Sources of Energy

Sources of Energy Nonrenewable

Sources of Energy • Learning Standard • ENGR-EP-1. Students will utilize the ideas of energy, work, power, and force to explain how systems convert, control, transmit, and/or store energy and power

Sources of Energy • Concepts • Name three nonrenewable sources of energy • List the characteristics of the different types of coal • State what synfuels are and why they may be important in the future • Define OPEC and the relationship of the U.S. with OPEC • Identify basic environmental concerns associated with the use of fossil fuels • Recognize the major components of a coal-fired generating plant • Explain the purpose of a fractionating tower

Sources of Energy • Concepts • Give examples of some positive and negative impacts of importing oil • Discuss various influences, including economic, environmental, technological, and political influences, with regard to the use and continued development of fossil fuels

Sources of Energy • Vocabulary

Sources of Energy • Fossil Fuels • Three primary types of fossil fuels • Coal • Oil • Natural Gas

Sources of Energy • Fossil Fuels • Fossil fuels come from the ground and are the remains of decayed plant material. The transformation of plant material to a fossil fuel takes millions of years and need pressure and heat to be transformed • Fossil fuels come in the forms of solids, coal, liquids or semiliquids, petroleum and tar, and gases, natural gas • Since fossil fuels are nonrenewable, they are decreasing in the environment

Sources of Energy • Fossil Fuels • In a developed country, like the U.S., it takes great quantities of fossil fuels to maintain our technologically advanced economy • Because of the increases in demand brought about by an increasing population and an increased standard of living, more fuel is needed • Due to the millions of years it takes for fossil fuels to form, we can not replace them. Which means that fossil fuels will run so low that it will no longer be economically viable to locate, recover, and refine them • The need to develop alternative energy sources is important for this reason

Sources of Energy • Coal • The formation of coal in the Earth’s surface started 500 million years ago. It took 85 million years for the plant material to decay into a usable form of coal • Coal can range from a soft to a rocklike material. It can be brown or black , depending on its age. The older coal gets the blacker and denser it becomes • Coal is combustible and used to generate electricity, generate heat for industrial processes, and to heat homes and buildings

Sources of Energy • Coal Mining • There are two methods to mine coal: • Deep Mining • Strip Mining

Sources of Energy • Deep Mining • Deep mining uses shafts and special machinery to remove the coal from deep below the Earth’s surface. This type of mining can be dangerous due to cave-ins and machinery accidents

Sources of Energy • Strip Mining • Surface mining, or strip mining, is the removal of coal close to the Earth’s surface. It is done mainly with the use of large pieces of machinery, such as mechanical shovels. Surface mining is less expensive and safer than deep mining

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal • Peat is a step in the formation of coal more than a type of coal. It is formed from water and the decomposition of organic materials. When dried, this material can be used as a fuel source for home heating

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal • Lignite coal is the next youngest type of coal. This material contains some woody decomposition that can be recognized as peat, but it has a higher energy content than peat. Lignite has enough energy content per volume that it can be used for the production of electricity or as industrial fuel

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal • Subbituminous coal is estimated to be at least 200 million years old. It contains greater energy content per volume than lignite and is frequently used as an industrial fuel, for space heating, and for the generation of electricity. More commonly known as soft coal

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal • Bituminous coal has a high carbon content. It is denser and blacker than most other forms of coal. This type of coal is principally used for the production of electricity

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal • Anthracite coal is hard and brittle. It appears shiny on the surface and has a high carbon content. Because it burns cleaner than other forms of coal, it is often used for home heating. It has about the same energy content per volume as bituminous coal. This is commonly referred to as hard coal

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal

Sources of Energy • Types of Coal • Peat: <55% carbon content. Energy content is 1000-4000 Btu/lb • Lignite: 60% carbon content. Energy content is 5000-7000 Btu/lb • Subbituminous: 70% carbon content. Energy content is 8000-10000 Btu/lb • Bituminous: 75-85% carbon content. Energy content about 11,000-15,000 Btu/lb • Anthracite: >90% carbon content. Energy content of about 14,000 Btu/lb or greater.

Sources of Energy • Using Coal • Burning coal can be a dirty process. This is particularly true when the coal is burned in small quantities. Pollution control techniques have improved drastically in the recent decades. Devices such as bag filters and electrostatic precipitators filter solid particles out of the exhaust gases before they are discharged into the atmosphere.

Sources of Energy • Using Coal • Bag filters work essentially the same way as a bag on a vacuum cleaner. All solid particles in the waste stream are trapped in the bag filter prior to the gases exiting through the smokestack of the power plant

Bags Sources of Energy • Baghouse Filter Cleaned gas Dirty gas Dust discharge

Sources of Energy • Using Coal • Electrostatic precipitatorworks by positively charging the waste particles and attracting them to a negatively charged electrode. The solid particles are then washed off the electrode and collected. This solid waste by-product, known as fly ash, historically had no use. It is now used for traction grit in snowy areas of the country. It can also be used as an additive in concrete and as an absorbent material for oil spills

Cleaned gas Electrodes Dust discharge Dirty gas Sources of Energy • Electrostatic Precipitator

Sources of Energy • Oil • Oil is also known a petroleum. Petroleum is a fossil fuel which is drilled and pumped from the ground in the form of crude oil. Crude oil is a mixture of semisolids, liquids, and gases. The biggest users of oil are transportation systems. Some form of oil fuels almost all transportation vehicles. Once the drilling and pumping operation has brought the oil to the surface it is transported by pipeline to a refinery. A refinery is a place that turns crude oil into products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, and lubricating oil for machine parts. This process is done in a fractionating tower, where crude oil is heated to boiling and the gassed products rise through the tower separating on the way up

Sources of Energy • Fractionating Tower

Sources of Energy • Oil Shale • Where Utah, Wyoming and Colorado join there is an area known as the Green River formation that contains more shale oil than any proven crude oil reserves in the U.S. • Oil shale is a 40-50 million year old sedimentary rock that contains an oily substance that is the result of decaying plant material. Kerogen is this oily substance that resides in sedimentary rock. • This rock can be crushed and the oil extracted and heated to 800°F so it can be liquefied for separation. This process is known as retorting. The yield from oil shale is about 30 gallons for every ton of rock crushed. This oil is known to be present, but the economics of recovery are not yet favorable

Sources of Energy • Green River Formation http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3012/

Sources of Energy • Oil Shale

Source of Energy • Tar Sands • Tar sands are similar to oil shale in composition and cannot be retrieved through conventional means, such as drilling. The largest reserves of tar sands in the world are located in Alberta, Canada. At present, these sands are mined and mixed with hot water or steam to extract the thick oil known as bitumen. The U.S. has limited proven reserves of tar sands.

Source of Energy • Tar Sands

Sources of Energy • Oil Countries • OPEC (Organization of Exporting Countries) • Consists of 12 Countries (Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela) • OPEC members collectively hold 79% of world crude oil reserves and 44% of the world’s crude oil production • In 1973, OPEC penalized the U.S. for it’s oil consumption by creating an oil embargo against the U.S. Restricting the trade of oil to the U.S. forces the government and car manufacturers to produce more economical (4-cylinder) vehicles, which started the energy conservation movement here in the U.S.

Sources of Energy • Natural Gas • The gaseous portion of petroleum is call natural gas. Natural gas is found wherever oil deposits are discovered. This gas is comprised of ethane, methane, propane, and butane. Of all the gasses found in natural gas, butane offers the greatest Btu content per volume. Natural gas is the cleanest burning and presently the least expensive of the fossil fuels

Sources of Energy • Natural Gas • Once natural gas has been removed from the ground, it is transported through pipes that take it to a refinery where the impurities are remove and the gases are separated, which is used for heating and the production of electricity in some areas. During the times when the gas is not needed it is stored in underground areas called aquifers.

Sources of Energy • Natural Gas • Transporting natural gas to rural areas can be expensive, so the gas is placed under low temperatures to create liquefied natural gas (LNG). Liquefied natural gas can be transported by railroad tankers, ships, and even trucks. More liquefied gas can be stored in the same volume than the gas in a natural state. A therm is a unit of measurement that is equal to 100 ft3 and is abbreviated as ccf

Sources of Energy • Natural Gas

Sources of Energy