LATOC: Facts & Research
Oil?
Single Off-Shore Drilling Platform?
1. How Much Human Energy Is Contained in One
Gallon of Gas?
"That is, the 38,000 kcal in one gallon of gasoline can be transformed into 8.8 KWh, which is about 3 weeks of human work equivalent.(Human work output in agriculture = 0.1 HP, or 0.074 KW, times 120 hours.)"
He, of course, is accounting for the energy lost in the process of converting the gasoline into usable energy.
My calculations excluding the energy lost in the conversion process are as follows:
1 Gallon of Gas = 125,000 BTUs
3,400 BTUs = 1 KWH
1 Gallon of Gas = 37 KWH
(125,000 BTUs in a gallon of gas divided by 3,400 BTUs in 1 KWH)
1 Gallon of Gas = 500 hours of human work output
(37 KWH in 1 gallon of gas divided by human work output in agriculture of .074 KW = 500)
Of course, there is some wiggle room with this number. Construction work, for instance, might yield a slightly different number. The size and physical condition of the person performing the work would also make a difference.
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2. How Much Human Energy Is Contained in One
Barrel of Oil?
1 Barrel of Oil = 5,800,000 BTUs
1 Gallon of Gas = 125,000 BTUs
1 Barrel of Oil thus contains the energy contained in 46.4 gallons of gas
(5,800,000 divided by 125,000 = 46.4 )
1 Gallon of Gas = 500 hours of human work output
Source: Calculations Done Above.
1 Barrel of Oil = 23,200 Hours of Human Work Output
(Energy equivalent of 46.4 gallons of gas per barrel of oil x 500 hours of human work ouput per gallon of gas = 23,2000 hours)
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3. How Much Energy is Used to Construct a Car?
I. Calculations as Done By Matt Savinar:
The average car will consume during its construction 10% of the energy used during its lifetime.
How many barrels of oil does it take to equal the energy consumed during 10% of a car’s lifetime? Let's see:
On average, a car will consume 750 gallons of gas per year.
17 years x 750 gallons of gas per year = 12,750 gallons of gas consumed during the median lifetime of an American car;
1 gallon of gas = 125,000 BTUs;
12,750 gallons consumed x 125,000 BTUs per gallon = 1,593,750,000 BTU’s consumed during the median lifetime of an American car.
1,593,750,000 x 10% = 15,9375,000 BTUs consumed during the car’s construction;
159,375,000 BTUs consumed during construction divided by 5,800,000 BTU’s in one barrel of oil = slightly more than 27 barrels of oil. Twenty seven barrels of oil (42 gallons of oil per barrel) contain 1,142 gallon of oil.
II. Calculations As Done by Michael C. Ruppert:
Michael C. Ruppert, editor of From the Wilderness and author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of The American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, has estimated the construction of the average car consumes 42 barrels of oil. In a private email (reprinted with Mike's permission), he provided the following calculations/observations:
"When discussing 100 mpg vehicles one must absolutely figure in the amount of energy required to make these “new” vehicles. I have good numbers showing that it requires 12% of all the hydrocarbon energy a vehicle will use in its lifetime just to make the vehicle in the first place (ore mining, raw material transport, paint, electricity, etc . . ."
"And this does not factor in the hydrocarbon energy required to make the non-existent factories that make the vehicles in the first place. Nat’l Geographic told us last June that there are 7 gallons of oil in every new tire. These net-energy costs are crucial to avoid making some painful mistakes and possibly dangerous assumptions."
"Assuming 25 gallons/wk of consumption over about 15 years (average vehicle life expectancy) that is 19,500 gallons of gasoline for a vehicle lifetime. 12% of that is 2,340 gallons of gasoline equivalent to make the vehicle in the first place. These are fixed costs that won’t change as you make higher-mileage vehicles."
"This country has almost 250 million vehicles on the road. So we’re looking at 585 billion gallons of gasoline equivalent to make these new 'theoretical' cars. Assuming a 1:1 conversion from oil to gasoline (It can’t be that efficient) that’s roughly 13.9 billion barrels (42 gallons per barrel) of oil just to make these cars."
"Is there 13.9 billion barrels of crude lying around anywhere for this process to even begin? Not hardly. There's no elasticity anywhere and this process would require taking oil supplies away from existing use to implement. Remember, you haven’t even built the factories yet. Where does that oil come from?"
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4. How Many Wind Turbines Would It Take to
Replace a Single Off-Shore Drilling Platform
Producing 12,000 Barrels of Oil Per Day?
"Let's say that this oil was destined to be converted into electricity at an overall efficiency of 50 % (Combined Cycle Plant, no co-generation). Assuming this was decent quality oil, and not overly burdened with a high sulfur content, this oil would go to make about 10,800 bbls/day of refined products (10 % of it is used to power the refinery/transport the oil). And lets
assume the oil had an average thermal content of about 140,000
Btu/gal."
"Using 42 gallons/bbl and a 50 % conversion factor, 1 bbl/day could deliver about 861.2 kw-hr of electricity per day, or about 314.5 MW-hr/yr."
"Where I live (New York), a single Vestas V82 wind turbine placed near the Lake Erie coastline would produce more than 5400 MW-hr/yr. This one turbine would thus be the equivalent of 17 bbls/day of oil used to make electricity. And a lot of oil is burned to make electricity in New York State, in addition to significantly more natural gas."
"Thus tit would take 706 Vestas V82 wind turbines to produce the same amount of electricity that could be made with your
12,000 bbl/day oil well."
"However, if the oil was some of the sour Caspian Sea variety (15wt % sulfur), then the V82 would be the equivalent of about 20 bbls/day of oil."
