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Through most of history, there have been four meaningful sources of energy: fire from burning vegetable matter, muscle, water, and wind. As time marched on, electric power - and ways to generate it - become a fifth major source.

Fire was used at least 1.5 million years ago in stone hearths. Wood was probably the first fuel, but humanity has exploited a much wider range of combustible materials.

Wood burns in two stages. The first stage, with visible flames, produces temperatures of 500-600°F. As the wood burns, it slowly decomposes into charcoal, which leads to the second stage. Charred wood burns without flames but at a far higher temperature: 1,000-1,100°F. Firewood is collected from fallen branches and dead trees where possible, or cut and left to season. It’s easier to gather dry branches from the ground than to cut down living trees. Fresh wood produces 25% less useful heat per pound than dry wood, so it’s burned only as a last resort. In terms of Making Things Burn (p. B433), starting a fire is easiest with dry wood, which is flammable; harder with seasoned wood, which is resistant; and most difficult with green wood, which is highly resistant.

Charcoal – used by TL1 if not earlier – is wood that has been heated in a low-oxygen atmosphere to remove water, tar, and other impurities, reducing it to near-pure carbon. It’s manufactured by stacking wood or putting it in a pit, lighting it, covering the fire, and letting the wood smolder for several days. The result is a lightweight substance (25-40% of original weight) that burns long and hot (charcoal provides nearly twice as much heat per pound as dry wood), and without impurities or flames. The low weight makes it easier to transport from the forests where it’s produced to the foundries and potteries where it’s used; the lack of impurities makes it superior for metallurgy. Charcoal’s main drawback is the quantity of wood needed to produce it – growing metallurgical industries mean widespread deforestation.

Wood and charcoal filled most fuel needs at TL0-4, but several other substances saw use under special circumstances.

Fats, Oils, and Waxes (TL0). Animal fats and vegetable oils have a higher energy density than wood, but don’t burn any hotter, can’t be converted into charcoal, and are much more expensive. They were used almost exclusively for lighting. Animal fat fueled Paleolithic lamps (TL0). Vegetable oils became available after the rise of agriculture (TL1). Vegetable oils cost $2 per pound. Low-quality animal oils and fats that burn with a strong smell or lots of smoke are $4 per pound. Clean-burning waxes are $8 per pound.

Agricultural Waste (TL1). Straw, dried grass, olive pressings, and other flammable debris can be used to build fires. Agricultural waste – which on average provides a bit less energy than wood, and is harder to collect – sees household rather than industrial use, but there’s some speculation that oil-rich olive pressings could be used effectively in firing pottery and processing metals. Waste is usually free; if it must be purchased, it costs $0.25 per pound.

Dung (TL1). The dung of large herbivores contains a high proportion of undigested vegetable matter, and is combustible when dried – although it doesn’t provide as much energy as wood. It burns slowly and evenly, letting cooks leave fires unattended for an hour or two while food cooks. While it’s often more valuable to farmers as fertilizer, it’s a convenient fuel for herdsmen and nomads. Dung is normally free wherever animals are herded; if it must be purchased, it costs $0.25 per pound.

Peat (TL1). Compressed, partially decomposed vegetation mined from wetlands, peat is essentially a precursor of coal. Dried peat blocks provide about as much energy as wood on a pound-for-pound basis, but because peat is harder to extract, it’s typically a second-choice fuel source. $0.60 per pound.

Coal (TL4). Before TL5, small amounts of coal were used where it was available on the surface, but coal-mining wasn’t widely practiced. Coal often contains foul-smelling impurities that make it undesirable, and mining frequently costs more than cutting trees. Some coal-rich regions, notably China, began to experiment more with coal at TL4, but widespread use didn’t come until the Industrial Revolution. If available, coal costs $0.60 per pound.

Exploitation of animal labor began long after animals were domesticated. Horses were used as riding animals as early as 4000 B.C., and to pull chariots after 2000 B.C. However, they weren’t large enough to provide agricultural traction until TL3. Cattle initially filled that role; around 3500 B.C., they were used to pull plows, and by 1000 B.C., they (and other beasts) were used to drive machinery such as rotary querns and water pumps. Dogs saw occasional use in North America – as did llamas in the Andes – but neither plowed fields nor drove machinery.

How best to attach draft animals to a load is far from obvious; thus, harness designs evolved gradually through the millennia.

Horn Yoke (TL0). An early method of harnessing oxen in Mesopotamia: a wooden yoke attached to the horns! This halves all divisors for pulling loads (see Pulling and Dragging, p. B353). For example, when pulling a two-wheeled cart with a horn yoke, divide weight by 5, not by 10. $32, 18 lbs.

Breast-Strap Harness (TL0). This is a rope or leather harness that wraps around the animal’s chest. Initial research suggested that this and other early harnesses rode up and choked horses wearing them. Recent reconstructions have shown this to be incorrect. The real drawback is that on horses, these harnesses appear to be inefficient when used to pull plows or drag loads on the ground (again, halve the pulling divisor), as opposed to when pulling wagons. For large animals (e.g., oxen and horses): $75, 8 lbs. For smaller ones (e.g., goats and dogs): $49, 3 lbs.

Shoulder Yoke (TL1). A heavy-but-simple wooden frame fitting around an animal’s shoulders, designed to enable oxen and horses to pull heavy loads. Treat as a breast-strap harness. $56, 47 lbs.

Horse Collar (TL3). A close-fitting, padded harness tailored to the horse’s anatomy, allowing full power for dragging and plowing. $64, 18 lbs.

The first experiments with water power were probably the horizontal waterwheels seen in China at early TL2. In these, the wheel lay sideways in the water, pushed by the stream, and rotated an axle attached to a grindstone above. It resembled a wagon axle turned on its side. The design was simple, requiring no gearing, but inefficient.

Undershot and overshot wheels were invented nearly simultaneously around 200 B.C. These upright designs were pushed by water either traveling under or pouring down on top of the wheel. They were both more complex and more expensive than a horizontal wheel (particularly overshot wheels, which can require a long mill-race to deliver water to the top of the wheel), but also more powerful and more versatile.

The earliest windmills appeared in Persia around 600 A.D., and closely resembled the horizontal waterwheel. Half of a shaft with paddles protruding from it was exposed to the wind. The force of the wind against the paddles turned the axle and powered machinery.

Around the 13th century, both China and northern Europe developed vertical windmills. Sail-like vanes faced the wind, engaging drag forces to make the mill much more powerful. Many early windmills were in buildings set on posts, so that they could be picked up and turned when the wind shifted. By late TL4, windmills were built with turrets that had rotating bearings, making them far easier to readjust.

Most powered mills, regardless of type, provided power equivalent to ST 20-40 – and horizontal mills rarely exceeded that. The largest mills could generate the equivalent of up to ST 125 at TL3 and ST 175 at TL4.

The idea of steam power goes back at least to the Alexandrian philosopher Hero in the first century A.D., but came well in advance of the engineering know-how to make it meaningful. Hero’s aeolipile was a hollow metal sphere on a pivoting mount. Nozzles at either pole shot out steam jets when water inside was heated to boiling, making it rotate. Steam-based devices appeared sporadically thereafter: steam-driven pistons opened doors in grand Roman temples, steam pipes made artificial birds flap their wings in Byzantine palaces, and steam jets slowly turned an Ottoman philosopher’s roasting spit.

These devices were expensive toys. They leaked, wasted heat, and expended valuable fuel and metal to do jobs that any other energy source – human labor, draft animals, waterwheels – could do far more cheaply. A typical TL2-4 steam contraption consumes 30 lbs. of wood and 10 gallons of water per hour. It drives a single powered accessory that can perform any one repetitive action that a ST 10 man could perform; e.g., opening a door, sawing, or blowing a horn. Such a contrivance might be mounted on a ship or a heavy wagon for transport, but the engine isn’t powerful enough to be self-propelled. $20,000, 1,000 lbs.

In the spring of 2003, at the height of the Iraq War, the U.S. military machine almost lurched to a stop. A terrible and unforeseen crisis gripped combat units from Basra to Baghdad: they were running out of BA5590, military-speak for the principal radio battery in use with U.S. forces. Without BA5590s, units would go offline, one by one, and back to the days of General Custer.

The problem was caused by a number of logistics snafus. Ships full of BA5590s were steaming toward Iraq, but the war kicked off while the ships were days from port. Meanwhile, frontline soldiers were throwing away batteries half-used rather than fully draining them, in an effort to keep their equipment topped up at all times. Each combat division was using over 3,000 batteries a day – three or four times the predicted rate! It took several weeks of round-theclock shifts at stateside battery plants – and a lot of creative borrowing from other U.S. units around the globe – before the crisis fully abated.

The lesson is simple: High-tech gadgetry can be a wonderful advantage, the linchpin in the heroes’ plan… but the best encrypted cellular phone or latest palmtop computer is just an expensive paperweight without power.

Benjamin Franklin coined the term “battery,” comparing an array of glass jars that discharged static electricity on command to a battery of cannons. Franklin’s beloved Leyden jars were actually capacitors, however. Alessandro Volta’s voltaic pile was the first “wet cell” – a true battery.

At TL5, batteries are low-capacity curiosities, suitable primarily for stationary work. Most are used in telegraphy. For instance, the Transatlantic Telegraph – completed in 1866 – required 800 primitive batteries to push the signal 1,700 miles across the North Atlantic (such a bank of batteries would make an excellent source of power for a parachronic conveyor!). Batteries have improved steadily, becoming more portable and rugged with each passing tech level.

Portable electric power is extremely useful for heroes on the move, but batteries have many problems. For one thing, they slowly lose their energy while in storage. Some rechargeable cells retain a full charge for less than a month – although the best TL8 versions hold a serviceable charge after years on the shelf. Rechargeables also have a limited number of recharge cycles, a few dozen to a few hundred at best. As well, batteries lose energy quickly in freezing temperatures, and have perhaps half their normal endurance in warmer temperatures. When hot, they may explode, spewing acid everywhere. Adventurers can try to offset these risks by carrying spare cells . . . but there’s always the possibility of a power outage when using batteries.

Batteries vary greatly in capacity and weight – a comprehensive “battery table” would fill volumes! For simplicity, High-Tech uses a few generic battery sizes that approximate those in the real world. To simulate a particular real-world gadget, use batteries one size smaller than that listed for the generic device, take enough of them to approximate actual battery weight, and then adjust endurance in proportion to total weight.

Below, battery abbreviations appear in parentheses: T, XS, S, M, etc. Note that some devices use multiple batteries; e.g., 3¥S. All prices assume non-rechargeable cells. Rechargeables (lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride, lithium polymer, etc.) cost at least 5¥ as much but can be recharged dozens of times.

Tiny (T). A button- or coin-sized battery for watches, mini-flashlights, hearing aids, laser sights, tiny bugs, etc. $0.25, 0.02 lb. (50 weigh 1 lb.). LC4.

Extra-Small (XS). A battery used in such portable consumer electronics as audio recorders, CD/MP3 players, digital cameras, and night-vision goggles. Similar to a 9-volt or AA battery. $0.50, 0.1 lb. LC4.

Small (S). A standard battery for flashlights, portable radios, or cellular phones. Similar to a D-cell or C-cell battery. $1, 0.33 lb. LC4.

Medium (M). A common power source for lanterns or squad-level radios. More expensive rechargeable models are used in laptops, video cameras, and the like. $5, 2 lbs. LC4.

Large (L). A lunchbox-sized battery. At TL5, it’s used in telegraph stations. At TL6+, rechargeables are found in small vehicles (such as ATVs, motorcycles, and snowmobiles), base-camp radios, and the like. $10, 10 lbs. LC4.

Very Large (VL). A toolbox-sized battery found in cars, trucks, golf carts, etc. It can power radios or other heavyduty electronics for extended periods. A bank of these is often used for external power. $20, 50 lbs. LC4.

High-tech travelers stranded in a low-tech area can cobble together a useful battery with a little ingenuity. Every grade-school kid has built a primitive battery out of his favorite fruit or vegetable. A voltaic pile, one of the earliest batteries, can be made by stacking dissimilar metal coins or discs together, separated by brine-soaked cloth. Such a simple pile can produce enough voltage to power a small crystal-radio receiver.

Batteries with more kick take more effort. Vinegar or citrus juice can be used as the acid. Nearly any two metals can serve as electrodes – iron or lead sheeting, discarded aluminum foil, etc. A small jar of acid with metal electrodes can produce a useful amount of electricity. Several jars wired in series can power a small electronic device.

Dead or damaged batteries can be useful for raw materials. A standard automobile battery contains around 20 lbs. of lead (useful for bullet-making, p. 163) and 5 lbs. of sulfuric acid (just the thing for home-made explosives, p. 186).

Many large items are described as using external power. They’re designed to be plugged into building or vehicle power, a generator, etc. They operate for as long as power is available.

An inverter lets such a device run off batteries. It requires at least an M battery, which will last from a few minutes to a few days, depending on the device. An L or VL battery lasts proportionately longer. Cost and weight for an inverter match those of the batteries it adapts.

Likewise, a battery-operated device can have a power adapter for the cost and weight of its usual batteries. This lets it run off external power instead of batteries.

Generators provide “external power” . . . while their fuel holds out. Explorers, military units, and similar expeditions use them for base camps; others use them to power cabins. They can also provide backup power for everything from hospitals to shopping malls. Below, generators are divided into two types:

Portable: Usually provides enough external power (about 1-2 kW) to keep a few small devices going at once; e.g., a computer, a TV, and a few lights.

Semi-Portable: Typically supplies external power to a whole household, workshop, or equivalent (approximately 5-10 kW).

The first steam engines in wide use were the Newcomen “atmospheric engines” of the 1690s: low-powered, stationary installations used primarily to drive mine pumps. From about 1770 to 1800, James Watt’s patents controlled steamengine manufacture in England. Watt favored low-pressure setups . . . which were also mostly suited to stationary applications. The firm of Boulton & Watt built more than 400 engines in those years. They were used to power pumps, machine tools, and industrial machinery, and as traction engines. Real development of the steam engine for transport began after 1800.

Semi-Portable Steam Engine (TL5). A steam engine mounted on iron-shod wheels and pulled from one worksite to the next by draft horses. It was a common sight on well-to-do farms from England to Alabama starting in the 1820s, and would likely have powered Babbage’s Difference Engine, had it been built. A typical model – trimmed in polished brass and painted in bright colors – consumes 250 lbs. of wood and 50 gallons of water per hour. A leather belt links it to various steam-powered tools (p. 27). $15,000, 4 tons. LC4.

Portable Steam-Powered Generator (TL6). This is one of the smallest steam engines – the plaything of a retired railroad man. It looks like a small heating stove, but has the built-in equipment necessary to generate a small amount of electricity. Some were used as bench-top power plants, powering lathes and saws in areas without electricity. A stove engine this size was pressed into action as a clandestine generator for radios during WWII by Britain’s Special Operations Executive. It burns 20 lbs. of wood (or 5 lbs. of coal) and uses 1 gallon of water per hour. $250, 50 lbs. LC4.

Semi-Portable Homemade Steam Generator (TL7). This can be cobbled together from junk scavenged from city ruins. Roll against Scrounging +4 to find the parts in all but the most devastated cities; roll against Machinist or Mechanic (Steam Engine) to assemble it. It consumes 80 lbs. of wood and uses 5 gallons of water per hour. It converts the steam directly into electricity. Loud, ugly, and prone to malfunctions, it may be the only electrical generator available in a post-apocalypse setting. $250, 600 lbs. LC4.

At the turn of the last century, Sears, Roebuck and Company sold a primitive gasoline generator by mail order. A noisy belt-driven contraption, it spurted smoke and oil, and broke down frequently. By contrast, modern versions are whisper-quiet and small enough to fit in a large backpack. Both provide external power for a dozen or so items.

Semi-Portable Gasoline Generator (TL6). An early model gasoline generator, circa 1900. The 1-gallon tank lasts for about 3 hours. $600, 125 lbs. LC4.

Portable Gasoline Generator (TL7). The 1-gallon fuel tank lasts for 10 hours. Weight is ¥2/3 at TL8. $600, 50 lbs. LC4.

Throughout history, man has been his own best engine, capable of generating over 300 watts for hours at a time. All of the generators below convert mechanical energy provided by a human into electricity. The operator expends 1 FP an hour and the device produces electricity. As a rough estimate, assume it takes 1 hour to recharge 10 lbs. of batteries.

Portable Muscle-Powered Generator (TL6). From WWI to Vietnam, military units carried hand-crank generators to recharge radio batteries. This generator provides external power to one device, or can recharge a battery. $50, 10 lbs. LC4.

Semi-Portable Muscle-Powered Generator (TL6). This is a larger, bicycle-type generator that might be found in an “off-the- grid” cabin. It works like the generator above but can provide external power to two or three devices at once (e.g., a TV, a laptop, and a small refrigerator). A successful Machinist roll can build this system in a couple of hours; it requires simple hand tools and some creative scrounging (and a bike, of course; see p. 230). $125, 50 lbs. LC4.

Miniature Muscle-Powered Generator (TL8). A palm-sized generator, this can power only small electronic gadgets (cellular phone, GPS, PDA, MP3 player, etc.). Two minutes of cranking provide five minutes of operating time for such a device; in normal use, it doesn’t fatigue the operator. It has a built-in flashlight (pp. 51-52) with a 5-hour internal battery, and folds flat to fit in a pocket when not in use. $100, 0.25 lb. LC4.

Fuel cells use an electrochemical process to convert chemical energy directly into electricity, making them more like an engine than a battery. One advantage of fuel cells over more conventional generators is that they can operate indoors with less noise and no harmful emissions.

Portable Methanol Fuel Cell (TL8). A suitcase-sized generator. It uses 1 gallon of methanol every 3 days. $5,000, 13 lbs. LC4. Semi-Portable Hydrogen Fuel Cell (TL8). A large cart capable of powering a whole household on a single hydrogen cylinder for 5 hours (extra cylinders are $100, 65 lbs.). $6,000, 100 lbs. LC4.

Energy collectors gather energy from natural sources. Man has used solar power since prehistory to preserve herbs, vegetables, and meat by drying them in the sun. Today, major installations may use hydroelectric, solar, or geothermal power, but solar power is the most common means of portable energy collection.

In the 19th century (TL5), many farms in windy areas used windmills. They were common in the U.S. Midwest and Great Plains to pump water from deep wells into holding tanks or ponds. At TL6+, a windmill or wind turbine produces electrical power; in a good windy site, it can provide external power to a small household or workshop. Of course, it provides no power on calm days! $10,000, 500 lbs. LC4.

At TL5, waterwheels simply provide mechanical energy to drive millstones, saw blades, trip hammers, bellows, etc. At TL6, however, hydroelectric plants begin to convert mechanical energy into electricity. At TL8, a waterwheel or a small water-powered turbine can provide external power to a single household in an area with a fast-flowing, yearround water source; a small hydroelectric turbine suitable for the purpose is $10,000, 250 lbs. LC4.

Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity. They might power homes here on Earth . . . or satellites and robots on distant planets. Current panels are made of layers of plastics, and are strong, lightweight, and flexible. They can even be incorporated into such items as roofing shingles. They provide power only in sunlight, however. In any environment dim enough to give even a -1 Vision penalty, they produce no power.

Solar Power Array (TL7). A large array of solar panels capable of providing external power to a whole household. It covers a sizable portion of the roof of a family sized dwelling. $25,000, 1,200 lbs. LC4.

Solar Powered-Battery Recharger (TL8). This flexible, portable solar panel can be rolled up like a tarp and stuffed in a backpack. In good sunlight, it can power a hand-held device or recharge a handful of batteries in a few hours. $100, 2 lbs. LC4.

Even the most efficient engine is useless without fuel. Fuel is a vital part of TL5-8 civilian and military logistics. Finding a fuel source – or defending one – can be an adventure all on its own!

Wood as fuel is customarily measured by the cord: a pile of wood weighing 1-2 tons. Wood has the advantage of being a sustainable fuel; an acre of average forest produces about a cord per year. A household in even the coldest of climes needs no more than 20 cords a year. Homes in more temperate areas may use as little as 3-6 cords a winter. A cord of wood costs $50-$200, depending on the type of wood and whether it’s seasoned (drying since the previous cutting season) or green (newly chopped). Since a full day’s work with a good axe can produce a cord of firewood – felled, cut, split, and stacked – a cord of wood is the price of a day’s pay for an unskilled laborer in most settings. At higher TLs, a chainsaw and hydraulic splitter can work 10 times as fast!

Wood (TL0). Per cord. $50-$200, 1-2 tons.

Ethanol is an alcohol distilled from various food crops. It’s an advantageous choice for frontiersmen, survivalists, and other independent types – a farmer can raise something to eat and use some of it to distill fuel for his tractor. Ethanol is also a disinfectant, a painkiller, and a cleaning agent. Perhaps best of all, it has its traditional recreational use . . . George Washington’s Mount Vernon distillery produced over 11,000 gallons of rye whiskey a year until it burned down in 1814.

Alcohol must be of at least 80% purity to burn as fuel. Of recreational alcohols, only a few hard liquors are useful as fuel: certain whiskey and rum, and pure grain alcohol (sometimes called “white lightning” or “moonshine”). Wine and beer, at less than 15% alcohol, won’t burn. Fuel isn’t always suitable for consumption, either; notably, commercial “denatured alcohol” is ethanol with chemicals added to make it poisonous so that people won’t drink it!

The efficiency of alcohol production depends on the crop. A bushel of wheat (60 lbs.) or corn (56 lbs.) produces about 2.5 gallons of alcohol; a bushel of potatoes (60 lbs.), only 0.5 gallon.

Alcohol (TL5). Per gallon. $1.30, 6.8 lbs. LC4.

An alcohol still that can fit in a garage or the bed of a pickup truck takes about 30 man-hours to build. Major requirements are a suitable container for the mash (such as a 50-gallon drum) and the various pipes and fittings. Construction requires a successful roll against Chemistry, Machinist, or Professional Skill (Distiller). Cost is $200 – but a successful Scrounging roll could drop this to $20 or less. The completed still weighs less than 50 lbs. empty, around 500 lbs. full of mash. Legality Class varies, depending on the local view of alcohol consumption.

Corn is probably the survivalist’s best choice for alcohol production. A bushel of unshelled corn (70 lbs.) produces a bushel of corn kernels (56 lbs.) and 14 lbs. of cobs. The dried cobs can be burned to provide the heat needed to turn the corn mash into alcohol – or they can be fed to livestock. The mash left over from the distillation process (18 lbs.) is a highquality feed for livestock, and even fit (but unpalatable) for human consumption. A still like the one above can produce 3 gallons of alcohol fuel in three days from a bushel of corn. A whole acre of corn will yield over 200 gallons!

Crude oil – or petroleum – is what becomes of dead organisms after millions of years under tremendous heat and pressure. Often portrayed in fiction as a thick, black liquid, petroleum can actually be thin and clear, and may have a red or green tint. To locate oil, use the Prospecting skill. A party of prospectors can find plenty of adventure at any TL. At TL5, locating oil mostly involves looking for a “seep” – or surface oil – and then digging a well. (Early well-diggers in Pennsylvania during the first “oil rush” charged by the foot and contracted with several companies.) Small-time diggers, called “wildcatters,” strike out looking for oil on their own, and sometimes find it. The search for oil is likely to take adventurers to remote or uncivilized areas.

Things are no less complicated for modern geologists and oil developers. In the Middle East, Asia, and South America, they face violence and intrigue; indeed, oil companies routinely hire ex-special forces soldiers for security and hostage rescue. With corporate jets, helicopters, large ships, and offshore drilling rigs in far-flung places, an oil company would be an excellent Patron in a modern-day globetrotting campaign.

An adventure could start with finding oil, too. A well that strikes oil sometimes catches fire, and “hellfighters” might be brought in to put it out – most often using explosives. In the 1991 Gulf War, hellfighters from all over the world, including Texas and Russia, battled Kuwaiti oil-well fires in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s “Mother of All Battles.” The initial prediction was that snuffing all 600 fires would take three years. The hellfighters finished the job in nine months . . . while dodging roaming Iraqi soldiers, unexploded mines and bombs, and sandstorms.

Once you have crude, you need to refine it. The chief constituents of petroleum are hydrocarbons – a class of compounds composed only of hydrogen and carbon. Various petroleum products are characterized by the length of their hydrocarbon chains. Since their boiling point increases with the size of the molecule, they can be separated by boiling. This process is called straight-run refining or fractional distillation. In fractional distillation, crude is heated with steam to over 1,100°F and fed into a tower that traps the various products at different levels as they boil and rise. Near the bottom of the tower is diesel oil. Above that – and moving up the tower – are diesel fuel, kerosene, gasoline, and naphtha. At the top, gases such as methane and butane are captured. These products are frequently reformed, cracked, coked, or otherwise altered in separate processes elsewhere in the refinery. At late TL6, catalysts can convert one type of product into another (typically to produce gasoline). At TL7+, increasingly sophisticated chemical additives are introduced to improve engine performance and reduce emissions. Petroleum and its products are customarily measured in 42-gallon barrels. A TL5 refinery produces 50-80 barrels of kerosene a day. A TL8 refinery produces 100,000 barrels or more a day, about half of that as gasoline. Crude is stored in above- or below-ground tanks of several thousand gallons – or in underground salt domes created by pumping water in to dissolve the salt, and then pumping it out while pumping in millions of barrels of oil (a barrel of crude weighs 303 lbs.). In a post-apocalyptic setting, such an oil-storage site would be a tremendous find!

Diesel Fuel (TL6). Per gallon. $1.25, 6 lbs. LC4. Gasoline (TL6). Per gallon. $1.50, 6 lbs. LC4. Kerosene (TL6). Per gallon. $1.50, 6.5 lbs. LC4.

Early oil refineries produced kerosene simply by boiling crude oil in a large iron box and tapping the exhaust stack at the appropriate height to draw off the kerosene. A dirty-tech refinery like this could fit in the back of a pickup truck and would produce 30-50 gallons of kerosene a day. Versions the size of a small house could (and did) produce hundreds of gallons of usable fuel a day.

Since kerosene boils at 700°F, the crude itself can be burned to provide the necessary heat. Efficiency is well under 10% – that is, 100 gallons of crude might produce 10 gallons of kerosene.

There may also be other problems. The raw petroleum, heavy smoke, and noxious vapors in the vicinity of the stack count as a toxic atmosphere (see Hazardous Atmospheres, p. B429). In certain settings, the giant black plume coming from such a ramshackle refinery might attract the wrong kind of attention!

Kerosene produced in a dirty-tech refinery will burn in a modern internal combustion engine. The absence of modern additives reduces efficiency and engine life, however. Assume that fuel consumption is 30% higher and maintenance requirements are at least three times normal.