How much crude oil is in a quart of engine oil?

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I have dug around and can't seem to find out how much. Once forum member (not sure what forum) said 21 gallons of crude to make 1 QUART of librication oil, but that sounds excessive to me.

Anyone know? Or know where I can find out? Just a ballpark number.
 
About 1% of crude oil is converted to lubricating oil. So a 55 gallon drum yields about 0.5 gallons of lube oil. In other words 22.5 gallons produces about 1 quart.
 
Originally Posted By: youdontwannaknow
Wow thats obscene. Is that for dino or synthetic ?
Is the yeild better for synthetic ?

What are you talking about? It's not as if it "takes" a whole barrel to "make" the oil and the rest is either consumed in that process or discarded. Crude oil is a very complex mixture of a wide range of molecular weight hydrocarbons, they are separated and often modified for particular uses such as lubricating oils and fuels (among many). Assuming the number quoted is correct the rest of the barrel is used for other purposes.

If one was so inclined you could either crack or convert higher or lower molecular weight compounds into motor oil and with enough effort utilize the entire barrel. It doesn't even have to be crude oil as is demonstrated with GTL.

All of this takes energy of course but it's not the whole rest of the barrel.
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: youdontwannaknow
Wow thats obscene. Is that for dino or synthetic ?
Is the yeild better for synthetic ?

What are you talking about? It's not as if it "takes" a whole barrel to "make" the oil and the rest is either consumed or discarded. Crude oil is a very complex mixture of a wide range of molecular weight hydrocarbons, they are separated and often modified for particular uses such as lubricating oils and fuels (among many). Assuming the number quoted is correct the rest of the barrel is used for other purposes.

If one was so inclined you could either crack or convert higher or lower molecular weight compounds into motor oil and with enough effort utilize the entire barrel. It doesn't even have to be crude oil as is demonstrated with GTL.


Exactly, the crude is sorted by fractional distillation.. Some fractions are very light. Others are heavy like tar.

It's not like they say ok, this run we are making base stock and they get 0.5 gallons of base stock from a 42 gallon barrel. They process the crude and get a number of fractions from the distillation tower.
 
Originally Posted By: EyesofThunder
I have dug around and can't seem to find out how much. Once forum member (not sure what forum) said 21 gallons of crude to make 1 QUART of librication oil, but that sounds excessive to me.

As has been pointed out, it doesn't "take" 21 gallons of crude to "make" one quart of oil. That may be the ultimate yield but the 21 gallons is not consumed in the process.

You have your question backwards BTW. It isn't how much crude is in a quart of engine oil, it is how much engine oil is in a barrel of crude. Even that isn't exactly right but that is how you should look at it.
 
I think the question is how much of what is in a bottle is basestock (from crude) and how much is additives.

Not sure one will ever get a straight answer.
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: youdontwannaknow
Wow thats obscene. Is that for dino or synthetic ?
Is the yeild better for synthetic ?

What are you talking about? It's not as if it "takes" a whole barrel to "make" the oil and the rest is either consumed or discarded. Crude oil is a very complex mixture of a wide range of molecular weight hydrocarbons, they are separated and often modified for particular uses such as lubricating oils and fuels (among many). Assuming the number quoted is correct the rest of the barrel is used for other purposes.

If one was so inclined you could either crack or convert higher or lower molecular weight compounds into motor oil and with enough effort utilize the entire barrel. It doesn't even have to be crude oil as is demonstrated with GTL.


Exactly, the crude is sorted by fractional distillation.. Some fractions are very light. Others are heavy like tar.

It's not like they say ok, this run we are making base stock and they get 0.5 gallons of base stock from a 42 gallon barrel. They process the crude and get a number of fractions from the distillation tower.


I was going by the first reply in the thread by MotoTribologist that said "... So a 55 gallon drum yields about 0.5 gallons of lube oil. In other words 22.5 gallons produces about 1 quart..."

How else could one interpret that ?
But thanks its good to know it does not take 22 gallons of crude to produce 1 Qt of lube oil.
 
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Long story short, virtually every ounce of a 42 gallon barrel is used for something. It may be gasoline or diesel fuel or lubricating oil or grease or asphalt or tar or plastics, et al. True contaminants are about the only thing not used.

And if the OP's 21 gallons of crude to make 1 quart of oil was literally true, that quart of oil would cost around $25 in crude alone.
 
I believe the oil use to make motor oil was at one time a "waste" that had no real use before people created a purpose for it.

You can't really say X amount of crude is needed to produce motor oil as it is a by product of the crude refining process.
 
Originally Posted By: EyesofThunder
A barrel is NOT 55 gallons, a DRUM is 55. A barrel of crude is 42 gallons.

That indiscretion is made up for by the fact that crude oil is not all the same, and some will have more or less of the molecular mass fraction that is required for motor oil.
 
Answer to how much crude it takes to make 1 quart of motor oil: Not much at all if its a GTL Group III synthetic made from natural gas (i.e, Pennzoil PurePlus).

Answer to how much base oil is in a quart of oil (like the title suggests): 80%-90%, in that range.
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
Answer to how much base oil is in a quart of oil (like the title suggests): 80%-90%, in that range.

If you go by what the title suggests the answer is zero.
 
Right sorry didn't word it well. Zero crude in a quart of motor oil.

Rephrased. How my crude oil is needed to be distilled or processed to end up with 1 quart of petroleum motor oil (including additives). Probably no way to get an answer.
 
Originally Posted By: youdontwannaknow
Wow thats obscene. Is that for dino or synthetic ?
Is the yeild better for synthetic ?


None. Because synthetic oil is made in a lab by righteous dudes in white lab coats out of man made stuff
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted By: EyesofThunder
Rephrased. How my crude oil is needed to be distilled or processed to end up with 1 quart of petroleum motor oil (including additives). Probably no way to get an answer.

MotoTribologist answered that in the first reply. Do you think that isn't accurate?
 
Like mototriboligist said, about 1% of crude gets refined into motor oil. Its about the heaviest part of the crude, near the fuel oil here. Also, the naptha fraction is used to make many organic additives:

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Originally Posted By: EyesofThunder
Right sorry didn't word it well. Zero crude in a quart of motor oil.

Rephrased. How my crude oil is needed to be distilled or processed to end up with 1 quart of petroleum motor oil (including additives). Probably no way to get an answer.

I think you're looking at this the wrong way. The answer is about 1 quart, but that's not to say that if you start with a quart of crude oil you can create a quart of motor oil. Crude oil has a large number of components of which only a few are suitable for motor oil, but the others are useful for products ranging from light elements (gasoline) to heavy (asphalt).

If motor oil was the only thing you wanted, there would be a large amount of waste in barrel of crude oil. Thankfully, other crude elements are useful for other things.
 
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