The reports of oil's EROEI have been greatly exaggerated.

roflwaffle · 02-28-12, 10:29 PM

This came up in another thread, but I figured it deserved it's own. Anyhoo... The problem with most EROEI figures for oil and that they are extremely limited. For instance the really high ones are just for discovery, and most are for extraction, or discovery and extraction.

Like most people on this forum know, after it's extracted, it still needs to get transported to the refinery, refined, transported to the pump, pumped, and finally used, where it has a terrible efficiency of use, much less than other forms of energy like efficiency.

Here's a wiki entry on the subject. As you can see, the EROEI of something like gasoline before it's used is only about 4-5, and once it's used, that drops to about 1.3 to 1.6. The EROEI of certain parts of oil in it's supply chain may be high, but it's not like it magically jumps from the oil field into our gas tanks.

Along the same lines, that's why it's financially feasible to use grid-tied solar panels to power an EV, but not do the same with an oil well in your own backyard, assuming it's accessible to you The reason is that the EROEI of electricity from solar panels is higher than the EROEI of gasoline. Once we use those fuels , that gap widens because electricity has a higher efficiency of use than petrochemicals for most applications.

02-28-12, 10:29 PM	#1
roflwaffle Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 116 Thanks: 29 Thanked 12 Times in 11 Posts	The reports of oil's EROEI have been greatly exaggerated. This came up in another thread, but I figured it deserved it's own. Anyhoo... The problem with most EROEI figures for oil and that they are extremely limited. For instance the really high ones are just for discovery, and most are for extraction, or discovery and extraction. Like most people on this forum know, after it's extracted, it still needs to get transported to the refinery, refined, transported to the pump, pumped, and finally used, where it has a terrible efficiency of use, much less than other forms of energy like efficiency. Here's a wiki entry on the subject. As you can see, the EROEI of something like gasoline before it's used is only about 4-5, and once it's used, that drops to about 1.3 to 1.6. The EROEI of certain parts of oil in it's supply chain may be high, but it's not like it magically jumps from the oil field into our gas tanks. Along the same lines, that's why it's financially feasible to use grid-tied solar panels to power an EV, but not do the same with an oil well in your own backyard, assuming it's accessible to you The reason is that the EROEI of electricity from solar panels is higher than the EROEI of gasoline. Once we use those fuels , that gap widens because electricity has a higher efficiency of use than petrochemicals for most applications.