Petroleum and refining
Get a liquid fuel — dense, portable and pourable.
Everything for this step
- Field guide
- Energy sources → 14 sections
- Builds
- None yet.
- Reference sheets
- 1 sheet on this page ↓ · 16 sheets in Energy sources
- Sciences it rests on
- Chemistry · Earth sciences
- Track
- Fire and fuel, level 4 of 4
Why this matters
Liquid fuel is what makes engines small and mobile. A steam locomotive needs a fireman and a tender; a diesel needs a tank. That difference is tractors, trucks, ships and aircraft — and it is also, eventually, the feedstock for plastics, fertiliser and most modern chemistry.
The shape of it
- Find it: surface seeps, tar sands, oil shale, or drilling on a likely structure. Cable-tool percussion drilling is achievable with tier-4 machinery.
- Fractionate by boiling point — the same distillation principle, scaled into a continuous column. Light fractions off the top (gases, petrol), middle (kerosene, diesel), heavy from the bottom (lubricating oil, wax, bitumen).
- Kerosene first, historically and practically. Lamp oil was the original product and petrol was the dangerous waste. Lighting is worth more than mobility until you have engines.
- Do not neglect lubricants. Every machine you have built is wearing out for want of good oil. Lubricating fractions are arguably worth more to an industrialising society than fuel.
- Bitumen for roads and waterproofing is a genuinely valuable bottom product.
- Then producer gas as the fallback. If you have no petroleum, wood or coal gasified in a producer will run a spark-ignition engine — see Gas-Engines and Producer-Gas Plants. This is a realistic route for a rebuilding society and it deserves more attention than it usually gets.
- Be honest about the ceiling. Easily accessible surface oil is largely gone in the world you would be rebuilding in; a second industrial revolution would face a harder resource base than the first. See Futures.
- Fire is the standing hazard. Vapour, not liquid, is what ignites, and it pools and travels. Bond and earth everything, ban ignition sources, and design for containment.
Doing it, step by step
The summary above says what has to happen. This says how, with the numbers that decide whether it works.
1 · Plan the producer-gas fallback in parallel
Do not assume petroleum is available at all — easily accessible surface oil is largely gone in the world a second attempt would inherit. See Futures.
Producer gas: wood, charcoal or coal gasified by burning it with restricted air, giving a gas of mostly carbon monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen. It runs a spark-ignition engine, at reduced power — often a third to a half less — and powered vehicles across Europe during the Second World War. See Gas-Engines and Producer-Gas Plants.
2 · Find oil and drill with cable tools
Look for surface seeps, tar sands, oil shale and asphalt deposits, and for dome-shaped rock structures that trap oil. Cable-tool percussion drilling — a heavy bit lifted and dropped on a cable, bailing out the cuttings — is achievable with tier-4 machinery and drilled most early wells.
Case the well to stop collapse and keep oil out of drinking-water aquifers. Plan for blowouts: gas and oil under pressure can erupt, and the eruption ignites.
3 · Distil in fractions by boiling range
The same distillation principle, run in stages and later in a continuous column. Rough boiling ranges:
- Gases — below about 30 °C.
- Petrol (naphtha) — about 30–200 °C.
- Kerosene — about 150–275 °C.
- Diesel and gas oil — about 250–350 °C.
- Lubricating oils and wax — above about 350 °C, best taken under vacuum so they do not crack.
- Bitumen — the residue.
Measure the column temperature and switch receivers at each cut. Log cut points against the product's properties.
4 · Make kerosene first — and test its flash point
Lamp oil was the original product, and lighting is worth more than mobility until you have engines.
The one test that matters: flash point — the lowest temperature at which the vapour ignites. Warm a sample in an open cup with a thermometer, and pass a small flame over the surface at each degree. Lamp kerosene must not flash below about 38 °C. Kerosene contaminated with petrol flashes at room temperature, and historically caused lamp explosions and house fires in large numbers — which is why flash-point laws were among the first product safety laws.
5 · Value the lubricants as much as the fuel
Every machine you have built is wearing out for want of good oil. Lubricating fractions are arguably worth more to an industrialising society than fuel.
Grade them by viscosity — time how long a fixed volume takes to run through a small hole at a fixed temperature — and label each grade. Light oils for fast, lightly loaded bearings; heavy oils and greases for slow, heavily loaded ones. Filter and reuse used oil where you can, and keep water out of every oil store.
6 · Use the bottom of the barrel
Bitumen for road surfaces — see wheel, cart and road — roofing and waterproofing of tanks and foundations. Wax for candles, sealing and waterproofing cloth.
Keep petrol in small quantities until there are engines that need it. Chasing petrol before you have engines is a named failure — it is the most dangerous fraction to store and the least useful without them.
7 · Control vapour: it is the vapour that burns
Vapour, not liquid, is what ignites, and it pools in low places and travels to a flame metres away.
- Store volatile fractions in closed, vented tanks with flame arresters on the vents.
- Bond and earth every tank, pipe and container during transfer — static sparks ignite petrol vapour.
- No flames, smoking or sparking tools within a marked zone around stores and the refinery.
- Contain spills: an earth bund around tanks holding more than the tank's volume.
- Keep sand and foam for fires, never water on an oil fire.
Reference sheets
One drawn sheet covering the whole subject at once — the breadth a photograph cannot give, bought at the cost of accuracy. Read them for range and vocabulary, never as the thing you identify from.