What do we get from crude oil?

This is a repost with more information, links and a correction due to a 404 on a link.

The news that the UK is going to issue more licences for crude oil exploration, promoted a discussion on the Fediverse. From this, I asked what other products come from crude oil.

However, this link seems to give a 404, so I found an alternative here, along with a more detailed list of the chemical products here.

So in an attempt to research this further, I have so far found this infographic and article. I will embed the actual infographic below.

, but please ensure credit goes to Oil Field Team.

So from this there are a huge number of products, that we need to either:-

• Stop using
• Find replacements for

If we are going to give up on oil completely.

So from this I will look at a few of these, and give my perspective

Lubricating oils these are needed to keep machines running, even electric cars have moving parts. These products can also be specialist so may not be easily replaceable.

Asphalt used for road surfaces, again even Hydrogen / Electric cars need a road surface for getting around on.

Nylon used in clothing, but also used for ropes etc, it is strong, and has many uses.

Teflon used for non-stick surfaces, IIRC this was developed as part of the space industry.

Kerosene used in some rocket fuels, while we are developing alternative power for rockets (e.g. nuclear) this may be some years away, and it may depend on where we are going, being a indication of what type of fuel we need.

Sunscreen, Essential to protect our skin.

Aspirin Common medication.

Thermoplastics, Again a common type of plastic with a specific uses where resistance to high temperatures are needed.

So it may not be THAT easy to completely stop our reliance. We will need to spend a lot of money on R&D to fully develop alternatives using other means. We can get some plastics from plants, but again it seems to depend on type and usage.

However, we can stop our reliance on oil for car fuels, however are electric cars suitable for emergency services, or military use? By military, we need to remember that we deploy soldiers to help in disaster recovery, not just wars or peacekeeping.

So this needs far more rational discussion.

Tags

#CrudeOil,#Oil,#Derived,#Products,#Use,#Discussions,#OilProducts

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Crude Oil and alternatives

Also publishing this again as it is related.

So further to a previous post which looked at what we get from #CrudeOil. We are going to need some serious #CriticalThinking to work out what we can do to replace many of the products listed.

So firstly, we need to understand what we mean by Critical thinking. This infographic should help

We need to look at the Who, What, When, Where,, Why, and How, so in essence we are asking open questions, as in those which we can't generally just answer with yes or no.

So lets look at a few questions

Who is going to develop alternatives? Who is going to fund this? Who is going to be directly affected if we stop production of certain products, (and we don't just mean the oil producers)

What will the alternatives be? What time frame is needed? What can we do without if we did stop production?

Where will we find alternatives? Where are the best places to build the infrastructures needed?

When can we do this (again time frame)

Why do we need to find alternatives? Why do we need this product (e.g Teflon), if it isn't essential can we do without it?

How are we going to develop alternatives? How will our education system need to change to accommodate new thinking within the curriculum? How are we going to retrain existing workforces and new workers with the skills needed?

So these are just a few questions that may need to be considered. At some point Crude Oil will run out anyway, so we need to develop alternatives.

it may be we carry on extracting Crude Oil but create the products we need from this, in which case

How do we store what is left over? How long for? What will be the cost of this storage?

So lots of things to consider if we want to just give up on Oil. We get more products than we think from this.

We can discuss further on Mastodon.

Tags

#FossilFuels,#CrudeOil,#Products,#Alternatives,#CriticalThinking

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