Archive:000/Fossil fuels/oil energy

Most road vehicles are currently powered by gasoline and diesel, both of which come from refining crude oil. Other industrial processes are also powered by diesel. How does all this look in terms of energy units?

crude_oil.production

4439 million tonnes/year

Global production of crude oil

Using data from 2019
Source: Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report)

crude_oil.gasoline_fraction

19.5 gallons/barrel

US Energy Information Administration (EIA)
How many gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel are made from one barrel of oil?
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=327&t=9

crude_oil.diesel_fraction

11.5 gallons/barrel

US Energy Information Administration (EIA)
How many gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel are made from one barrel of oil?
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=327&t=9

world.population

7.9 billion

Number of people alive today, globally

https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population-dashboard
Last updated in 2022

population

world.population

crude_oil.production crude_oil.gasoline_fraction (gasoline/oil) watts population (calculation loading) crude_oil.production crude_oil.diesel_fraction (toe/tonne) watts population (calculation loading) Note: in the the equations, the (gasoline/oil) and (toe/tonne) are there to convert the fuel mass into energy units, using some of the calculator's built-in units.

How does this compare to the supply of biomass waste? Rough estimate:

crop_residues

1.7 billion tonnes/year

Dry mass of all crop residues, byproducts, and oilseed cakes except for soybean

This should be, in principle, all human-inedible parts of food crops (inedible due to being too fibrous, whereas ruminants can digest the fiber and get calories from it). Soybean meal is not counted, because it can be turned into human food (soy flour).

Source:
Breewood, H. & Garnett, T. (2020). What is feed-food competition? (Foodsource: building blocks). Food Climate Research Network, University of Oxford.
Page 10
References primary source:
Mottet, A., de Haan, C., Falcucci, A., Tempio, G., Opio, C., & Gerber, P. (2017). Livestock: On our plates or eating at our table? A new analysis of the feed/food debate. Global Food Security.

fiber.energy

4 kcal/gram

Energy that can be obtained by burning fibrous matter

crop_residues fiber.energy watts population (calculation loading)

LimitationsLimitations

• crop residues would be less if fewer crops were grown in the first place
  • i.e. if we wasted less food
  • i.e. if we fed fewer crops to chickens, pigs, etc
• crop residues have other competing demand
  • packaging
  • food for ruminants (cows)
  • base for cultivating mushrooms
• there may be other biomass waste besides crop residues
  • sawdust