Electricity from Oil

Electricity from Oil

In the United States, oil is used mostly for transportation or home heating purposes, although a small percentage is used as a fuel for electricity generating plants. As with other fossil fuels, oil is found in underground reservoirs. It is the end product of the decomposition of organic materials that have been subjected to geologic heat and pressure over millions of years. Oil is considered a nonrenewable resource because it cannot be replenished on a human timeframe.
The activities involved in producing electricity from oil begin with the extraction of the oil and end with its burning in boilers and turbines at power plants. Initially, crude oil is removed from the ground by drilling deep wells and pumping it up to the surface.
The crude oil is then transported to a refinery where it is refined into a number of fuel products, including gasoline, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (such as propane), distillates (diesel and jet fuels), and "residuals" that include industrial fuels. Refineries remove a portion of the impurities in the crude oil, such as sulfur, nitrogen, and metals.
From the refinery, oil is transported to power plants by ship, pipelines, truck, or train. At power plants, several methods can be used to generate electricity from oil. One method is to burn the oil in boilers to produce steam, which is used by a steam turbine to generate electricity. A more common method is to burn the oil in combustion turbines, which are similar to jet engines. Another technology is to burn the oil in a combustion turbine and use the hot exhaust to make steam to drive a steam turbine. This technology is called "combined cycle" and is more efficient because it uses the same fuel source twice.

Environmental Impacts

Although power plants are regulated by federal and state laws to protect human health and the environment, there is a wide variation of environmental impacts associated with power generation technologies.
The purpose of the following section is to give consumers a better idea of the specific air, water, and solid waste releases associated with oil-fired electricity generation.
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