1. Chapter 17: Nonrenewable Energy 17-1 Energy Resources and Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels: remains of ancient organisms changed into
Coal
Oil
Natural gas
Source of most of the energy we use
90% of the energy used in developed countries

2. 4 Main Purposes of Fuels Transportation Manufacturing
Heating and cooling buildings
Generating electricity (to run machines and appliances)
Fuel’s Suitability depends on:
Energy content
Cost
Availability
Safety
Byproducts of use
(You wouldn’t use coal to power an airplane. You wouldn’t use jet fuel for a campfire.)

3. 4 Main Purposes of Fuels Transportation Manufacturing
Heating and cooling buildings
Generating electricity (to run machines and appliances)
Fuel’s Suitability depends on:
Energy content
Cost
Availability
Safety
Byproducts of use
(You wouldn’t use coal to power an airplane. You wouldn’t use jet fuel for a campfire.)

4. Energy Use in the U.S.

5. Electricity + easily transported = convenient - difficult to store
- other energy sources have to be used to generate it
Electric Generator: converts mechanical energy (motion) into electrical energy
By moving an electrically conductive material within a magnetic field
Turbine: a wheel that changes the force of a moving gas or a liquid into energy that can do work

6. How Most Power Plants Work
Water is heated by
Burning fuel (coal-fired and gas-fired power plants)
Fission of uranium (nuclear power plants)
Water is boiled to produce steam that turns a turbine
Turbine spins a generator to produce electricity

7. How a Coal-Fired Power Plant Works

9. World Energy Use Patterns

10. How Do Fossil Fuel Deposits Form?
Coal – from the remains of plants that lived in swamps hundreds of millions of years ago
Oil and Natural Gas – from the decay of tiny marine organisms that accumulated on the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago
Both were compressed by sediment and exposed to heat and pressure within the Earth’s crust

11. Coal Abundant in N. America and Asia
Produces more than ½ of the electricity generated in the U.S.
Relatively inexpensive
Needs little refining
Environmental Effects of Coal
Minimal w/ underground mines
Surface Operations can include mountain-top removal
Waste rock must be properly contained or toxic chemicals can leach into nearby streams
Research focuses on
Developing less damaging mining methods
Locating more productive, cleaner-burning deposits

12. Coal  Air Pollution & Acid Precipitation
Higher Quality Coals (ex. bituminous coal) produce more heat and less pollution
Lower-Grade Coals (ex. lignite) produce less heat and release large amounts of sulfur
Petroleum – a.k.a. crude oil: oil pumped from the ground
Petroleum products: anything made from crude oil (fuels, chemicals, plastics)
Locating Oil Deposits:
Geologists look for rock deposits that could contain oil
Exploration wells are drilled to determine volume and availability
Profitability is calculated
Profitable wells get drilled
Petroleum goes to a refinery to be turned into fuels or other products.

13. Environmental Effects of Using Oil
Air pollution
Smog
Acid precipitation
Global warming
Oil spills & everyday sources (leaking cars) contaminate waterways
Habitat destruction
Natural Gas
Often found above oil deposits (used to be burned off as a nuisance before transporting technologies improved)
Generally release fewer pollutants than burning coal or oil

14. The Future of Fossil Fuels
Oil Reserves: oil deposits that can be extracted profitably at current prices using current technology
Demand is projected to double by 2050 (as population and industrialization increases)
Cost will likely increase making other forms of energy more attractive
Future Oil Reserves
Calculations of fossil-fuel reserves predict that oil production will peak and then decline in the early 21st century.
Land-Accessible production will peak in about 2010
Ocean-floor drilling is much more expensive

15. 17-2: Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Energy: energy that exists w/in the nucleus of an atom.
Fission: uranium nuclei are bombarded with neutrons and release large amounts of energy
Nuclear Power Stations
Heat from fission reactions heats water to generate steam
Steam drives turbines that generate electricity

17. Advantages of Nuclear Power:
Fuel is compact
NO air-polluting gases
When properly operated, they release less radioactivity than coal-fired power plants do
Disadvantages of Nuclear Power:
$ - building and maintaining a safe reactor is expensive
Thermal Pollution (released cooling water warms aquatic ecosystems)
Storing waste – radioactive waste must be stored in a geologically stable area for tens of thousands of years (see Yucca Mountain case study)
Safety Concerns
Fission can go out of control (see Chernobyl and Three Mile Island case studies)
 Most of the safety measures at Catawba are back-ups to other safety measures.

18. The Future of Nuclear Power
Fusion: the nuclei of 2 forms of hydrogen join to form helium and release large amounts of energy
This is how the sun works
Creates less dangerous radioactive byproducts than fission
Difficulty
Extremely high temperatures are required (180,000,000 °F)
Nuclei must be maintained at very high concentrations
Nuclei must be properly confined
Achieving all 3 simultaneously may be impossible.