TCS guide: Should refineries be shut down to save electricity?

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How much energy is required to produce one liter of fuel? And couldn’t we save electricity and run electric cars by, for example, shutting down refineries?
Thomas Döbeli, Boniswil AG

One liter of fuel contains approximately 9 kWh of energy, and this energy is released when burned. Since fuel is not produced at the filling station, it is useful to take a look at the transportation and processing chain behind it. Energy is used even before gasoline and diesel leave the pump; for example, to drill wells, pump oil through pipelines, transport it across oceans, and process it into gasoline, diesel, and kerosene in refineries.

30 to 35 percent primary energy factor

The “primary energy factor” for gasoline and diesel production is 30 to 35 percent: the energy of about three deciliters of oil per liter of fuel is also used for production, mostly for extraction and refining.

It is true that an electric car can travel about 15 kilometers with this energy, but this cannot be applied 1:1. Most of the energy used is provided as self-consumption from petroleum products using combined heat and power plants or diesel generators.

In European refineries, electricity purchased from the grid accounted for approximately seven percent of primary energy consumption in 2010. The remaining 93 percent would not be available for electromobility, even if there were no refineries.

The energy used to process and transport the fuel does not require much electricity from the grid, but produces large amounts of CO.₂-Emissions. This contributes about 20 percent to CO₂– Emissions from fuel combustion. Therefore, gasoline has more greenhouse gas emissions at the filling station than the emissions produced during the entire operation of an electric car.

By the way: You can calculate CO with our online carbon footprint calculator.₂-Compare emissions and primary energy requirements for any car.

Source: Blick