the lack of foresight by various levels of government. It must be realized that for decades the price of petroleum has always been maintained at a level that was sufficiently low to discourage the establishment of a synthetic fuels industry. However, we are close to the time when the lack of preparedness for the production of
nonconventional fuels may set any national government on its heels. In the near term, the ability of conventional fuel sources and technologies to support the global demand for energy will depend on how efficiently the energy sector can match available energy resources with the end user and how efficiently and cost effectively the energy can be delivered. These factors are directly related to the continuing evolution of a truly global energy market.

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