Lessee... 4 billion barrels at 55 gallons/barrel * 8 lbs per gallon = 880 million tons.
So apparently we can get greater than 100% mass efficiency on this miracle process.....
You are almost correct if you run the numbers.....1 barrel of crude = 42 gallons.
According to post #12:
Appel also had high hopes that he would get a $1-a-gallon biofuel tax credit for production costs, or about $42 per barrel.
That leads me to believe that a barrel isn't 55 gals. Also, I believe that oil is lighter than water (which is ~8 lbs/gal).
A barrel of oil is forty two gallons. West Texas crude is considerably less that eight pounds per gallon, more in the six to seven range.
Uhhh. 8 Lb per gallon is about right for water.
You might recall that oil is lighter than water.
I used to think 1 barrel = 55 gallons, but that is a drum, not barrel.
I just checked and found that:
1 drum (US petroleum) = 55 gallons (US liquid)
1 barrel (federal) = 31 gallons (US liquid)
1 barrel (US liquid) = 31.5 gallons (US liquid)
1 barrel (US petroleum) = 42 gallons (US liquid)
Why do we have so many different measures?
"Lessee... 4 billion barrels at 55 gallons/barrel * 8 lbs per gallon = 880 million tons."
You need to re-calculate this - a barrel, when talking about oil, is 42 gallons. Crude oil weighs about 7 lbs/gallon, average. If you calculate this, it's 600 million tons in, 588 million tons out. The material balance checks out. "Matter can neither be created nor destroyed" if we are talking about non-nuclear processes.
I believe that Discover admitted the error in the letters section in the next issue.
So apparently we can get greater than 100% mass efficiency on this miracle process.....
The numbers still don't work, but you used the density of water, not oil. Oil is lighter than water (it floats). Petroleum oil has an density of only approximatly 82.2% of water.
A barrel of oil weighs in at about 42 gallons, not 55.