1. Nonrenewable Energy Resources
G. Tyler Miller’s
Living in the Environment
14th Edition
Chapter 17

2. Key Concepts Available energy alternatives Oil resources
Natural gas resources
Coal resources
Nuclear fission and fusion

3. Section 1: Evaluating Energy Resources
What types of energy do we use?
What types of commercial energy does the world depend on?
What is the energy future of the United States?
How can we evaluate which energy resources to use?
What is “net energy?”

4. What type of energy do we use?
About 99% of the energy that heats the earth and our homes comes from the sun, and the remaining 1% comes mostly from fossil fuels. (old solar energy)
Without sun -2400C

5. What type of energy do we use?
Sun’s Energy
Nuclear Fusion
93 million miles away
“Average” Star
99% Hydrogen

6. Evaluating Energy Resources
Non-renewable energy:
84% of world commercial energy (78% from fossil fuels, 6% nuclear)
Oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear

7. Evaluating Energy Resources
Renewable Energy Sources:
16% of world’s commercial energy resources.
10% biomass, 5% hydro, and 1% combo of geothermal, wind and solar.

8. Commercial Energy Use By Source 2002

9. Important Nonrenewable Energy Sources
Fig p. 351

10. Evaluating Energy Resources
Future Energy Availability: the U.S. is the world’s largest energy user.
In 2004, 4.6% of world population, yet 24% of world’s energy consumption

11. Future Energy in U.S.
U.S. debate: should we continue our dependence on oil and coal or shift to natural gas, hydrogen, solar cells, and wind.
Political, Economic, Energy Companies, Societal Debate

12. Global Energy Consumption

13. U.S. Energy Consumption

14. Shifts in U.S. Commercial Energy Resources

15. Evaluating Energy Choices
Costs
Environmental Impacts
Availability in near future and long term
Governmental Incentives
National and Global Security
Terrorism

16. What is Net Energy?
NET ENEGY: is the amount of high-quality usable energy available from a resource after subtracting out what is needed to make it usable.
Second law of thermodynamics: some energy will be wasted and degraded.

17. Net Energy Ratios For U.S.

18. Review Section 1 What types of energy do we use?
What types of commercial energy does the world depend on?
What is the energy future of the United States?
How can we evaluate which energy resources to use?
What is “net energy?”

20. Section 2: Oil Key Ideas
What is crude oil? How does crude oil turn into usable products?
Where does oil come from? Who has oil?
How is oil used?
What are problems associated with oil usage?
How much longer will we have oil?

21. Oil Rules!!! What is crude oil?
Petroleum, or crude oil is a thick, gooey liquid consisting of many combustible hydrocarbons.
Formed over millions of year from decaying organic materials buried under the seafloor and subjected to extreme temperatures and pressure.

22. Oil Rules!!! What is crude oil?
Crude oil and natural gas often found together in deep deposits in pores and cracks.
Found using sophisticated equipment.
Usually only 30-35% is extractable
Higher prices mean more can be extracted.

23. Oil Rules!!! Transportation
How crude oil is transported:
Pipelines
Trucks
Oil Tankers

24. Refining crude oil. Based upon their boiling points, components are removed in giant distillation column.
In US refining accounts for 8% of our energy consumption

25. 1 barrel is 42 gallons

26. Oil, Who Has It?
Eleven OPEC countries contain 78% of world’s proven oil reserves
Oil is the world’s
largest business.
Saudi Arabia 25%
Canada 15%
Iraq 11%, UAE 9.3%

27. Oil, Who Has It? U.S.: Uses 26% Produces 2.9% Import 60% (36% in 1973)
2003 $99 billion import bill.
2/3 for transportation

28. North American Energy Resources
Fig p. 357

29. Offshore oil accounts for 1/4th of U. S. Oil Production
Offshore oil accounts for 1/4th of U.S. Oil Production. 9 of 10 barrels come from the Gulf.

30. Oil, Who Has It? ANWR: Best Estimates:
Would meet world’ energy demands for 1-5 months
Would meet US energy needs for 7-24 months.
Saudi Arabia:
Could only supply world for about 10 years.

31. Oil Petroleum (crude oil) Recovery Refining Transporting
Fig p. 356

32. Today oil is trading about $58/barrel

33. US Oil Supply and Consumption.

34. Global Oil Consumption: US, China Japan largest oil consumers.

35. Conventional Oil: Advantages
Relatively low cost
High net energy yield
Efficient distribution system

36. Conventional Oil: Disadvantages
Running out
Low prices encourage waste
Air pollution and Greenhouse gases
Water pollution
World Politics and Trade Imbalances

38. Oil, What Is Left?
Most energy expert believe there are about 1,050 billion barrels left.
Peak Production This Decade
Rising Demand, Dwindling Supply = Higher Prices

39. Oil, What Is Left? Ways of extending oil supplies: Increase CAFÉ
Find new reserves
Taxing
Conservation
Increased use of other sources.

41. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Controversy: Trade-offs
Would create jobs
Oil resources are uncertain
Uncertain environmental impacts
Drilling controversies

42. Oil Shale and Tar Sands
Oil shale
Tar sand

43. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Per Unit of Energy

44. Oil Review
What is crude oil? How does crude oil turn into usable products?
Where does oil come from? Who has oil?
How is oil used?
What are problems associated with oil usage?
How much longer will we have oil?

46. Natural Gas Key Ideas What is natural gas? Where is it found?
How is natural gas used?
Who has the world's natural gas supplies?
What is the future for natural gas?

47. What is natural gas? Mainly methane CH4 Also Ethane C2H6 Propane C3H8
Butane C4H10
Formed like oil from buried animals and plants millions of years ago.

48. Where is it found? Deposits usually found above oil deposits.
In past was seen as unwanted waste and burnt off.

49. Who has natural gas?
Russia (31%) and Iran (15%) have almost ½ of world’s reserves.
Reserves could last years worldwide.
Geologist expect to find more.

51. U.S. Natural Gas
U.S. supplies should last years depending upon demand.
Supplies have been declining for years.
Canada???

52. How is it used? 53% of heat in U.S. homes
16% of electricity and growing quickly
Hot water heaters
Can be used in vehicles

53. Advantages of Gas Cleaner burning than coal or oil.
Emits far fewer CO2 per energy units
More efficient energy producer and plants are cheaper to build

54. What is gases future?
Conventional and Unconventional sources may last up to 200 years.
Prices bound to rise
Best transition fuel into solar etc.?

55. What is LNG?
At low temperatures natural gas can be shipped around the world as liquid natural gas.
Requires very low temperatures and building special infrastructure.

56. Natural Gas

57. Natural Gas Review What is natural gas? Where is it found?
How is natural gas used?
Who has the world's natural gas supplies?
What is the future for natural gas?

59. Old King Coal Key Ideas History of coal use.
What is coal? How is it extracted from the ground?
How is coal used? How long will it last?
What are advantages and disadvantages of using coal?

60. History of Old King Coal
After firewood, coal was the major source of energy.
End of 1800s coal is the worlds dominant fuel.
Steam Engines
Heating
Cooking
Industry

61. History of Old King Coal
By 1920s, coal provided 80% of US energy.
Powered the industrial revolution
Caused a great deal of air pollution.

62. What is coal?
Coal is a solid fuel formed in several stages from remains of buried plants and animals.
Consists mostly of carbon and trace amounts of sulfur, mercury and radioactive materials.

63. What is coal?
Anthracite is the most desirable form of coal (98% carbon)
Takes longer to form
More expensive.

64. Coal Formation and Types

65. How is coal extracted? Surface Mining: Area Strip Mining
Contour Strip Mining
Mountaintop Removal
Underground Mining
Large environmental impact from different mining techniques.

67. How is coal used?
Coal provides 51% of current U.S. electricity. (62% worldwide)
Used to make ¾ of worlds steel.
A typical 1,000 Megawatt power plant uses 8,000 tons of coal every day…1 mile long train worth of coal every day.

68. How is coal used? 91% of coal in U.S. is used for power production.
Not useful for transportation energy needs.

69. Where in the world is coal found?
U.S. has 1/4th of the world proven reserves. (16% Russia, 12% China)
U.S. and China are 2 largest users.
U.S. is able to export about 4% a year.

70. Where is the coal?

71. How long will coal last? According to USGS…
U.S. reserves could last 300 years at current rate of consumption…or 64 years if consumption grows by 4% a year.
World’s most abundant fossil fuel.
U.S. Energy Projections

72. Coal Advantages Most abundant fossil fuel. High “Net Energy”
Relatively inexpensive.
U.S. has plenty of it for a while.
Power Plants relatively cheap to build.

73. Coal Disadvantages
High environmental impact (air, water, land, acid rain)
Global Warming, high CO2 emissions
Toxic Mercury and radioactivity
Dangerous to mine

74. Coal: Trade-offs
“Clean Coal Technology???”

75. Coal Review Stages of coal formation Primarily strip-mined
Used mostly for generating electricity
Enough coal for about 1000 years
High environmental impact
Coal gasification and liquefaction

76. Coal Review History of coal use.
What is coal? How is it extracted from the ground?
How is coal used? How long will it last?
What are advantages and disadvantages of using coal?

78. Nuclear Energy Key Ideas
How does a nuclear fission reactor work?
What is the nuclear fuel cycle?
What is the history of nuclear technology? Where is it used today?
What are advantages and disadvantages of using nuclear power?
What are the disposal issues for high-level and low level nuclear waste?
What is the future for nuclear power?

79. How does a nuclear fission reactor work?
Isotopes of uranium and plutonium undergo controlled nuclear fission.
U235 and Pt239
(U contains 92 Protons, how many neutrons???)
Fission Chain Reaction, splitting the nucleus, releasing heat to produce steam

80. How does a nuclear fission reactor work?
Core Reactor: 35,000 to 70,000 fuel rods
Fuel pellets of 97% non-fissionable U238 and 3% fissionable U235
Control rods of Boron and Cadmium
Coolant: water
Containment vessel

81. How does a nuclear fission reactor work?
“Spent” fuel rods usually stored onsite in huge pools of water
Must be stored safely for 10,000 to 24,000 years
Multiple safety layers at plants.

82. How does a nuclear fission reactor work?
The heat produced by the splitting of uranium is used to generate electricity by spinning turbines.
Plants must be in continual operation

83. Nuclear Energy Fission reactors Uranium-235 Potentially dangerous
Radioactive wastes

85. What is the nuclear fuel cycle?
Fuel Cycle Includes:
Mining uranium
Processing fuel “enrichment”
Using fuel in reactor
Storing highly radioactive waste for thousands of years

86. What is the nuclear fuel cycle?
After years reactors become contaminated with radioactive materials and parts become worn out.
Transporting nuclear waste for storage 10,000 years or more

87. What is the nuclear fuel cycle?

88. What is the history of nuclear technology?
Following WW II great interest in showing how atomic age could benefit humankind
Tremendous government subsidies and research
Government paid ¼ of cost of building first reactors.
Government paid insurance

89. What is the history of nuclear technology?
1960s and 70s plans for many U.S. plants
1975 – 53 plants operating (9% of U.S. electricity) another 170 plants planned
1978 last plant to be built was ordered – great unease about plants

90. What is the history of nuclear technology?
1979 Three-Mile Island, PA
1986 Chernobyl (still a problem today)
Globally plants continue to be built (441 in operation, 23 being built)

92. Where is it used today? U.S. In 2004: 103 in operation
21% of countries electricity (huge plants)
US Energy Information Agency predicts 27% fewer plants in 2020

93. Where is it used today? Globally: 441 plants (32 under construction)
17% of world’s electricity
Growing 2.5% yearly
Leading countries:
Lithuania 80%
France 78%

94. Locations of U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
NJ (1) --- PA (3)

95. Advantages of Nuclear Power
Large Fuel Supply
Little Air Pollution and CO2 emissions
Moderate to low water and land environmental impact
Low risk of accidents (multiple safety levels – except in old Soviet reactors)

96. Disadvantages of Nuclear Power
High cost of building and operating plants
Possibility of catastrophic accidents
No long-term solutions for waste
Spreads knowledge of nuclear weapon technology
Terrorist Attacks

97. Conventional Nuclear Power: Trade-offs

99. Dealing with Nuclear Waste
High- and low-level wastes
Terrorist threats
Underground burial
Disposal in space
Burial in ice sheets
Dumping into subduction zones
Burial in ocean mud
Conversion into harmless materials

100. Yucca Mountain Controversy
Wastes stored and guarded in one place
Possible long-term groundwater contamination
Security and safety concerns during waste transport to the site

103. Permanent Underground Disposal of Nuclear Wastes
Storage Containers
Fuel rod
Primary canister
Ground Level
Overpack
container
sealed
Unloaded from train
Personnel
elevator
Air shaft
Nuclear waste
shaft
Underground
Buried and capped
Lowered down shaft
Fig p. 373

104. Nuclear Alternatives – Future?
New reactor designs
Breeder nuclear fission reactors
Nuclear fusion

105. Nuclear Review How does a nuclear fission reactor work?
What is the nuclear fuel cycle?
What is the history of nuclear technology? Where is it used today?
What are advantages and disadvantages of using nuclear power?
What are the disposal issues for high-level and low level nuclear waste?
What is the future for nuclear power?