Thursday, March 17, 2011

One Domestic "Coal-to-Gasoline" Project Could Provide 15 Percent of California's Current Gasoline Needs

In a recent press release, DKRW stated it could produce 21,000 barrels of gasoline on a daily basis from coal.

I often make simple calculation errors, so there may be errors below, but this is what I get, looking at the figures:

Montana daily sales of gasoline, gallons: 1.5 million gallons (EIA)

California daily sales of gasoline, gallons: 6.0 million gallons (EIA)

DKRW: the company says they can produce 21,000 barrels of gasoline on a daily basis from coal. In an earlier (2009) press release, the company stated 20,000 barrels of gasoline -- note: both press releases/new stories stated "barrels," not gallons.
  • There are 42 gallons of gasoline per barrel. 
  • 21,000 x 42 = 882,000 gallons/day x 30 = 26 million gallons/month
Montana
  • For Montana, 1.5 x 30 = 45 million gallons/month gasoline consumption, and if accurate, if DKRW could produce 26 million gallons of gasoline per month, that would amount to more than one-half of Montana's requirements.
North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado
  • South Dakota requires 22,000 gallons of gasoline/day (the US government does not have data for North Dakota, but let's assume it's a bit more than South Dakota, at 30,000 gallons of gasoline/day). For the two states, we are talking about 50,000 gallons of gasoline/day --> 1.5 million gallons/month.
  • The federal government does not post data for Wyoming.
  • Colorada appears to use about 600,000 gallons/day --> 18 million gallons/month. DKRW could supply all of Colorado's needs, and probably all of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming as well.  
California
  • It would amount to 15 percent of California's requirement, and that percent would increase as California increases use of electric and hybrid vehicles.

7 comments:

  1. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip_gasoline.html#demand

    Daily gas prod in us = 9m barrels

    Dkrw assertion = 21000 barrels

    21000/9000000 = 0.002333


    0.2% to me is a drop in the bucket :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bruce,

    Your numbers appear to be off because you use the oil to gasoline ratio of 42. The text says they can produce 21,000 barrels of gasoline per day. This should not be multiplied by 42 as there is no oil to gasoline conversion involved here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How many gallons of gasoline are in a barrel of gasoline? I wondered if there was a mistake in the article. The article said "barrels" of gasoline. Checking Internet sources, it said that a barrel of gasoline was generally 42 gallons, but it might vary.

    So, if the article is accurate, which I still question, one has to convert a barrel of liquid (in this case, gasoline) to gallons of liquid (in this case, gasoline).

    The reason I question the accuracy of the article is because one generally talks about "gallons" of gasoline, not "barrels" as the reporter does here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's accurate. An earlier story, in 2009, also said 20,000 barrels of gasoline daily.

    http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_119753dc-359f-55f3-a8e3-f66b963150eb.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Bruce here is some very complex math.

    http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip_gasoline.html#demand

    Daily us production of gas = 9000000 barrels per day
    (bucket)

    Dkrw production per day 21000 barrels of gas
    (drop)

    21000/9000000 = 0.002333

    That's right slightly more than two tenths of one percent

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Bruce,
    Your post is a candidate for a textbook example of a fact based presentation that arrives at a completely incorrect conclusion. Awesome !

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ok Bruce that looks like a post with "just the facts ma'am " as Sgt Friday would say. But, the point is what ??????

    ReplyDelete