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Fossil fuels

• Burn → Heat boils H2O → Steam → Turns turbines → Electricity

• Highly combustible

• Formed from the anaerobic decomposition of organic tissue

• Coal, oil, natural gas

• Developed countries

  • Used in transportation and industry

• Underdeveloped countries

  • Cooking

  • Heating

• Type of FF formed depends on:

  • Starting material

  • Temperature and pressure

  • Anaerobic decomposition

  • Time amount

Coal

• Most abundant fossil fuel

• Woody plant material

• Few decomposers present

• 50% of US electricity

• Dirtiest fossil fuel

• Coal combustion converts water to steam, which turns turbines to create electricity

Subsurface mining (coal)

• Dig deep tunnels

• Less surface disruption

• Acid mine drainage

• Hazardous for miners to go down these tunnels

• You get the high energy coal and don’t alter the surface too much

Shafts are dug deep into the ground, and networks of tunnels are dug or blasted out to find coal

Strip mining (coal)

• Near surface

• Removes soil

• Damages vegetation

• Soil erosion

• Habitat loss

• Air, water, noise pollution

Heavy machinery removes huge amounts of earth to expose and extract the coal. Could cause acid drainage, which is when sulfide minerals in newly exposed rocks surfaces and react to oxygen, causing acid to form and it can run-off into shit

Pollutants of coal

• Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) – leads to acid rain

• Mercury – bioaccumulates in the food chain

• CH4 (methane)

• CO/CO2 (carbon) – contributes to climate change

• Nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) – cause smog and respiratory issues

• Particulate matter

Basically every pollutant, coal is the most abundant and has literally all of the pollutants releasin

Types of coal

• Types

  • Peat

    • Precursor of coal

    • Wet, near surface

    • Not well compressed

• Order from least to most compressed

  • Lignite

  • Sub bituminous

  • Bituminous

  • Anthracite

    • Most expensive and powerful coal

Natural gas

it is currently the fastest growing fossil fuel while being the cleanest out of the big three. Only pollutants are methane, carbon monoxide and dioxide, and NOx

1. Methane (CH4)

2. CO/CO2

3. NOx

Natural gas formations

• 1. Biogenic gas

  • Formed at shallow depths

  • Made from the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter

  • Ex: anaerobic respiration in landfills

• 2. Thermogenic gas

  • Formed from higher compression and temperatures

  • Ex: Marine organisms somehow become thermogenic gas idk how

Natural gas extraction

• Extraction

  • 1. Drilling

  • 2. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking)

    • Using salt water since its denser, it is pumped at high pressure to crack rocks

• Extraction process

  • Habitat loss

  • Fracking pumps salt water into the ground which can contaminate groundwater

  • Fracking cracks deep rocks underground, which can lead to Earthquakes

Oil (Crude oil/petroleum)

• Most used fuel since 1960s

• Amounts for about 37% of global energy

• Used to make gasoline, plastics, cosmetics, and fabrics

• Formed from marine organisms

• Most used fossil fuel

Primary extraction (Crude oil/petroleum)

• The first stage of oil recovery, where natural pressure in the reservoir forces the oil to the surface.

• If natural pressure isn’t enough, simple mechanical methods like pumps are used.

Secondary extraction (Crude oil/petroleum)

• Used when primary extraction is no longer effective.

• Involves injecting water or gas (CO₂, natural gas, or steam) into the reservoir to push more oil toward production wells.

Crude Oil / Petroleum harms

• Pollutants released

  • CO/CO2 – contributes to climate change

  • CH4

  • Nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) – cause smog and respiratory issues

  • Particulate matter

  • The only thing it is missing is Sulfur I think

  • (a little bit cleaner than coal, still shit tho)

• Extraction process

  • Habitat loss

  • Erosion 

  • Oil spills

  • Water contamination

Crude oil/petroleum Refining

• 1. Distillation

  • Boiling oil to separate by heavy or light oils

  • Separated by length

  • Heavy is used for plastics and fabrics

• 2. Remove contaminants

  • Scrubbers

Cogeneration

captures waste heat from power plants to provide additional energy, improving efficiency

Energy Conservation

• Reduce energy consumption, conserve what we have

• Insulation, the greater the insulation the more energy you can keep in

• Using less energy to perform the same tasks

• Renewable energy, up and coming 

• Cogeneration

  • Capture and use excess heat from electricity generation

Nuclear Power (Alternative energy)

The energy that holds together protons and neutrons within the nucleus of an atom, harnessing this energy by converting it into thermal energy which can be used to generate electricity

Nuclear fission

Reaction that drives the release of nuclear energy, the splitting apart of the nucleus. Mine Uranium 235, create fuel rods with the uranium which goes into the nuclear reactors, neutrons collide with nucleus which splits (fission), the heat boils water which becomes steam, the steam turns turbines which generate electricity.

Pros and Cons of nuclear energy

• Benefits

  • No air pollution

  • Uranium yields more energy than coal, so it doesn’t need to be mined as much so habitat benefits as well

• Harms

  • Expensive

  • Uranium is finite

  • Thermal pollution

  • Radioactive waste

  • Accidents

Biomass energy

Consists of the organic material that makes up living organisms. People harness this by using plant matter like wood, charcoal from burned wood, and other combustible animal waste products. Fossil fuels aren’t considered biomass energy since their source has been dead for way to long to be compared to biomass energy.

Biomass energy (biofuels)

• Biofuels (ethanol)

  • The alcohol in beer, wine, and liquor

  • Created from fermenting biomass

  • Made for gasoline engines

  • Ethanol from corn

• Biofuels (biodiesel)

  • Created from vegetable oil

  • Is used to fuel diesel engines

Biomass, wood which is the primary shit

• Wood

  • Heating, cooking, lighting in less developed countries

  • Releases pollutants

    • CO/CO2

    • CH4

    • PM

    • Sulfur

    • NOx

Biomass energy pros and cons

• Benefits

  • There is basically no net carbon, since the carbon released from burning the biomass is basically the same carbon released from the photosynthesis to create the biomass in the first place

  • Plants use photosynthesis to store solar energy, later used to create biofuels

• Harms

  • Deforestation, which can lead to soil erosion, and desertification

  • Low energy yield

  • We cannot mass produce biomass

Hydroelectric Power

Another renewable energy from the motion of water than from any other resource. Through the use of kinetic energy of moving water to turn turbines and generate electricity. It can still be bad since it destroys river habitats from damming, traps nutrient sediments behind dams, and causes thermal pollution from shallowing out rivers and bodies of water.

Solar Energy (passive)

• Description

  • Building design and material maximize absorption of sunlight

  • WIndows face sun, using the sun’s heat to heat the room

  • Overhangs = Shade, using the shade from the sun

  • Heat-absorbing materials so when the sun shines it can take some heat

  • Can plant vegetation around the buildings

• Benefits

  • If you plan ahead, it is super easy and inexpensive

• Drawbacks

  • Have to be planned ahead

  • Not retroactively done

Solar Energy (Active)

• Description

  • 1. Sunlight heats liquid within solar panels

    • Steam → Turbine → Electricity

  • 2. Photovoltaic (PV) cells

    • Sunlight strikes silicon plate

    • Electron flow → Electricity

    • Photovoltaic/photoelectric effect

• Benefits

  • Helps neighborhood

  • Financial incentives

  • Allow for local decentralized control over power

• Harms

  • Unreliable

  • Releases toxic metals when we are building them

    • Lead, cadmium

Wind energy

From the sun’s differential heating of air masses, wind blows onto the wind turbines which then uses the kinetic energy to be converted into electricity by the nacelle inside the machine.

Wind energy pros and cons

• Benefits

  • Renewable

  • Less land use

• Harms

  • Unreliable since we can’t control the wind

  • Threat to birds and bats

  • Noise pollution, so people don’t like it near their homes so we have to work hard asf to find new places to these fucking huge fans/turbines

Geothermal energy

A form of renewable energy that does not originate from the sun, instead it is generated deep within Earth’s heat, rising to the surface in the form of magma. Basically from the heat from the Earth’s insides. Geothermal energy plants drill holes into areas of high magma heat, and use the direct heat and steam from the Earth to turn turbines for electricity.

Geothermal energy pros and cons

• Benefits

  • There is minimal stuff

  • Pretty clean honestly

• Drawbacks

  • Not accessible everywhere

  • Releases H2S (hydrogen sulfide)

  • Habitat loss from the drilling

  • Noise pollution from drilling

Hydrogen energy

• Description

  • Getting the hydrogen gas is the hard part

  • Electricity → H2 → Electricity

• Drawbacks

  • Require energy

  • Could release CO₂ if using methane method 

  • Really expensive

Sources of hydrogen energy (not that hydroelectric power)

• Sources

  • 1. Electrolysis

    • 2H2O → 2H2 + O2

    • Using fossil fuel to split the water molecule

    • Can just use electricity, which is cleaner

    • I think this is the main method

  • 2. Methane

    • CH4 + 2H2O → 4H2 + CO₂

Hydrogen energy fuel cell

• Fuel cell

  • H₂ used as fuel to generate electricity

  • 2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O

  • We put in hydrogen gas and oxygen at the end, and the oxygen connects at the end

  • ONly creates water

  • THe hard part is getting the hydrogen gas in the first place, H₂

  • _{This is where the energy is made, when the H2 is combined with the O2, it creates energy}