[whazor]

Can we use raw oil 100% without burning/wasting it?

How much percent recyclable plastic could we extract out of raw oil? Like real recyclable plastic, where it is worth money to do so.

Maybe making more bitumen/asphalt for roads/roofs, or graphite for batteries?

[flave]

My comment wasn't clear - I'm talking about abandoned rigs. So the well is sealed.

Some of the more extreme "environmentalist" (in my opinion extreme) also demand that the ocean floor near the well is scrubbed clean to 'leave no trade' which is good in theory but in practice will wipe out the fish and plant life which has grown up around it.

[withinboredom]

> So the well is sealed.

Sometimes. Not all the time though.

[lmm]

> Can we use raw oil 100% without burning/wasting it?

Burning it isn't wasting it, we get a lot of value out of that.

> How much percent recyclable plastic could we extract out of raw oil? Like real recyclable plastic, where it is worth money to do so.

0. There's no such thing as real recyclable plastic, unless you count burning it for heat/power generation.

> Maybe making more bitumen/asphalt for roads/roofs, or graphite for batteries?

Every fraction of oil has some use. But you're unlikely to get perfectly balanced demand for every single thing you can pull out of it.

[Ferret7446]

> Every fraction of oil has some use. But you're unlikely to get perfectly balanced demand for every single thing you can pull out of it.

Oh God not Factorio again

[pjc50]

Instead of saying "wasting", OP should have said "emitting CO2 to the atmosphere", which is the real problem here. Including from refinery flare stacks, and emissions of non-CO2 GHGs like methane from leaks.

Unbalanced fractions aren't so much of a problem as they can be cracked.

[tentacleuno]

To be pedantic, assuming the fuel is used in a combustion engine, there will always be a percentage of the fuel wasted as heat energy. This depends on the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine and various other conditions, of course.

[wodenokoto]

Oil is not part of the dispute parent is talking about. Abandoned rigs provides shelter for a multitude of species and helps marine diversity. On the other hand, they are manmade structures and essentially ocean trash.

[defrost]

On the third hand, coral reefs are polypmade structues and essentially ocean poop and excreta.

It's not so much the manmade structures that are problematic, more the associated toxic sludges still residual within structures.

[kingkawn]

Are there residual devastating toxic sludges in any non-human structures in the ocean

[defrost]

Yes. (Black smokers, white smokers, other discharge points for hydrocarbons .. like tar pits on land, only underwater)

There are also human structures in the ocean that lack toxic sludges.

[pjc50]

The volcanic vents are interesting in that, while toxic to most life, separate species have evolved that only live in toxic hot sludge.

[defrost]

There are many types of toxic sludge, the fact that rare organics can live within them not only points to the possibility of life off planet earth, it also hints at potential uses in remediation of human created toxic wastes (binding to heavy metals in wetlands capturing industrial run off, etc.).