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Old 09-09-2008, 07:45 PM   #9
Lil bastard
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@Quickurt:

You're right, the amount of diesel from a barrel of crude (42 gal.) is fixed at a little over 9 gal./bbl. And this is after it's refined. Raw, a barrel of crude only contains about 7 gal. of diesel grade fuel.

It's not the answer for personal transportation for this country in the long run, right now, fuel cells show the greatest promise. As you stated, it is a very efficient transporattion fuel when used to long-haul freight by rail. The figure you're looking for is one gallon of diesel can move one ton of freight 423 miles by rail vs about 130 miles by diesel truck. 1 freight train can remove the equivalent of 280 long-haul (500+ mi.) trucks from the road.

Another benefit to a rail transport system though is a reduction in GHGs. Moving a ton of freight by rail reduces greenhouse gasses by more then 2/3 that of the same ton moved by diesel truck. And that does not include extra GHGs produced by personal cars due to road conjestion caused by the volume of trucks on the road. Also an estimated $60B in wasted time and 2.3B gal. of wasted fuel would be saved. Not to mention reduced wear & tear to the infrastructure. Sources: AAR - Assn. of Am. Railroads, AASHTO - Am. Assn. of State Highway and Transporation Officials.
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