Laurelhurst Oil: Fuel Choices for a Cleaner Environment.™ Bio-heating Oil™ - Petroleum - Biodiesel

Glossary

Acid rain - rain or any other form of precipitation which is unusually acidic. It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and buildings. Acid rain is mostly caused by human emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds which react in the atmosphere to produce acids. In recent years, many governments have introduced laws to reduce these emissions.

biodegradation - the process by which organic substances are broken down by living organisms. Biodegradable matter is generally organic material such as plant and animal matter and other substances originating from living organisms, or artificial materials that are similar enough to plant and animal matter to be put to use by microorganisms. Some microorganisms have the astonishing, naturally occurring, microbial catabolic diversity to degrade, transform or accumulate a huge range of compounds including hydrocarbons (e.g. oil), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pharmaceutical substances, radionuclides and metals.

Biodiesel - Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent processed fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional diesel fuel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles.

Bioheat - Bioheat is a blend of biofuel and heating oil for off-road heating applications.

Bio-Heating Oil™ - Bio-Heating Oil is Laurelhurst Oil’s unique brand of biofuel. It is a combination of biodiesel and petroleum heating oil. It is available in custom blends ranging from 20% to 99% biodiesel.

carbon footprint - a “measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide”[1] It is meant to be useful for individuals and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming.

carbon neutral - Being carbon neutral, or carbon neutrality, refers to neutral (meaning zero) total carbon release, brought about by balancing the amount of carbon released with the amount sequestered. Various special interests attempt to promote a use of the term that merely refers to carbon reduction, which is clearly not neutral.

For every gram of CO2 released by burning a biofuel, a gram of CO2 was removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis just a few months earlier while the source vegetation was growing. This perfect balance is why biofuels are carbon neutral.

climate friendly - minimum or no impact on climate change.

Degree Day system - gauges the amount of heating or cooling needed for a building using 65 degrees as a baseline. Quantitative indices are derived from daily temperature observations and energy demand. Energy demand may be measured for a building, a power or gas utility account, or consist of all the customers within a power or gas utility’s service area.

energy balance - When comparing fuel production, energy balance is the difference between the energy produced by 1 kg of the fuel (i.e. biodiesel, petroleum, uranium) and the energy necessary to produce it (extraction (e.g. drilling or cultivation of energetic plants), transportation, refining etc). Other factors affect fuel selection, such as portability.

heating oil - Heating oil, or oil heat, also known in the United States as No. 2 heating oil, is a low viscosity, combustionable liquid petroleum product used to fuel building furnaces or (”boilers”). In the U.S. it must conform to ASTM standard D396. Diesel and kerosene, while often confused as being similar or identical, must conform to their own respective ASTM standards. Heating oil may be blended with biofuel to create “Bio-Heating Oil”.

particulate - Particulates, alternatively referred to as particulate matter (PM), aerosols or fine particles, are tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended in a gas. Sources of particulate matter can be anthropogenic or natural. Some particles are large or dark enough to be seen as smoke, but fine particulate matter is not visible to the naked eye. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels also generate aerosols. Averaged over the globe, anthropogenic aerosols—those made by human activities—currently account for about 10 percent of the total amount of aerosols in our atmosphere.

petroleum - or crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid found in formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons (mostly alkanes) of various lengths. The approximate length range is C5H12 to C18H38. Any shorter hydrocarbons are considered natural gas or natural gas liquids, while long-chain hydrocarbons are more viscous, and the longest chains are paraffin wax. In its naturally occurring form, it may contain other nonmetallic elements such as sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. It is usually black or dark brown (although it may be yellowish or even greenish) but varies greatly in appearance, depending on its composition. Crude oil may also be found in semi-solid form mixed with sand, as in the Athabasca oil sands in Canada, where it may be referred to as crude bitumen.

renewable energy - effectively utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation and heating.

sulphur dioxide - is the chemical compound with the formula SO2. This important gas is the main product from the combustion of sulfur compounds and is of significant environmental concern. SO2 is often described as the “smell of burning sulfur” but is not responsible for the smell of rotten eggs.

SO2 is produced by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide. Further oxidation of SO2, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as NO2, forms H2SO4, and thus acid rain.

sustainability - a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its environmental usage, refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet’s climatic system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries, and human communities in general and the various systems on which they depend.

In recent years an academic and public discourse has led to this use of the word sustainability in reference to how long human ecological systems can be expected to be usefully productive. Observers point out that in the past, complex human societies have died out, sometimes as a result of their own growth and associated impacts on ecological support systems. The implication is that modern industrial society, which continues to grow in scale and complexity, might also collapse.

ThermOil - Petroleum heating oil to which Thermo-Boost catalyst has been added. Thermo-Boost catalyst results in more complete combustion and reduces fuel usage by 5 to 10 percent.

ThermOil Plus - ThermOil Plus is Laurelhurst Oil’s premium, and most popular, petroleum heating oil. It contains various additives, including the combustion catalyst Thermo-Boost, that help maintain the efficiency of heating equipment by eliminating condensation, deposits, varnishes and micro-organisms.