Energy and crude oil input requirements for the production of reformulated gasolines

摘要

The energy and crude oil requirements for the production of reformulated gasoline (RFG) are estimated. The scope of the study includes both the energy and crude oil embodied in the final product and the process energy required to manufacture the RFG and its components. The effects on energy and crude oil use of employing various oxygenates to meet the minimum oxygen-content level required by the Clean Air Act Amendments are evaluated. The analysis shows that production of RFG requires more total energy, but uses less crude oil, than that of conventional gasoline. The energy and crude oil use requirements of the different RFGs vary considerably. For the same emissions performance level, RFG with ethanol requires substantially more total energy and crude oil than does RFG with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) or ethyl tertiary butyl ether. A specific proposal by the US Environmental Protection Agency, designed to allow the use of ethanol in RFG, would increase the total energy required to produce RFG by 2% and the total crude oil required by 2.0 to 2.5% over the corresponding values for the base RFG with MTBE.