what are the advantages and disadvantages of petroleum?
107626
Advantages:\n1.Highly compact portable source of energy used for most forms of mechanical transportation.\n2.Excellent source of organic molecules for building plastics,medicines, rubber, fiber, etc. \n3.Can withstand high heats without breakdown making it useful as lubricants like motor oil and grease\n4.Residuals make excellent surface for asphalt roads and waterproof roofing materials\n5.Certain components make excellent solvents for paint, industrial use etc.\n6.Other components (propane, butane) make excellent compact source of portable cooking fuel and heating in areas that do not have infrastructure for natural gas delivery.\n7.Natural gas is used to make fertilizers used in agriculture and household detergents \n8.Compared to most other fuel sources it is still one of the most economical -in other words the costs to produce it are relatively cheap compared to other energy sources.\n9.Production of oil has much less impact and a smaller footprint on the earth surface than production of coal from strip mining\n10.If not for the discovery of oil, all whales would likely be extinct, because they were the primary source of lamp oil for lighting before oil, and are still recovering from hunting in the 1800's.\n11. The oil industry has been a source of much advanced technology and many new products that have changed our lives for the better.  \n12. During WW2 oil produced in Texas was the major source of fuel supply for the Allied Forces and without that advantage over both the Germans and Japanese, the world might look very different today. At that time the US was the major supplier of oil in the world.\n13. Natural gas wells are the world's supply of helium gas.\n14. Oil refining produces the world's supply of elemental sulphur as a byproduct, used for many industrial applications. \n\nDisadvantages:\n1.Oil is a carbon based fuel and the primary way it is used is to burn it, releasing more than its weight in CO2 because of the added oxygen. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and is expected by most scientists to be a cause of global warming. \n2.We are running out. Estimates vary from 50 to 150 years before we run out of oil. This is impossible to predict, but most major oil companies have been failing to discover new reserves equal to the amount of oil they are producing for the last few years. \n3.Much of the remaining oil in the world is in politically unstable areas including Africa, Middle East, Russia, and parts of Southeast Asia. \n4. Wars get fought over oil, and wars are won with oil (WW2) so it can be a very negative influence on relations between nations. \n5. Oil must be transported in ever increasing quantities. Pipelines are one common method but where no pipeline exists oil can become 'stranded', in other words there is no way to get it to market. The natural gas in northern Alaska is a good example of this since there is no gas pipeline the oil companies must pump natural gas back into the wells.\n6.The other transport problem with oil is from the inherent dangers of supertankers. Oil spills do serious environmental damage that takes decades to recover from. While oil spills do occur naturally, and have over time, the effects are often catastrophic for the area affected. Oil does break down naturally from biological and chemical decay, but it takes time.\n7. Our consumption of oil is increasing at the same time our production is falling. The world is currently consuming 83 million barrels of oil per day. We aren't producing that much.\n8. Many oil producing areas are subject to severe weather and this can interupt production. Last year's hurricanes are an example. Production will not be restored until well into this year. \n9. Oil does contain some cancer causing compounds, benzene is one of those. \n10. Volatile components of oil and natural gas can contribute to smog.  \n11. Some additives put into gasoline to improve its smog fighting qualities have leaked out of underground tanks at gas
29053
Depends.  Tar is basically crude, crude, crude oil, and coal, which we have sh*t loads of, can be converted to petrochemicals, but at a higher cost.  There isn't really a clear line between crude and tar, but rather a point where the prevailing price makes the scrubbing of dirty oil not cost effective.  When light, sweet crude runs out, the costs of gas will soar, and the dirtier crap will be profitable.  I think the 2042 estimate is based on known deposits of light sweet crude that are easy enough to mine as to be profitable today.  There are also stores of light sweet crude that are hard to get to, like deep under the ocean floor, which would likewise become worthwhile to mine.
649639
Disadvantages: \n\nA few accidental poisonings worldwide every years.\n\nA few hundred thousand individual animals poisoned, none threatened.\n\nAdvantages: \n\nEntirely responsible for our ability to feed the world. Without pesticides we could not produce enough food to feed even 1/10th of the people alive today. The rest would starve because crops would be eaten by insects.\n\nEntirely resposnible for controlling insect born diseases. Without pesticides millions would die every DAY from diseases such as malaria, typhoid and West Nile Virus.\n\nEnables us to maintain huge wilderness reserves. Without pesticides we would have to clear all wilderness areas for food production and as a result kill all wild animals and plants.\n\n\nYeah, I think we can probably say the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, since without pesticides we would have the same disadvantages multiplied a thousand fold and none of the advantages.
732891
look it up on the map's index\n   advantage - fast\n   disadvantage - some maps don't have an index\nask a friend where a place is located\n   advantage - he may know\n   disadvantage - he may not\nread entire map until you find it\n   advantage - you will find it eventually\n   disadvantage - it may take a very long time
433908
1. does not destroy the earth\n2.its much cheaper\n3. its runs more efficently\n4.its uses less mechanincs\n5.old school is the way to go\n\nbad\n1.its takes a long time\n2.coal is had to find\n3.heat\n4.more work\n5. don't know
1019349
This site may lead you to the information you seek.\n\nhttp://www.petrochemistry.net/index.asp
560742
Advantages: Improved crop yield with better nutrition of the food, curing diseases, preventing diseases.\n\nDisadvantages: For crops, the economic reality is that we produce too much food as it is.  America has an ENORMOUS amount of surplus food. Better nutrition? Nice idea but farmers want to grow more, not better.
795838
Well, you can look them up yourself.  Just google "coal" and "benefits."\n\nHowever, here are some that you will need to quantify further; you know, specify exactly how much -\n\n* Coal is cheaper than other fuels.\n* Coal is extremely plentiful in the US, and therefore could greatly reduce our dependency on foreign energy sources.\n* The coal industry employs thousands of people.  Not just in the mines, but also transport.\n* Coal is fairly easy to use, just as it is mined - not a lot of refining steps.\n* Coal is a lot less explosive than, say, gasoline or natural gas.  Or nuclear plants.
913861
Advantages: cooling, fresh air. Disadvantages: heat, stale air sickness.
905156
Advantage and disadvantage:\n\nPlants with high photosynthesis rates grows faster but has a shorter term of life.
419417
Media Advantage: More Fans, More Money\nMedia Disadvantage: The media is evil\n\nSponsorship Advanatge: More Money, Better Gear\nSponsorship Disadvantage: Those poor soccer players might not like drinking powerade at the end of each match
467710
The main advantage is that the Electric Vehicle is an zero-emission car and therefore does not contribute to the greenhouse-effect, is not depending on the limited resources of fossil fuel and maintenance cost are much lower because the battery is self-recharging.\nAnother advantage is that it makes almost no noise. Many motorways are building through nature and the noise expels many animals from their nesting regions.  \n\nThe main disadvantage is that batteries are still very heavy and the capacity of stored energy is still small. The maximal distance which an electric car can travel is only about 90 miles. Afterwards is has to be recharged for 6-8 hours.\nAnother point is that the energy to recharge the battery is sometimes produced by power plants, and if this the environmental aspect of the electric car is not an argument any more.
534849
Probably alternative fuels.  It would be nice to spend some research and get some other sources to diversify risk.  Right now, if the Middle East embargoes oil, we would be sunk.  If we had other sources, it wouldn't be as big of a deal.
779695
I'm thinking it would be about the size of, oh say, a planet. Oil is a product of fossil fuels. Long dead and buried by time biological creatures that become compressed to crude oil over time and planetary pressure. As long as things keep dying and compressing, we will have new sources of crude, however, if it is pulled out faster then it is replenished it will create a void in supply.
179688
Well thats because the petoleum which we export is some A++ petroleum which can let our government earns money. While those petrol which we import are much more cheaper than those we export. And of course the quality is not as good as those we export.
722057
Oil is portable, high in energy,and easy to control to make the right size fire.\n\nIf we didn't have petroleum, we'd probably be extracting it from plants and animals.\n\nThat's how whales got hunted practically to extinction in the nineteenth century.  Lamps using whale oil were being used all over the world.\n\nMaybe we'll learn to make hydrogen a good substitute.  It's simple to make if you have electricity, though not to store.
124820
well, actually, crude oil is about 2.5 times more expensive and gas is close to 2 times more, so there is not really that big of a difference as you think