Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertSmalls
Robert Llewellyn uses misleading (and sometimes outright bad) math, and he is an unreliable source.
http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/TA/635.PDF
Refineries on the whole are 90.7 efficient, which is on the rise as the effect of energy price pressures and process improvements exceed the effect of the decreasing quality of crude we can pump from the ground. They draw 2% of the US total of electricity consumed (42TWh/yr), which I suppose would be equivalent in some ways to a city of 1.5m people. So, I could see how some greenies could conclude there are exactly six refineries in the United States. |
I didn't see the figure of 42TWhr/year in the pdf that you posted so I'll just take your word for it.
US produces 8.923 million barrels of gas per day so it takes 12.9kWhr of electricity produce a barrel of gasoline.
The average household in US uses 936kWhr/month -> 11232kWhr/year and has 2.54 people. That means each person using on average 12.12 kWhr/day.
So a oil refinery that used as much electricity as 250k people would have a capacity of: 250k * 12.12 / 12.9 = 234k barrels/day.
This site list the capacity of oil refineries in the US:
Top U.S. Refineries - Energy Information Administration. Energy Rankings
So our theoretical oil refinery would be #25 out of 141.
What was so misleading about the statement that a large oil refinery would use the same amount of electricity as 250k people?