Final answer:
The largest direct waste of petroleum occurs during the refining process, where distillation, cracking, and reforming lead to losses as petroleum is transformed into products like gasoline.
option c is the correct
Step-by-step explanation:
When assessing the production of petroleum as an energy source, the largest direct waste of petroleum occurs during the refining process. Refining, which includes distillation, cracking, and reforming, involves heating crude oil to separate its components based on their boiling points, leading to the loss of some petroleum products.
This is because during the transformation of petroleum to products such as gasoline, some materials do not evaporate and collect at the bottom, while others boil off and are lost during processing.
Transportation, burning, and drilling for petroleum also contribute to waste, but the refining process specifically results in the direct loss of petroleum through various stages, where each stage has the potential to lose a fraction of the product. For example, a 42 U.S. gallon barrel of crude oil can yield about 45 gallons of petroleum products due to processing gains; however, even this increase comes with associated losses during the refining stages.