Exam Study Notes

Chemical Energy (Coal)

• Coal is burned to produce heat (thermal energy).
• Thermal energy boils water to create steam.
• Steam turns a turbine (mechanical energy).
• Turbine generates electricity.

Negatives of Coal

• Releases $CO_2$ (a greenhouse gas).
• Releases sulfuric acid, causing acid rain.
• Power plants burning bituminous coal cause acid rain.
• Acid rain dissolves metal from the soil, harming plants.
• Clean Air Act (CAA) targets $SO_2$ to resolve acid rain issue.
• CAA worked, and acid rain is no longer a major problem.

Coal Scrubbing

• Eliminates $SO_2$.
• Uses limestone to pull out sulfur.
• Artificial gypsum (sulfur mineral) is produced.
• Clean air ($CO_2$) is released.

Coal Washing

• Used to get rid of heavy metals.
• Coal is ground up to remove heavy metals.
• Produces slag.
  • Slag goes into dams.
  • Risk of dam collapse and slag spilling.
  • Risk of dam not being lined with clay, leading to heavy metals going into groundwater, affecting water quality.

Carbon Sequestration

• Putting $CO_2$ back into the ground.
• Not currently done because it's too expensive.

Coal Formation

• Comes from compressed organic material.

Natural Gas

• Formation: From ancient marine life.
• Advantages:
  • No mining required.
  • No sulfur content.
  • Cheap and abundant.
• Disadvantages:
  • Non-renewable resource.
  • Releases greenhouse gases.

Natural Gas Composition

• Methane, propane, ethane, and butane are the natural gases from oil.

Oil Extraction

• Conventional and unconventional pumping methods.
  • Unconventional pump goes deeper underground and bends.
    • Positive: No habitat destruction.
    • Negative: Habitat fragmentation.

Geopolitics of Natural Gas

• US, Russia, and Qatar are world leaders in natural gas production.

Hydraulic Fracking

• Unconventional wells use hydraulic fracking.
• Fracking allows the US to be a natural gas world leader.
• Natural gas emits half the carbon as coal.
• Abundant and cheap, like coal.
• No mercury.
• No sulfur.
• Infrastructure is already in place to transport oil.
• Still emits $CO_2$.

Hydrofracking Issues

• Polluted water comes out during hydrofracking.
• Overpumping of groundwater occurs.
• Water acquisition and chemical mixing, well injection, and produced water handling, wastewater disposal & reuse are all involved.

Hydrofracking Advantages

• Employment opportunities.
• Tax revenue from taxing gas.
• Cheap source of energy.
• Halo effect (boosted production).
• Reduced $CO_2$ emissions compared to coal (half).
• No sulfur or mercury.

Hydrofracking Disadvantages

• Polluted water (flowback).
• Overusing freshwater.
• Earthquakes/tremors from flowback being injected into the ground.
• Truck traffic and noise.
• Methane migration/fugitive emissions (methane is 25x more potent as a GHG than $CO_2$).
• Groundwater contamination when flowback leaks.
• Reduced property values.
• Delays renewables.

Nuclear Energy

• Chemical (coal, natural gas, nuclear) -> Thermal -> Mechanical -> Electricity
• Steps:
  • Energy goes into water.
  • Makes steam.
  • Turns turbine.
• Wind or hydro can also turn turbine.
• We don't have enough solar, hydro, & wind to solely rely on it.

Nuclear Fission

• Fission breaks atoms apart.
• Fusion fuses atoms together.

How Nuclear Power Works

• Break a 235U atom (unstable/radioactive) into two new and lighter atoms.
• To split an atom, fire neutrons at it.
• When a U atom splits, neutrons fall out and fire at other 235U atoms, causing a chain reaction.
• In a nuclear power plant, boron control rods in the steel pressure vessel slow down the reaction to avoid a nuclear weapon-like explosion.
• When a 235U atom splits, other unstable (radioactive) atoms like Cesium (Cs) and Krypton (Kr) are produced.

Nuclear Meltdown

• Nuclear meltdowns occur in the containment building (overheating and melting).
• Nuclear meltdowns lead to nuclear exclusion areas (no going into zones).
• A partial meltdown is contained within the containment building.

Pros & Cons of Nuclear Energy

• Pros:
  • Low carbon emissions (some $CO_2$ from mining 235U and transporting it).
  • Energy is released a lot.
• Cons:
  • Radioactive waste comes from Cs & Kr, last thousands of years.

Examples

• Chernobyl was a full meltdown.
• Three Mile Island in PA, US in 1979 was a partial meltdown.

Global Usage

• France & Ukraine use nuclear energy the most for electricity.

Crude Oil

• Crude oil is mostly used for transportation, not electricity.
• Natural gas comes from crude oil; crude oil comes from ancient marine life.
• Crude oil is needed to make plastic.
• The process of turning crude oil into a fuel is called oil refining.

Oil Refining

• Puts oil in a vessel and heats it so it vaporizes.
• Vapor is then cooled and turns to gasoline.
• Refinement depends on boiling points.
  • 40-200°C: C5-C12 = Gasoline
  • 175-275°C: C12-C16 = Kerosene (for planes)
  • 250-400°C: C15-C18 = Fuel oil (diesel)
  • >300°C: C17-UP = Lubricants
  • >350°C: C20-up = Residue (not used)

OPEC

• Top oil countries: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, etc.
• OPEC controls oil production, supply, and price.

Oil Price Fluctuations

• 2009 recession & 2020 pandemic - oil prices went down due to a decrease in demand, causing OPEC countries to lower their oil production.
• Spikes in oil prices: 1973 (embargo), 1979 (Iranian Revolution), 2001 (9/11), 2011 (Arab Spring).
• Energy crisis years: When production goes down, supply goes down, but demand is still the same, and the prices go up.

US Oil Production

• Increase in crude oil production in the US is due to an increase in fracking.
• This gives us autonomy (independence; less need to rely on OPEC) for natural gas.
• US is the leader in oil consumption, China comes next.
• US produces 16.6 million barrels of oil per day, and we're able to do this because there's a lot of oil in Alaska.
• OPEC nations have more oil than the US, the US just takes out and uses more than the OPEC nations, meaning the US is going to run out of oil faster.