The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens cover image

Arthur Berman: “The Devil is in the Diesel”

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

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Is There a Scaling Problem With Refining?

All oil is carbon plus some hydrogens around it. The problem with the light parts of the distillation process and up through gasoline is there's not a whole lot of carbon in there. So chemists know how to force more carbon into those compounds, then can essentially synthesize or they reform the lighter molecules back into heavier molecules. But if you're talking about two and a half million barrels a day of something just in the United States, a quarter of all the gasoline that now has to be reformed into something else. We're not set up for that.

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