Chapter 19 Guide: Fossil Fuels, Impacts, Conservation

Describe three environmental impacts of fossil fuel production and consumption.

-Highly invasive techniques, including area strip mining and mountaintop removal, can destroy the surface of the land around mines -Air pollution as a result of burning fossil fuels can lead to global warming as well as contamination of clouds -Water pollution from oil drilling can suffocate many animals and lead to devastating habitat loss (think the gulf shore in 2008)

Clean Coal Technologies

A collection of technologies being developed to mitigate the environmental impact of coal energy generation.

Petroleum

A liquid mixture of hydrocarbons that is present in certain rock strata and can be extracted and refined to produce fuels including gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil; oil.

Natural Gas

A mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons (primarily methane) that occurs, often with oil deposits in Earth's crust.

Oil/Crude Oil

A thick, yellow to black, flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture found in Earths crust; formed from the remains of ancient microscopic aquatic organisms.

Aerobic/Anaerobic

Aerobic: A form of cellular respiration that requires oxygen in order to generate energy. Anaerobic: A form of cellular respiration that occurs when oxygen is absent or scarce.

Oil sands/Tar sands

An underground sand deposit permeated with a thick, asphalt-like oil known as bitumen.

How do environmental conditions determine what type of fossil fuel is formed in a given location?

Because the ideal conditions of organic material accumulation, anaerobic conditions, pressure, and temperature are not evenly distributed, neither are the resulting deposits of fossil fuels.

Why are fossil fuels often concentrated in localized deposits?

Because the ideal conditions of organic material accumulation, anaerobic conditions, pressure, and temperature are not evenly distributed, neither are the resulting deposits of fossil fuels.

Describe how coal is used to generate electricity.

Coal is used to generate electricity by burning the coal, using the heat of combustion to boil water and generate steam pressure, and using the steam pressure to turn turbines and a generator.

Fossil Fuels

Combustible deposits in Earths crust, composed of the remnants (fossils) of prehistoric organisms that existed millions of years ago. Coal, oil (petroleum), and natural gas are the three types of fossil fuels.

CAFE Standards

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are regulations in the United States, first enacted by the United States Congress in 1975, after the 1973-74 Arab Oil Embargo, to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks (trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles) produced for sale in the United States

EROI (& equation)

Energy Returned on Investment EROI = Energy Returned / Energy Invested

Net energy (& equation)

Expresses the difference between energy returned and energy invested: Net Energy = Energy Returned - Energy Invested

Why are fossil fuels our most prevalent source of energy today?

Fossil fuels, especially oil products, predominate today because they are efficient to burn, ship, and store. Natural gas is cleaner burning, and coal is most plentiful.

How do we create petroleum products? Give several examples of some products created from petroleum.

Petroleum products are created by the distillation and fractionation of crude oil, and the modification of those fractions. Petroleum products include kerosene, gasoline, and diesel fuels, lubricants, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and fertilizers.

Give an example of clean coal technology.

Post-combustion capture - This refers to capture of CO2 from exhaust gases of combustion (burning) processes.

Secondary Extraction

Recovery techniques increase the reservoir's pressure by water injection, natural gas re-injection and gas lift, which injects air, carbon dioxide or some other gas into the bottom of an active well, reducing the overall density of fluid in the wellbore.

Refining

Remove impurities or unwanted elements from a substance, typically as part of an industrial process.

Oil Shale

Sedimentary rocks containing a mixture of hydrocarbons known as kerogen; crushed and heated to yield oil.

How does this amount differ from the "technically recoverable" and "economically recoverable" amounts of oil?

Technically is the amount that we can get by following precautions and the extent that our technology allows, economically recoverable means monetarily viable to recover. The technically and economically recoverable amounts are drastically lower than the amount potentially in existance

Primary Extraction

The first stage of oil and gas production, in which natural reservoir drives are used to recover hydrocarbons. Due to the difference in pressure within the reservoir and at the bottom of the well, hydrocarbons are driven towards the well and to the surface.

Cogeneration

The generation of electricity and other energy jointly, especially the utilization of the steam left over from electricity generation to produce heat.

Acid Drainage

The outflow of acidic (often sulfuric acid) water from metal mines or coal mines

Reserves-to-Production Ratio

The remaining amount of a non-renewable resource, expressed in time. While applicable to all natural resources, the RPR is most commonly applied to fossil fuels, particularly petroleum and natural gas.

Why do many experts think we are about to pass the global production peak for oil?

The world now produces approximately 85 million barrels of oil per day, and this rate has been flat since 2005, despite increasing energy demand growth of 2 to 4 percent per year. This three year plateau is consistent with a peaking of production. Thus, many oil geologists and petroleum industry experts believe we are passing peak now and that we will never be able to produce more oil than 85 million barrels per day.

Describe how carbon capture and storage is intended to work.

Capture - First, the carbon dioxide is removed, or separated, from coal and gas power plants, and from the manufacturing of steel and cement. There are three types of capture; post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel combustion. This is called carbon dioxide capture and can captures 90% of carbon dioxide emissions. Storage - The carbon dioxide is the injected into a suitable storage site deep below the ground. The storage site must be a geological formation that ensures safe and permanent storage. Storage can either take place in depleted oil & gas fields, or deep saline formations.

Methane Hydrate

Consists of methane, which is enclosed in frozen water. The water molecules completely surround the methane. Methane hydrate is a common constituent of the shallow marine (ocean) geosphere.

How have geologists estimated the total amount of oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's 1002 Area?

Geologists use seismic surveying to estimate the underground geologic conditions at a site, and from those measurements can infer the volume of the underground reserve. At ANWR's 1002 Area, the total reserves are estimated to be between 11.6 and 31.5 billion barrels. The technically recoverable fraction of that total is between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels. The economically recoverable fraction varies with the price per barrel of the oil. At $30 per barrel it would be 3.0 to 10.4 billion barrels.

Why are the concepts from #5 important when evaluating energy sources?

Higher ratios mean that we receive more energy from each unit of energy that we invest, fossil fuels are widely used because their EROI ratios have historically been high

Energy Efficiency

The goal to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature.

Peak Oil

The hypothetical point in time when the global production of oil reaches its maximum rate, after which production will gradually decline.

Directional Drilling

The practice of controlling the direction and deviation of a wellbore to a predetermined underground target or location.

Carbon Capture/storage/sequestration

The process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation.

Proven recoverable reserve

The proportion of resources, that can be technically, economically and legally extracted

Describe how net energy differs from energy returned on investment (EROI).

The ratio determined by dividing the quantity of energy returned from a process by the quantity of energy invested in the process; higher EROI rates mean that more energy is produced from each unit of energy invested, net energy is the difference between the two and EROI is a ratio

Energy Conservation

The reduction of energy consumption through using less of an energy service. Energy conservation differs from efficient energy use, which refers to using less energy for a constant service.

Why are fossil fuels considered nonrenewable sources of energy? How are fossil fuels formed?

They are all considered non-renewable because they are being extracted and consumed much faster than they are being formed naturally. 1) Slowly from the remains of the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter, under appropriate conditions of temperature and pressure. 2) Natural gas can form by anaerobic bacterial action relatively near the surface. 3)It can also form by heat and pressure deeper underground, which converts organic material into kerogen, the precursor of both natural gas and crude oil.