Fossil Fuels

sun, core of the earth, chemicals, gravitational pull of moon and sun

sources of energy

sun

Where do fossil fuels come from?

geothermal energy

energy created from the core of the earth

wind

___________ is generated from uneven heating of the earth

nuclear power

energy created from chemical energy

tidal wave and energy

energy created from the gravitational pull of the moon and sun

lower day-to-day pollution and low climate change potential

pros of hydropower

found in a limited number of places and cannot be moved

cons of hydropower

lowest pollution level

pros of natural gas

high climate change potential

cons of natural gas

can be used to generate electricity for heating and in industry

pros of coal

highest climate change potential and difficult to burn cleanly

cons of coal

highly portable and versatile

pros of oil

refining can be dirty and high climate change potential

cons of oil

renewable and has low pollution and climate change potential

pros of wind

some places are not windy

cons of wind

low pollution and climate change

pros of geothermal energy

not available everywhere in the world and cannot be moved

cons of geothermal energy

oil and natural gas

__________ and _________ are the more significantly consumed in the US

coal

________ is primarily used for electricity generation

oil

______ is primarily used for transportation

chemical energy

________ is converted to different forms of energy and during these conversion processes, there is a lot lost in terms of heat

North America

continent that uses a very large amount of energy

fossil fuels

largest source of energy since the industrial revolution

energy, transportable

fossil fuels have a high ______ content and are _________

transportation, electricity generation, manufacturing

What are fossil fuels used for?

natural gas

___________ became a more relevant source of energy as time went on

energy

harvesting energy sources requires significant ________ input

energy returned on investment (EROI)

energy returned/energy invested

organic, anaerobic

fossil fuels form by the breakdown of _________ material in _________ conditions

chemical, time, pressure, temperature, decomposers

conversion of fossil fuels depends on ________ composition of organisms, duration of _________, ________, ________, and presence of anaerobic _________

anthracite coal

most pure form of coal

bituminous coal

type of coal that is a little less clean burning than anthracite coal

lignite

least pure form of coal

peat

first stage of the decomposition process of coal

organic material

first step of the formation of oil and natural gas is __________ is buried in sediments on the ocean floor

kerogen

second step of the formation of oil and natural gas is that increasing pressure and temperature convert organic matter to ___________

oil and gas

final step of the formation of oil and natural gas is that further pressure and heat convert kerogen to _________ and ________

oil sands

crude oil deposits that were uplifted, then chemically altered by water erosion and bacterial decomposition

bitumen

oil sands are sand and clay that contains 1-20% __________

processing

there is an enormous amount of ________ that goes into getting product from oil sands

strip mining, subsurface mining, mountaintop removal

three methods of extracting coal

ocean

a lot of drilling occurs in the __________

crude oil

what you immediately bring up before it gets processed

secondary extraction

when they force liquids down to generate more pressure to get remaining oil out

refined

crude oil needs to be further __________

plastics

oil is the starting point of all __________

terrestrial

we tapped out many _________ sources of oil so now we have to go offshore drilling

hot water

to extract oil from oil sands, they mine underground and insert pipes where the oil sands are and inject _________ and other solvents to release the bitumen and pump it back to the surface to be processed

strip mining

in a lot of cases, the bitumen is close to the surface, so they do ________ to get to it and put it through a crushing machine and add hot water

pipelines

__________ have been built to move oil from Alberta to the US

damaged

pipelines are controversial because if the pipes get ________, crude oil gets all of the place and that is a hazard

lagoons

all of the water mixed with bitumen is nasty and they store it in large ________

polymers

they use ________ in bitumen lagoons to dry out the lagoon and allow the water to evaporate

groundwater

when they extract natural gas, they drill below the ________ level

CO2

natural gas produces less in terms of __________

coal

_______ is getting more and more expensive and is limited with its applicability

natural gas

many electric operators have switched from coal to other sources such as __________

oil

______ will be here for a while because of all its uses

energy

we lose a lot of _________ converting coal to electricity

turbine

steam in _________ causes it to spin, creating mechanical energy

generator

_______ converts mechanical energy into electrical energy

condensor

to reuse the water from the steam, they send it through the ______ and bring cool water in and the steam becomes liquid water to go back through the boiler to loop through the process again

ash

________ needs to be collected and disposed of in a special landfill where they dispose of materials that may be toxic

NO2 or NO3

coal combustion generated _______ or ________

mercury

coal contains _____ and when you combust the coal, this is liberated as a product

water contamination, wastewater

___________ and production of ________ is an impact of fossil fuel extraction and use

organisms

oil spills affect both terrestrial and aquatic __________

valley filling

putting stuff from mountaintop removal into neighboring valleys

seismic

drilling down into the ground leads to ________ instability

50%

US imports about ______ of its oil

middle east

the US relies on oil from the ___________

insulated

________ homes helps save energy

driving

even with more _______ going on, we are more efficient than we used to be due to increased technology

electricity

________ use has declined due to having more efficient technology

carbon capture

you have a power plant that is giving off large quantities of CO2. Rather than releasing CO2 into the atmosphere they were capture it, liquify it, and inject it down into the ground. Can inject into aquifers. Not met with a ton of success. Hard to make it work and takes a lot of energy to liquify the CO2.