Ton of oil equivalent

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The ton of oil equivalent (toe) is a unit of energy: the amount of energy released by burning one metric ton of crude oil, approximately 10 Gcal_th or 42 GJ (as different crude oils have different calorific values, the exact value of the toe is defined by convention; unfortunately there are several slightly different definitions as discussed below).

The toe is commonly used for large amounts of energy, as it is more intuitive to visualise, say, the energy released by burning 1000 number of tonnes of oil than 42,000 billion joules (the SI unit of energy).

A barrel of oil equivalent (boe), also a unit of energy, contains approximately 0.146 toe (i.e. there are approximately 6.841 boe in a toe).

Multiples of the toe are used, in particular the megatoe (Mtoe, one million toe) and the gigatoe (Gtoe, one billion toe).

The IEA/OECD define one toe to be 10 Gcal_th, equal to 41.868 GJ ^[1] or 11.625 MWh.

Some organisations use other conversion factors, for example:

• One toe = 42 GJ
• one toe = 41.85 GJ^[2]
• One toe = 7.11, 7.33, or 7.4 boe
• One ton petroleum equivalent (TPE), a parameter used in renewable energy, 10,800,000,000 cal_IT (45.217 gigajoules).

[edit] References

1. ^ American Physical Society
2. ^ Definition at 41.85 GJ

[edit] See also

• Conversion of units
• Energies per unit mass

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