Lecture 17 | Fossil Fuels

Key Terms & Concepts

Peak Oil

when 1/2 of earth’s accessible oil has been exploited and price increases dramatically

After ____ production peaks, ____ continues to rise

oil, demand

Explain why the price of oil increases after Peak Oil and why demand continues to rise:

gap between supply and demand, overpopulation increases demand

Why did the price of gas increase to nearly $5/gal in 2008?

industrializing china & india

To handle the rising demand for oil in 2008, OPEC increased oil supply, but not by much. Why didn’t they increase production more?

finite oil, didn’t want to reduce exporting for economy

Why is it believed we’re close to hitting Peak Oil?

production at 30 bil barrels/year for long time

What is the smartest response to our approaching of Peak Oil?

find oil alternatives

When living things grow, they add _____, which is the _____ __ ______ ______

biomass, mass of some organism

A tree is able to grow from an acorn to a massive tree. Where does that biomass come from?

co2, water

Describe Photosynthesis

plants combine solar energy, co2, and h2o to form carbs

How do glucose molecules store energy?

chemical bonds

What are two ways we can break chemical bonds (that causes them to reform) so we can get the energy the plant stores?

eating plant, burning wood

The more ____ ____ we break, the more _____ we get

chemical bonds, energy

What are the two options for plant/animal biomass when they die?

decomposed or buried under sediment

Biomass gets _____ when buried and ____ ____ is conserved

compressed, chemical energy

_____ packs a lot of chemical bonds in a small package

compression

The ____ of biomass doesn’t change, only the _____ it occupies

amount, space

How old is the biomass that makes up the fossil fuels we use today?

500 mil

Most biomass comes from…

plants

What does the amount of compression for biomass depend on?

how deep it was buried

Describe the shallowest burying of biomass:

peat, moist, squishy

Describe the second most shallow burying of biomass:

lignite, brown coal, not dense, hard but light

Describe the second deepest burying of biomass:

bituminous coal, heavy, dense, burns well

Describe the deepest burying of biomass:

anthracite, gives most energy, most dense, most chemical bonds

What is the most common coal type?

bituminous

Peat Formation

low temp, low pressure

Anthracite/Coal Formation

low temp, high pressure

Natural Gas Formation

high temp, low pressure

Oil Formation

high temp, high pressure

Describe where low and high temperatures indicate for fossil fuel formation

low = continents, high = ocean near mantle

Under what natural structure will you find anthracite coal under? Why?

mountains, high pressure

Why do oil and natural gas try to find a way to the surface?

under pressure

Anticline

oil/gas trapped in soft, porous rock

Transform Fault

plates slide dense rock over oil/gas, traps it

What is the similarity between an anticline and transform fault?

oil & gas trapped

Primary Production

sinking a well into oil/gas formation, pumping out

Enhanced Recovery

injecting co2/n2 to build pressure and pump oil out

How much of an oil/gas deposit does primary production recover? Enhanced recovery? Why is enhanced recovery not used as much?

25%, 60%, costly

Where are the formations that contain oil?

60% in middle east

Which countries use the most oil?

europe, north america

Why was natural gas considered a byproduct of oil production?

not as much energy from burning

______ results in longer carbon chain molecules and more ______

higher compression, energy

List these natural gases in order of least to most energy: octane, methane, propane

methane, propane, octane

Why is natural gas considered cleaner despite still producing CO2?

fewer byproducts

Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)

high pressure water to widen fractures, gas extraction

What is the danger of hydraulic fracking?

bursting new fractures, gas contaminates groundwater

Methane Clathrates (Hydrates)

gel-like methane ice, found on continental shelves

How do methane clathrates form? What two properties must be very specific?

ice freezes into hexagon, cage for methane, temp & pressure

What has more potential energy than all other oil & gas reserves?

methane clathrates

Why are methane clathrates so hard to extract?

very unstable, remove conditions and falls apart, chain reaction & methane bubble

What is the most commonly used fossil fuel?

coal

Why is coal considered the dirtiest fossil fuel?

sulfur and nitrogen oxides, mercury, particulate matter

What do sulfur and nitrogen oxides cause, which is a direct impact of coal burning?

acid rain

Where are the coal deposits in the US?

pa anthracite, lignite and bituminous

What are three ways we can make coal more environmentally friendly, in treating pollution?

bag houses remove particulate matter, catalytic reduction to convert no to n2 o2, flue gas desulfurization and traps mercury

What reduces particulate matter in coal production?

bag houses, high capacity filters

What reduces nitrogen oxides from coal production?

catalytic reduction

What reduces both sulfur oxides and mercury emissions?

limestone to gypsum conversion