Maybe I gave the wrong message with all the joules, CO2, H20, hydrogens and carbons and oxygens.
To keep it simple, least to most CO2 per heating =
Best is methane, aka natural gas
Next is propane,
Next is LPG [a mixture of propane with 3 carbons, and butane with 4 carbons]
Next is butane
Then petrol types aka gasolines
Then kerosene
Then diesel
Then fuel oils which have aromatic molecules and where the residues get dumped
Then bitumen and tars [such as Orinoco goo which can be produced and shipped using hot water and surfactant which was developed by my old firm BP Oil International]
Coal has no hydrogens and it's all energy from carbon
Diamonds are not normally economic as fuel but give pure CO2 with no other emissions
But don't worry about CO2. The human population is going to shrivel and technology is going to zoom so cheapskate people will not want to be buying oil products to do what they want to do. These will be the good old days when the air once again had enough CO2 to keep plants alive and crops producing quite well. As CO2 dwindles by 2100, people will be wringing their hands and having to pay for carbon to burn to keep their crops at high production in glasshouses. Maybe there will be enough CO2 to last longer than that, but it dissolves quite quickly in water and dives to the bottom of the ocean via the Gulf Stream by the megaton, while gigatons of microbes are feasting on the dissolved CO2 at the ocean surface with petatons of carbonaceous debris from skeletons, dead buried marine life, methane hydrates or whatever being buried in kilometres of ocean sediment, which is trundled across to subduction zones and fuels explosive volcanoes and trapped hydrocarbons in sedimentary layers adjacent to subduction zones where oil exploration is successful.
Volcanoes supplied from upwelling mantle contain negligible hudrocarbons which float off on the way down the subduction zones. For example Hawaii - with nice smooth lava, out in the middle of nowhere.
Krakatoa, Taupo, Yellowstone etc are ring of fire subduction zone volcanoes fueled by gigatons of subducted then floated up hydrocarbons, which push up fast when the pressure is off and they convert from liquid to gas, and then explode when they reach the atmosphere, sending 1000 cubic kilometres of hot stuff 10s of kilometres into the sky, with rivers of foaming magma racing down valleys at 100 km per hour = run for it!!
Unfortunately, the likes of Taupo give no warning [minutes rather than weeks] so few escape. They go off like a geyser. First water turns to steam which reduces pressure further down so the deeper water turns to steam which further reduces pressure which works its way quickly down the column of liquid until the liquefied gases have all turned to vapour and ignite in the atmosphere with a big bang of gigaton size.
Humans seem to function like those volcanoes = the magma chamber keeps filling from subducted money and economic and biological activity such as population increase, loyalties, identity, profit and loss, hunger and obesity, sadness and anger, until the pressure exceeds the countervailing forces and there's a skirmish or two and next thing you know, the top has blown off and all hell is loosed on the world, with everyone being self-righteous and blaming the other people. After desolation, the survivors regroup, swear Lest We Forget, Never Again, blah blah blah as they did just a couple of years ago to commemorate the end of WWI on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, promptly forgeting what they just remembered.
Mqurice |
