APES Chapter 15
Tars sand/Oil sands
are a mixture of clay, sand water, and combustible organic material called bitumen (a thick, sticky, tar-like heavy oil with a high sulfur content).
Proven oil reserves
are deposits of oil that extracted profitably at current prices with current technology.
Coal bed methane gas
found in coal beds near the earth's surface across parts of the united states and canada. Environmental impacts would included scarring of land and depletion of some water sources
Peak Production
happens after years of pumping, usually a decade or so ,the pressure in a well drops and its rate of crude oil productions starts to decline
Crude Oil
is a black, gooey liquid consisting mostly of a mix of different combustible hydrocarbons along with small amounts of sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen impurities. Another name is conventional or light crude oil, which is formed from decayed organisms that were crushed beneath layers of rock for millions of years which then move upward through porous rocks to create deposits.
Liquefied petroleum gas
is a combination of butane, propane and ethane turned liquid by high pressure
Liquefied natural gas
is a highly flammable liquid that is transported in refrigerated tanker ships and has been cooled down. Has low energy net yields because more than a third of its energy content is used to liquefy it.
Horizontal drilling
is a method of drilling that digs vertically to a point, then the flexible well bore bends and drills horizontally. This method is used to gain greater access to oil and gas deposits locations within layers of shale or other rock deposits and producers more than fracking
Coal
is a solid fossil fuel formed from the remains of land plants that were buried 300-400 million years ago and exposed to intense heat and pressure over millions of years
Methane Hydrate
methane trapped in icy, cage-like structures of water molecules buried under arctic permafrost in Tundra areas of North America, northern Europe, Siberia. Also found lying on ocean floor. Problems are that it very costly to extract and would release large amounts of methane
What are advantages of synthetic fuels?
Large potential supply in many countries, can be used for vehicle fuel, and have lower air pollution than coal.
Fukushimi Nuclear Disaster
March 11, 2011, at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the Northeast coast of Japan a massive accident happened due to a major earthquake off the coast creating a severe tsunami washed over the protective seawalls and knocked out circuits and backup diesel generators of the emergency core cooling systems for three of the reactors. Explosions happened due to the buildup of hydrogen gas which blew the roofs off three of the reactor buildings, which released radioactivity into the atmosphere and coastal waters. This then led to evacuation of nearby residents and it happened due to failure of developing worse scenarios with equipment, seawalls not built high enough, design flaws that exposed to emergency core cooling system controls and backup generators to flooding and easy regulations.
How does a medium to high net energy yield product react in the market?
Medium to high net energy yields have higher chances of receiving financial support from the government (taxpayers) or other outside sources
How much more emission are produced from the process of extracting, processing and refining bitumen form tar sand into heavy oil releases than conventional light oil?
3-5 times
Burning oil as gasoline and diesel fuel for transportation accounts for how much of the global CO2 emissions?
43%
How much proven crude oil reserves worldwide does OPEC countries contain?
72%
What is clean coal
Coal that produces less harmful emissions such as carbon, particulates, or sulfur by adding costly air-pollution-control devices to power plants. Critics argue that there could never be such a thing as clean coal since there will always be some emissions of health damaging air pollutants and climate changing CO2
advanced light-water reactors (ALWRs)
ALWRs; light-water reactors have built-in passive safety features designed to make explosions or the release or radioactive emissions almost impossible.
How does a low or negative net energy yield product react in the market?
An energy resource with a low or negative net energy yield can have a hard time competing in the marketplace with other alternatives that medium to high net energy yields
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
April 26, 1986 the nuclear power plant in the Ukraine that suffered two large explosions which released massive amounts of radioactive materials. It is the worst nuclear accident in history and thousands were and continue to be impacted by the disaster. The Soviet government ordered the operators of Chernobyl to perform a test on their reactor. The test was supposed to measure how long the spinning generator would continue producing electricity after the reactor was shut down before it slowed and stopped. The test was to happen with the reactor at low power. There was a spark in power which led to a reactor vessel rupture and explosion. Blew the roof off the building and released a radioactive cloud.
How do scientists identify potential oil deposits?
By using large machines, to pound the earth which send shock waves deep underground and measure how long it takes for the waves to be reflected back. The information is then fed into computers which create 3D seismic maps that show locations and sizes of various rock formations
Petrochemicals
Chemicals obtained by refining (distilling) crude oil. They are used as raw materials in manufacturing most industrial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, synthetic fibers, paints, medicines, and many other products.
Two major sources of unconventional natural gas that are both difficult and costly to exploit without high environmental impacts
Coal bed methane gas and methane hydrate
Which countries have the largest proven reserves of coal?
Countries that are main users of coal in order are China, the United States, India, Russian and Japan.
Which countries are the main users of coal?
Countries that have large reserves of coal are United States (28%), Russia (18%), China (13%), Australia (9%), and India (7%).
What Is Net Energy and Why is it important?
Energy resources vary greatly in their net energy yields, which are the amount of energy available from a resource minus the amount of energy needed to make it available.
What is fracking (hydraulic fracturing)?
Fracking is the use of drilling and has a long well that extends deep into ground. It uses high pressures of sand, water and other chemicals to help disperse or release entrapped gases and oils in certain rock layers.
Nuclear fuel cycle
Includes the mining of uranium, processing and enriching the uranium to make nuclear fuel, using it in the reactor, safely storing the resulting highly radioactive wastes for thousands of years until their radioactivity falls to safe levels, and retiring the highly radioactive nuclear plant by taking it apart and storing its high- and moderate-level radioactive material safely for thousands of years. The final step of the cycle occurs after 20-60 years when a reactor comes to an end of its life because of corrosion and radiation damage to it metal parts and has to be decommissioned. Each step in this cycle decreases its net energy yield
Natural gas
Is a mixture of gases such as methane which is 50-90% and some other hydrocarbons such as propane and butane. Has a medium net energy yield and is mainly used for cooking, heating space and water and production of the nitrogen fertilizers
Process of refining oil
It (oil) is transported to refinery by a truck, rail, ship or pipeline. This refinery where the crude oil takes place is heated into separate various fuels and other components with different boiling points in a distillation column to produce a certain product. Some components with lower boiling points are at the top of the tube and some with the highest are at the bottom. Some resources produced are gasoline, diesel oil, asphalt and natural gasses.
What place has the largest tar sands/oil sands?
Northeast Alberta in Canada has three-fourths of the worlds tar sands resource in sandy soil under a vast area of remote boreal forest
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear change in which two nuclei of isotopes of elements with a low mass number (such as hydrogen-2 and hydrogen-3) are forced together at extremely high temperatures until they fuse to form a heavier nucleus (such as helium-4). This process releases a large amount of energy. Could provide a limitless amount of energy but still in testing stage to not have negative net energy yield, but is very expensive to make.
What is OPEC?
OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries which helps produce petroleum policies to help create a stable market of exports and imports.
What is the world's most widely used energy resource
Oil
What are largest sources of energy worldwide?
Oil (33%), Coal (30%), Natural Gas (24%), Nuclear Power (5%), and Renewables (8%)
What are largest sources of energy in the US?
Oil (37%), Natural Gas (28%), Coal (22%), Nuclear Power (8%), and Renewables (5%).
Core Case Study - Is the United States Entering A new Oil and Natural Gas Era?
Oil and natural gas are the two most widely used resources in the United States. Between 1985 and 2008, oil production fell but consumption rose and oil imports had to make up for it. According to projected rates, the United States could be the largest producer of oil (as of now that's true). This would stimulate the U.S. economy by providing more jobs and reducing foreign dependence on oil. By 2011, the US had become the largest producer of natural gas. If natural gas prices do not rise significantly, natural gas could displace environmentally harmful coal as the country's largest source of electricity within three to four decades, Two problems would ensue, large scale removal of natural gas and oil in tightly shale rock would require huge amounts of water and produce polluted wastewater. Secondly, by burning more carbon-containing oil, natural gas and coal, we will continue to release growing quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Disaster
On March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant experienced a cooling malfunction that caused the temperature of the coolant to rise. This caused the reactor to automatically shut down, which in turn caused the pressure in the reactor to increase. In order to relieve the pressure in the reactor a pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) opened, once the pressure fell it should have closed, but remained stuck open. Steps were mishandled and their actions starved the reactor of coolant, causing it to overheat. Without the proper water flow, the nuclear fuel rods overheated to the point at which they began to melt (a partial core meltdown). Although one of the reactors did suffered a severe core meltdown, the consequences outside the plant remained minimal, the containment building remained intact and held almost all of the accidents radioactive material
Refining
Process of separating the molecules of the various hydrocarbons in crude oil into different-sized classes and transforming them into various fuels and other petrochemical products through different boiling points
How is radioactive nuclear waste disposed of? What are some risks/concerns?
Radioactive waste can be delt with reprocessing which starts with spent-fuel rods and then are processed to remove radioactive plutonium or uranium through chemical processes and then can be used as nuclear fuel. This can reduce storage time for remaining wastes up to 240,000 years but the problem, is that it is very expensive, the leftover plutonium can be used by terrorists to make nuclear weapons. Another process would be to shoot radioactive wastes into space or into the sun but would be very costly and accidents would be enormous since it would spread high-level radioactive wastes across the earth's surface. Another way is burying it in an underground repository is the safest and cheapest way for thousands of years. This has been a controversial process since some scientists say that it might not work whereas others say it could but have no proof since it takes thousands of years.
Where are most of the world's proven natural gas reserves?
Russia (21%), Iran (16%), Qatar (12%), and Turkmenistan (12%) with China and India following.
What three countries are the largest producers of oil?
Saudi Arabia (13.2%), Russia (13%) and the United States (8%) are the largest producers.
If global consumption of conventional light oil continues to grow at about 2% per year, then
Saudi Arabia, with the worlds second largest crude oil reserves, could supply the world's demand for oil for about about 7 years, reserves from under Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could supply the global demand for 1-5 months or the US demand for 7-24 months and Arctic circle holds enough to meet the global demand for about 3 years at high production costs
Describe some advantages and some disadvantages with the use of natural gas compared with oil or coal.
Some advantages are that natural gas is more environmentally friendly than other fossil fuels, safer and easier to store, less expensive to produce, ample supplies of it, has a medium net energy yield and its versatile in certain events. Some disadvantages are that it nonrenewable and contributes to greenhouse gases, has a low net energy yield if it is liquefied, might have higher CO2 and CH4 emissions per unit of energy produced than coal, process of fracking requires large amounts of water and pollutes it and can pollute groundwater. Coal has a high net energy but has significant environmental impact and can be turned into liquid fuels but is lower net energy and has higher impacts than it would be conventionally.
What are advantages and disadvantages of using oil?
Some advantages of Crude Oil is that there is an established infrastructure for transport and use as a fuel, crude oil can produce high net-energy compared to other products, it has a proven processing system, and its products have many uses. Some disadvantages are that its combustion releases CO, CO2, and other emissions, crude oil is diminishing estimating from 40-90 years, drilling, storing, processing, and transporting crude oil can cause a disruption of ecosystems, used oil is difficult to recycle, and spills can be devastating to ecosystems and the economy as well.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of using Coal?
Some advantages of coal are that there are ample supplies in many countries, medium to high net energy yield, low cost when environmental costs are not included. Some disadvantages are severe land disturbance and water pollution, fine particles and toxic mercury emissions threaten human health and lastly it emits large amounts of CO2 and other air pollutants when produced and burned.
advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power
Some advantages of nuclear power consist of lower environmental impact (without accidents) emits 1/6 as much CO2 as coal and lastly there is a low risk of accidents with newer, modern plants. Some disadvantages are low net energy yields, produces long-lived harmful radioactive wastes, and promotes spread of nuclear weapons, uranium 235 is not renewable
Problems with fracking?
Some concern or problems that arise from fracking is that is requires massive volumes of water which in water-short areas, it can deplete aquifers, degrade habitats and lower water holds. Another problem is that it can use potentially harmful chemicals to produce slurry which is water mixed with toxic heavy metals and other radioactive materials. It requires a specific type of sand in some areas which then results in a boom of a sand and then to mine this requires strip mining which with little regulation can destroy large areas of wildlife habitat and cause air and noise pollution. Lastly it can cause large amounts of small earthquakes since high pressure injection can cause shifting bedrock and these earthquakes can release hazardous wastewater into aquifers or cause pipeline breaks.
Advantages and disadvantages of tar sands and shale oil
Some disadvantages are low energy net yields without efficient processes, releases CO2 and other air pollutants when burned and causes severe land disruption and high-water use. Some advantages are a large potential of supplies, its easily transported within and between countries and lastly with efficient distribution systems can have high net energy yields.
What are solutions for shale gas production in fracking?
Step up research on the environmental impact of natural gas production, greatly increase monitoring and legal regulation of natural gas production,, including regular inspections of the metal casings and concrete seals in well pipes, develop federal regulations on disposal, storage, treatment and reuse of fracking wastewater, require complete disclosure of all chemicals used in fracking, and require use of the least harmful chemicals available in fracking fluids
Process of getting oil from tar sands
Tar sands involves clear cutting forests, draining wetlands and rivers or streams are sometimes diverted and then the sandy soil and rocks are stripped away to expose tar sands deposits and then five-story high electric power shovels dig up the sand and load it into trucks which then carry it to an upgrading plant. Then the tar sands are mixed with hot water and steam to extract bitumen which is heated by natural gas to then be converted into oil.
Case Study Oil Production and Consumption in the United States
The United States produces about 87% of its commercial energy from fossil fuels with 37% coming from oil. Oil production especially from shale rock is rapidly increasing and could make the country, the largest oil producer by 2020. Long term problem for the US is that it uses about 21% of the oil produced globally, but produces only 9% of the worlds oil and has 2% of the world's proven conventional oil reserves. Another problem is most of its oil is under environmentally sensitive land. Some problems that arise with increased drilling in the United States is that large amounts of natural gas and oil held tightly in shale rock will require large amounts of water and also produce heavily polluted wastewater. This could tie in with gas and oil leaks in piping systems that can pollute shallow aquifers which feed drinking water wells and can also harm deep aquifers. As a result, this would need strict regulations and monitoring to reduce the harm. Secondly, with increased extraction processes of oil, natural gas, and coal, this will lead towards larger quantities of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere faster than they can be removed by the carbon cycle which can play a role in the world's changing climate.
What countries have the largest proven oil reserves?
The countries with the largest proven oil reserves consist of Venezuela (18%), Saudi Arabia (16%), Canada (11%) and Iran (9%).
How is availability of oil considered?
The demand for oil, the technology used to make it available, the rate at which we can remove the oil, the cost of making it available and the market price
Nuclear Reactor Process
The fuel for the reactor is made of uranium ore which is mined from the earth's crust. This ore will then be enriched to make the concentration of uranium-235. This is then refined into small pellets of uranium dioxide which are the size of an eraser on a pencil and contains the energy of about a ton of coal. Then large numbers of pellets are placed into closed pipes called fuel rods which are then grouped in fuel assemblies inside the core of the reactor. Control rods are moved in and out of the reactor core to absorb neutrons created in the fission reaction which can regulate the rate of fission and energy produced. There is then coolant which circulates through the reactor's core to keep the fuel rods and other reactor components from melting or releasing large amounts of radioactivity. The LWR (Light Water Reactor) has an emergency core cooling system as a backup to help prevent such meltdowns, the meltdown wouldn't explode as an atomic bomb but would spread radioactivity into the environment. Some plants extract large quantities of cooling water they need from a nearby source such as a river or lake and then return the heated water to that source and some transfer the waste heat from the intensely hot water to the atmosphere by using one or more gigantic cooling towers. The heat is produced by controlled nuclear fission which then produces steam to move a turbine and then create energy for the generator. A containment shell or structure are thick, steel reinforced concrete walls that surround the reactor core and helps keep radioactive materials from escaping into the environment in case of a meltdown of the core. Helps protect the core from threats such as tornadoes and plane crashes. Cost is around 10 billion to create one.
What three countries are the largest consumers of oil?
The largest consumers are the United States (21%), China (11%), and Japan (5%).
What Are the Advantages and disadvantages of using natural gas?
There are ample (plentiful) supplies of it, versatile fuel, has a medium net energy yield, emits less CO2 and other air pollutants than other fossil fuels when burned. Some disadvantages are low net energy yield when its liquefied, production and delivery may emit more CO2 and methane per unit of energy produced than coal, fracking uses and pollutes large volumes of water, and potential groundwater pollution from fracking
What are problems with producing synthetic fuels?
They require mining of 50% more coal and could also add 50% more CO2 to the atmosphere than coal, have a low net energy yield, and cost more to producer per unit of energy than does coal production and takes large amounts of water to produce synfuels
What countries are the largest producers of natural gas?
United States (20%), Russia (19%), Canada (5%)
Shale oil
produced by mining, crushing, and heating oil shale rock to extract a mixture of hydrocarbons called kerogen that can be distilled to produce shale oil. Before its sent by pipeline to a refinery, it must be heated to increase its flow rate and processed to remove sulfur, nitrogen, and other impurities. The problem is that it takes considerable energy, money and water to extract kerogen from shale rock and convert it to shale oil. This then decreases it net energy yield. Also producers large amounts of CO2 and pollutes large amounts of water
Net Energy Yield
total useful energy produced during the lifetime of an entire energy system minus the energy used, lost, or wasted in making useful energy available
synthetic natural gas (SNG)
using coal gasification to convert solid coal into a gas without sulfur and other impurities. convert it into liquid fuels such as methanol and synthetic gasoline, through coal liquefaction, there are called synfuels, also known as cleaner versions of coal.
