4.

ENERGY GENERATION FROM CRUDE OIL

We cannot talk of energy generation from crude oil without its product. The chemical structure of petroleum is heterogeneous, composed of hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. Because of this, petroleum may be taken to oil refineries and the hydrocarbon chemicals separated by distillation and treated by other chemical processes, to be used for a variety of purposes. Common fractions of petroleum as fuels Fraction Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Butane Gasoline (Petrol) Jet fuel Kerosene Fuel oil Diesel fuel Boiling Range 0C -40 -12 to -1 -1 to 180 150 to 205 205 to 260 205 to 290 260 to 315

In the United States in 2007 about 70% of petroleum was used for transportation (e.g. petrol, diesel, and jet fuel), 24% by industry (e.g. production of plastics), 5% for residential and commercial uses, and 2% for electricity production. It could be observed that most of the energy needed for urban household and industrial consumption in Nigeria is mainly petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, cooking gas, kerosene and Jet fuel. Others are fuel oil, lubricating oil, brake fluid and petroleum jelly. In this regard, urbanization is therefore anticipated to have a positive relationship with petroleum products consumption. These products are considered to be urban biased, (Kimuyu, 1993) In Nigeria, the tempo of urbanization has been really high.

4.1 TRANSPORTATION In the transportation sector, energy is generated from crude oil product (diesel jet fuel and petrol) through combustion with air. The use of crude oil product has found its use in the automobiles, aviation industry and ocean vessels. 4.1.1 Automobiles Cylinder of a typical automobile engine has a piston that reciprocates (moves up and down or back and forth) within the cylinder and is connected to the crankshaft by a link known as a connecting rod. Engine pistons transmit the force of the explosion to the crankshaft through the connecting rod, and act as a guide for the upper end of the connecting rod, and serve as a carrier for the piston rings used to seal the piston in the cylinder. The use of diesel and petrol has led to the development of compression ignition and spark ignition engine respectively which converts thermal energy from combustion into kinetic energy used in automobiles for transportation. The thermal heat generated from the combustion of crude oil product cannot be said to be of maximal use because some of the heat are lost in form of heat. Only a fraction of the heat energy generated is utilized. The combustion of the crude oil product like wise cannot be said to be complete as the exhaust of combustion product could be said to contain carbon monoxide, air, fraction composition of the fuel, carbon dioxide , water vapor, nitrogen and other constituents. Under a laboratory condition, it is possible to completely combust fuel to generate heat under pure oxygen giving a by product of CO2 and H2O but the internal combustion engine takes in air with 21% by composition of oxygen for combustion with the fuel under compression of the air/fuel mixture.

4.1.2 Aviation Sector In the aviation industry, crude oil product (jet fuel) is used in jet engines such as ramjet, turbojet and turboprop. As stated by T.D.Eastop and A.Mckonkey (1993), the propeller-type engine is been driven by a petrol engine or by gas turbine. In a propeller type of aircraft, the propeller takes a large mass flow rate and gives it a moderate velocity backward relative to the aircraft while in jet engine the aircraft induces a comparatively small airflow and gives it a high velocity backward relative to the aircraft. The simplest form of jet engine is the ramjet. It takes in and compresses air from the atmosphere by kinetic energy conversion of the atmospheric air relative to it; this is known as ram effect. Fuel is then burned in the compressed air stream approximately at constant pressure. The hot gases are then allowed to expand through a nozzle reaching a velocity backwards relative to the aircraft. An aircraft powered entirely by ramjet would require an auxiliary power for starting in order to attain the velocity necessary to give a large enough ram compression. 4.1.3 Ocean Vessels In yachts diesels are used because petrol engines generate combustible vapors, which can accumulate in the bottom of the vessel, sometimes causing explosions. Therefore ventilation systems on petrol powered vessels are required. The United States Army and NATO use only diesel engines and turbines because of fire hazard. Although neither Gasoline nor Diesel is explosive in liquid form, both can create an explosive air/vapor mix under the right conditions. However, Diesel fuel is less prone due to its lower vapor pressure, which is an indication of evaporation rate. 4.2 INDUSTRY AND HOUSEHOLD Both in industry and household the use of crude oil product as a source of energy comes in handy. For household asides to complement inconsistent electricity supply, kerosene from crude

oil is used for cooking. Kerosene is preferable because it is less flammable when compared with petrol for cooking. According to an estimate, well over 90% businesses have generators powered by diesel or petrol. In the industry, diesel generators are preferable because of greater power generated as compared with petrol engine generators. The working principle of petrol and diesel engine are in line with the working principle of a spark ignition and compression ignition engine respectively. The only difference is that in a generator, heat energy is converted into kinetic energy then to electrical energy.

4.3 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ENERGY GENERATION FROM CRUDE OIL 4.3.1 Advantages of Energy Generation from Crude Oil Compared to all other sources of energy, no energy source has varied use like crude oil. Its product has variety of use. Nothing in crude oil product comes to waste. The by product after fractional distillation is in itself a source of raw material. Asphalt, petroleum jelly and lubricating oil are all useful by product of fractional distillation industry. James S. Robbins has argued that the advent of petroleum-refined kerosene saved some species of great whales from extinction by providing an inexpensive substitute for whale oil, thus eliminating the economic imperative for open-boat whaling. As a source of energy, crude oil has prevented the scarcity of food product which could have been used for energy generation. 4.3.2 Disadvantages of Energy Generation from Crude Oil 4.3.2.1 environmental effects Petroleum is a naturally occurring substance; its presence in the environment need not be the result of human causes such as accidents and routine activities (seismic exploration, drilling,

extraction, refining and combustion). Phenomena such as seeps and tar pits are examples of areas that petroleum naturally affects. Regardless of source, petroleum's effects when released into the environment are similar. 4.3.2.2 global warming When burned, petroleum releases carbon dioxide; a greenhouse gas. Along with the burning of coal, petroleum combustion is the largest contributor to the increase in atmospheric CO2. Atmospheric CO2 has risen steadily since the industrial revolution to current levels of over 380ppmv, from the 180 - 300ppmv of the prior 800 thousand years, driving global warming. 4.3.2.3 extraction Oil extraction is simply the removal of oil from the reservoir (oil pool). Oil is often recovered as a water-in-oil emulsion, and specialty chemicals called demulsifiers are used to separate the oil from water. Oil extraction is costly and sometimes environmentally damaging, although Dr. John Hunt of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution pointed out in a 1981 paper that over 70% of the reserves in the world are associated with visible macro seepages, and many oil fields are found due to natural seeps. Offshore exploration and extraction of oil disturbs the surrounding marine environment. 4.3.2.4 oil spills Volunteers cleaning up the aftermath of the Prestige oil spill Crude oil and refined fuel spills from tanker ship accidents have damaged natural ecosystems in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the Galapagos Islands, France and many other places. The quantity of oil spilled during accidents has ranged from a few hundred tons to several hundred thousand tons (e.g., Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Atlantic Empress, Amoco Cadiz).

Smaller spills have already proven to have a great impact on ecosystems, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill Oil spills at sea are generally much more damaging than those on land, since they can spread for hundreds of nautical miles in a thin oil slick which can cover beaches with a thin coating of oil. This can kill sea birds, mammals, shellfish and other organisms it coats. Oil spills on land are more readily containable if a makeshift earth dam can be rapidly bulldozed around the spill site before most of the oil escapes, and land animals can avoid the oil more easily.

Control of oil spills is difficult, requires ad hoc methods, and often a large amount of manpower. The dropping of bombs and incendiary devices from aircraft on the Torrey Canyon wreck produced poor results; modern techniques would include pumping the oil from the wreck, like in the Prestige oil spill or the Erika oil spill. Though crude oil is predominantly composed of various hydrocarbons, certain nitrogen heterocylic compounds, such as pyridine, picoline, and quinoline are reported as contaminants associated with crude oil, as well as facilities processing oil shale or coal, and have also been found at legacy wood treatment sites. These compounds have very high water solubility, and thus tend to dissolve and move with water. Certain naturally occurring bacteria, such as Micrococcus, Arthrobacter, and Rhodococcus and have been shown to degrade these contaminants.

4.4 ALTERNATIVES TO PETROLEUM-BASED VEHICLE FUELS A typical example is a Brazilian fuel station with four alternative fuels for sale: biodiesel (B3), gasohol (E25), neat ethanol (E100), and compressed natural gas (CNG). With emerging alternative fuel source, there are now vehicles that use alternative fuels used in standard or

modified internal combustion engines such as natural gas vehicles, neat ethanol vehicles, flexible-fuel vehicles, biodiesel-powered vehicles, and hydrogen vehicles. Vehicles with advanced propulsion systems that reduce or substitute petroleum use such as battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are likewise in use. 4.5 Alternatives to burning petroleum for electricity In oil producing countries with little refinery capacity, oil is sometimes burned to produce electricity. Renewable energy technologies such as solar power, wind power, micro hydro, biomass and biosfuels might someday be used to replace some of these generators, but today the primary alternatives remain large scale hydroelectricity, nuclear and coal-fired generation. 4.6 FUTURE OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTION Consumption in the twentieth century has been abundantly pushed by automobile growth; the 1985-2003 oil gluts even fuelled the sales of low economy vehicles in OECD countries. In 2008, the economic crisis seems to have some impact on the sales of such vehicles; still, the 2008 oil consumption shows a small increase. The BRIC countries might also kick in, as China briefly was the first automobile market in December 2009. The immediate outlook still hints upwards. In the long term, uncertainties linger; the OPEC believes that the OECD countries will push low consumption policies at some point in the future; when that happens, it will definitely curb the oil sales, and both OPEC and EIA kept lowering their 2020 consumption estimates during the past 5 years. Oil products are more and more in competition with alternative sources, mainly coal and natural gas, both cheaper sources. Production will also face an increasingly complex situation; while OPEC countries still have large reserves at low production prices, newly found reservoirs often lead to higher prices; offshore giants such as Tupi, Guara and Tiber demand high

investments and ever-increasing technological abilities. Subsalt reservoirs such as Tupi were unknown in the twentieth century, mainly because the industry was unable to probe them. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques (example: DaQing, China) will continue to play a major role in increasing the world's recoverable oil. The Hubbert peak theory (also known as peak oil) posits that future petroleum production (whether for individual oil wells, entire oil fields, whole countries, or worldwide production) will eventually peak and then decline at a similar rate to the rate of increase before the peak as these reserves are exhausted. The peak of oil discoveries was in 1965, and oil production per year has surpassed oil discoveries every year since 1980. Hubbert applied his theory to predict the peak of U.S. oil production at a date between 1966 and 1970. This prediction was based on data available at the time of his publication in 1956. In the same paper, Hubbert predicts world peak oil in "half a century" after his publication, which would be 2006. It is difficult to predict the oil peak in any given region, due to the lack of knowledge and/or transparency in accounting of global oil reserves. The scientist and researchers from Oxford University argue that official figures are inflated because OPEC members over-reported reserves in the 1980s when competing for global market share. Based on available production data, proponents have previously predicted the peak for the world to be in years 1989, 1995, or 1995-2000. Some of these predictions date from before the recession of the early 1980s, and the consequent reduction in global consumption, the effect of which was to delay the date of any peak by several years. Just as the 1971 U.S. peak in oil production was only clearly recognized after the fact, a peak in world production will be difficult to discern until production clearly drops off. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says production of conventional crude oil peaked in 2006. Since virtually all economic sectors rely heavily on petroleum, peak oil could lead to a "partial or complete failure of markets."