Uses for Petroleum Products
Petroleum Products are easily recognized in the gasoline we use to fuel our cars and the heating oil we use to warm our homes. Lesser known uses of petroleum-based components are plastics, medicines, food items, and a host of other products.
There are three major categories for Pertoleum Based Products:
Fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel
Non-Fuel products such as solvents and lubricating oils
Feedstocks such as naphtha
Petroleum products, especially motor gasoline, distillate (diesel) fuel, and jet fuel, provide virtually all of the energy consumed in the transportation sector. Transportation is the greatest single use of petroleum, accounting for over 67 percent of all U.S. petroleum consumed in 2005. The industrial sector is the second largest petroleum consuming sector and accounts for about 24 percent of all petroleum consumption in the U.S. Residential/Commercial and the electric utility sectors account for the remaining 9 percent of petroleum consumption.
Demand for petroleum products in the United States averaged 20.8 million barrels per day in 2005. This represents about 3 gallons of petroleum each day for every person in the country. By comparison, petroleum demand averaged about 2 gallons per person per day in the early 1950's and nearly 3.6 gallons per person per day in 1978.
Motor gasoline is chiefly used to fuel automobiles and light trucks for highway use. Smaller quantities are used for off- highway driving, boats, recreational vehicles, and various farm and other equipment.
Distillate fuel oil includes diesel oil, heating oils, and industrial oils. It is used to power diesel engines in buses, trucks, trains, automobiles, and other machinery. It is also used to heat residential and commercial buildings and to fire industrial and electric utility boilers. Specifications differ for heating oils and diesel fuels based primarily on the sulfur content of each fuel.
Diesel fuel accounts for about three-fourths of refinery first sales of distillate fuel oils. Most diesel fuel is used for transportation purposes: highway diesel fuel represents more than half of distillate fuel sales. Residential heating, the next largest end-use category, represents about 12 percent of annual distillate use, but is concentrated in the winter months.
Liquefied petroleum gases (LPG's) rank third in usage among petroleum products, behind motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil. LPG's are used as inputs (feedstocks) for petrochemical production processes. This is their major nonfuel use. LPG's are also used as fuel for domestic heating and cooking, farming operations, and as an alternative to gasoline for use in internal combustion engines.
Most jet fuel is a kerosene-based fuel primarily used in commercial airlines. It requires a higher temperature to ignite and is safer for commercial use than naphtha-based fuel. Naphtha jet fuel meets the specifications required for certain military aircraft. It has a lower freezing point than commercial fuel and a lower flash (ignition) point. However, from October 1, 1993, through 1995, the U.S. military essentially converted most of its jet fleet from naphtha-type jet fuel to kerosene-type jet fuel.
Kerosene-type jet fuel is sometimes blended into heating oil and diesel fuel during periods of extreme cold weather. This is done to help alleviate viscosity (thickness), handling and performance problems associated with cold weather.
Electric utilities use residual fuel to generate electricity. Although this sector uses relatively little petroleum compared with the transportation and industrial sectors, the electric utility sector depends on petroleum for about 3 percent of its total energy requirements. Residual fuel oil is also used as bunker fuel (fuel for ships), industrial boiler fuel, and heating fuel in some commercial buildings.
Kerosene is used for residential and commercial space heating. It is also used in water heaters, as a cooking fuel, and in lamps. Kerosene falls within the light distillate range of refinery output that includes some diesel fuel, jet fuel, and other light fuel oils.
Petroleum coke can be used as a relatively low-ash solid fuel for power plants and industrial use (marketable coke) if its sulfur content is low enough, or used in nonfuel applications (catalyst coke), such as in refinery operations.
Nonfuel use of petroleum is small compared with fuel use, but petroleum products account for about 89 percent of the Nation's total energy consumption for nonfuel uses. There are many nonfuel uses for petroleum, including various specialized products for use in the textile, metallurgical, electrical, and other industries. A partial list of nonfuel uses for petroleum includes:
? Solvents such as those used in paints, lacquers, and printing inks
? Lubricating oils and greases for automobile engines and other machinery
? Petroleum (or paraffin) wax used in candy making, packaging, candles, matches, and polishes
? Petrolatum (petroleum jelly) sometimes blended with paraffin wax in medical products and toiletries
? Asphalt used to pave roads and airfields, to surface canals and reservoirs, and to make roofing materials and floor coverings
? Petroleum coke used as a raw material for many carbon and graphite products, including furnace electrodes and liners, and the anodes used in the production of aluminum.
? Petroleum Feedstocks used as chemical feedstock derived from petroleum principally for the manufacture of chemicals, synthetic rubber, and a variety of plastics.
Petroleum has been used as a feedstock in the production of petrochemicals since the 1920's. Naphtha, one of the basic feedstocks, is a liquid obtained from the refining of crude oil. Petrochemical feedstocks also include products recovered from natural gas, and refinery gases (ethane, propane, and butane). Petrochemical feedstocks are converted to basic chemical building blocks and intermediates, such as ethylene, propylene, normal- and iso-butylenes, butadiene, and aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylene, which are in turn used to produce plastics, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibers, drugs, and detergents.
Robert Jent is President & CEO of Triple Diamond Energy Corporation. Triple Diamond Energy Corporation is an independent producer of oil and natural gas. Located in the Dallas area, the Corporation specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information visit the website www.triplediamondenergy.com.
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