THE EXERGY-BASED COST OF CRUDE OIL-DISTILLATION PRODUCTS: A NOVEL PERSPECTIVE

摘要

A novel approach to the calculation of the cost of crude oil distillation products is proposed in this paper. The approach is based on the primary exergy "invested" in the entire process, from extraction to final dispatch, in a well-to-final use perspective including all externalities: capital, labor and environmental remediation cost. The method follows the Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA) theory, and results in a quantifier, the specific extended exergy cost ee_c, expressed in Joules of primary exergy globally used in the process per Joule of final product. This indicator is not meant to substitute the monetary cost currently adopted in all transactions, but rather to complement it by providing designers, industry managers and energy policy planners with a thermodynamically-sound basis for assessing how far a certain productive chain is from being "sustainable" in terms of primary resources. Several different processes are analyzed, and the quantitative differences in the final ee_c are calculated and discussed. The conclusions contain some suggestions for a general reassessment of our approach to the exploitation of primary energy resources.