APES Non Renewable Energy Vocab

Fossil Fuels

A category of fuels that are formed by geological processes acting on dead organisms, often hundreds of millions of years old.

Nonrenewable Energy Source

Considered a type of energy source that cannot be reproduced at the rate of which we are consuming them.

Conventional Fossil Fuels

Easily accessible through standard drilling techniques.

Unconventional Fossil Fuels

More expensive and requires more advanced technology for extraction.

Oil & Natural Gas

Composed of hydrocarbons and is a type of fossil fuel.

Natural Gas

Has less CO2 emissions and is found in pipelines.

Hydrocarbons

Molecules composed of hydrogen and carbon and are one of the reactants in a combustion reaction.

Kerogen

Organic component of oil shales composed of waxy hydrocarbons.

Shale Gas

One type of natural gas found in shale formations.

Tight Gas

One type of natural gas found in less permeable rock like sandstone or limestone.

Coal

Formed when partially decayed plant material decomposes for thousands of years to form peat.

Lignite

A low quality coal formed from peat that begins to lose water and other impurities from immense pressure.

Bitumen

Formed from lignite as pressure continues to remove impurities.

Anthracite

The final form of coal, produced after bitumen.

Energy Density

Amount of energy stored within a given system, substance, or given space.

Power Density

The rate at which stored energy can be put out.

Net Energy

Amount of high quality usable energy available from a resource after subtracting the energy needed to make it available.

Automatic Waste

Entropy increases in a system, inevitably over time, as per the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

Unnecessary Waste

Waste generated from finding, processing, concentrating, and transporting resources.

Commercial Waste

Waste from coal, oil, and natural gas that is bought and sold.

Subsistence Waste

Waste such as wood, charcoal, and animal waste gathered by individuals for personal use.

Net Energy Ratio

A ratio of the relationship between outside energy required to release usable energy and the energy itself.

Energy Return on Investment (EROI)

Uses net energy ratio to determine how much energy we receive by putting energy into a system.

Crude Oil/Petroleum

Thick, hydrocarbon containing liquid extracted from underground deposits, separable into heating oil, gasoline, plastics, and asphalt.

Peak Oil

A prediction of when we will hit the peak of oil production due to it being a finite resource, represented by a bell curve.

OPEC

The 12 countries part of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that hold 78% of the proven oil reserves on Earth.

Coalbed Methane

Unconventional extraction of methane from coal mines, which can be an explosive hazard.

Tight Sands

Gas-bearing fine grained sandstones/carbonates with low permeability that requires hydraulic fracturing for release.

Methane Hydrates

Potential methane extraction from frozen ice crystals and frozen organic matter in oceanic sediments.

Oil Shale

Requires enormous amounts of hot water to release the kerogen trapped within in petroleum form.

Tar Sands

Rocky materials mixed with thick oils.

Hydraulic Fracturing

Uses pressure to open fissures in rock to extract unconventional energy sources.

Flowback

Water containing contaminants like radioactive materials, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and toxins.

Fracking Fluids

Liquid used in hydraulic fracking which is made of secret ingredients kept private by the companies that produce it and use it.

PADD

Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts or PADD are 5 American districts designed for monitoring fuel supplies and distribution capacity across the country.

Gasification

Thermal process that converts carbon-based materials into energy WITHOUT burning them.

Cogeneration

Simultaneous production of two or more forms of energy from a single fuel source.

ANWR

Arctic National Wildlife reserve containing a biodiverse environment of plants and animals but also a large amount of non renewable resources that are controversial in whether or not they should be extracted and how they should be extracted.

Nuclear Energy

Energy stored in nuclear bonds within the nucleus of an atom.

Uranium

Radioactive metal in the actinide series used as a reactant in nuclear fission reactors.

Half-life

Time it takes for half of a sample of atoms of an element to decay and become something else.

Nuclear Fission

An element losing neutrons and forming a different isotope of the same element.

U-238

An Isotope of Uranium that is most natural but does not undergo fission.

Plutonium 239

Result of Uranium 238 decaying.

U-235

An isotope of Uranium that easily undergoes the process of Nuclear Fission.

Isotopes

A different version of the same chemical element that contains the SAME number of protons but a DIFFERENT amount of Neutrons.

Light Water Reactors (LWR's)

Produce most of the world's nuclear generated electricity, containing long thin fuel rods of Uranium dioxide.

Nuclear Chain Reaction

A process where fission is sustained as an element that undergoes fission releases products that spark another fission reaction.

Fuel Rods

Source of Uranium used in fission reaction that is encased in a moderator that may use graphite.

Fuel Pellets

A unit of a fuel rod that contains the uranium.

Fuel Assembly

Bundles of hundreds of fuel rods.

Nuclear Reactor & Core

Chamber housing the fuel assembly, pumps, coolant, and condensers in which the fission reaction takes place.

Containment Vessel

Houses a nuclear reactor vessel.

Spent Fuel Rods

Fuel Rods that have depleted the useful uranium storage which are stored underwater for a while before being placed in concrete or steel containers.

Decommission

Reactors can't be shut down but are decommissioned after 15/60 years.

Conventional Nuclear Fuel Cycle

1) Harvest Uranium, 2) Process the Uranium into usable fuel, 3) Use in reactor, 4) Store spent fuel rods underwater, 5) Decommissioned reactor after 15-60 years.

High-Level Waste (HLW)

Large amounts of radioactive waste are left over from nuclear fission reactions that must be stored safely, further increasing costs and decreasing net energy yield.

Nuclear Fusion

The process in which new elements are produced which require immense amounts of heat and pressure only thought to be in stars and unimaginably immense celestial figures.