Chapter 17-1 Nonrenewable Energy

VS - Environmental Science

Where does most of the energy we use come from?

A group of natural resources called fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels

the remains of ancient organisms that changed into coal, oil, or natural gas.

What are 2 main problems with fossil fuels?

Supply is limited and obtaining and using them has environmental consequences.

Fossils are used for 4 main purposes:

Transportation, manufacturing, heating/cooling buildings, generating electricity to run machines and appliances. Airplanes use fuel, campfires use wood, coal would not work for planes and jet fuel couldn't heat.

How is energy in fuels used?

Electricity is power on demand. Energy in fuels is converted is converted into electrical energy in order to power machines bc electricity is more convenient to use. (Ex: computers use electricity rather than oil). Electricity comes power plants.

Electricity

Generated by electric generators which are machines that convert mechanical energy, or motion, or into electrical energy.

Turbine

A wheel that changes the force of a moving gas or liquid into energy that can do work. In most power plants, water is boiled to produce steam that turns the turbine.

How is water heated?

Water is heated by burning a fuel in coal-fired and gas-fired plants or is heated from fission of uranium in nuclear plants.

What do turbines spin to produce electricity?

A generator

Generators

Coal --> combustion chamber --> steam turbine --> generator (electric current)

Figure 3: How a plant works

Canada and Switzerland reduced energy use over 9 years. The price of nearly every product is affected by the cost of energy. (Cost of plane ticket is partially the cost of fuel.)

How energy is used in the US.

-The U.S uses more energy in the world except Canada and United Arab Emirates. Trucks and personal vehicles - transporting goods - a lot of energy use. When cost of gasoline is low, there's little reason to conserve. Japan and Switzerland have minimal fossil fuels so they use more hydroelectric and nuclear power.

Coal formation

Coal forms from remains of plants that lived in swamps hundreds of millions years ago. Coal deposits are also found in Western States like Wyoming that formed between 100 and 40 million years ago.

Oil and Natural Gas result from what?

The decay of tiny marine organisms that accumulated on the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago. Remains got covered by sediments and they were heated until they became complex energy-rich carbon molecules. Oil and natural gas in the U.S are located in Alaska, Texas, California, and the Gulf of Mexico.

What continents are rich in coal deposits?

Asia and North America

What are 2 major advantages of coal?

Relatively inexpensive, needs little refining after being mined.

Environmental effects of coal mining vary. Here are a few examples:

Surface coal mining can remove the top of a mountain and toxic chemicals can get into streams/water.

Does the quality of coal vary?

Yes, bituminous coal produces more heat and less pollution. High-sulfur, low-grade coal that is burned releases much more pollution. Air pollution and acid precipitation are the result. China has heavy air pollution. The U.S has improved!

Petroleum or crude oil

Oil pumped from the ground. Crude oil is used to make products. Examples: petroleum products can be chemicals, plastics, fuels. Petroleum accounts for 45% of the world's commercial energy. Oil is found in and around major geological features that trap it as it moves in Earth's crust.

Where do most of the World's oil reserves come from?

Most of the. Middle East, others come from the U.S, Venezuela, North Sea, Siberia, and Nigeria. Geologists locate rocks likely to have oil and wells are drilled and oil is pumped or flows to the surface.

Where is oil drilled and transported to be converted into fuels and other petroleum products?

A refinery

What is an untapped resource that the Gulf of Mexico has that could be the future fuel?

Methane hydrate

What is methane hydrate?

Its a cage-like lattice of ice that contains trapped molecules of methane.

What is methane?

A natural gas made of carbon and hydrogen.

How is natural gas used?

It is increasing in demand for use in new electric power stations. It is also used to fuel low pollution vehicles.

Environmental effects of using oil

When petroleum fuels are burned, they release pollutants. Internal combustion engines in vehicles that burn gasoline pollute the air in many cities. Problems include smog, health problems, possibly global warming, oil spills (oceans), leaking cars.

Natural gas statistics

About 20% of the world's non-renewable energy comes from natural gas. Natural gas or methane (CH4) is a good example of how advances in technology can make a fuel more common. Now many more oil wells recover natural gas. Natural gas is cleaner than other fossil fuels. Electric power plants can use clean-burning fuel.

Fossil fuels statistics

Fossil fuels supply about 90% of the energy used in developed countries. By 2050 world demand may double.

Is oil production still increasing?

Yes

Oil reserves

Oil deposits that can be extracted profitability at current prices using current technology.

All predictions of future oil production are guided by an important principle:

The relative cost of obtaining fuels influences the amount of fossil fuels we extract from the Earth. (As demand of oil decreases we will rely less on oil reserves. Oil from deep-sea drilling rigs in the ocean are much more costly. If oil drilling doesn't improve and advance it will become too expensive.