Nonrenewable Energy Resources

Why So Negative?✦ Fossil fuels are concern because of their impacts

on the environment.CxHy + O2 —> CO2 + H2O + Heat

✦ Carbon dioxide is a currently a big concern because it has implications for the future climate.

Why So Negative?✦ Extraction of energy resources have negative

impacts on the environment and workers. ✦ Mining of coal and uranium and oil drilling

✦ Oil spills can be devastating to an area. ✦ Animals are covered in oil.

✦ Smothered, ingest the oil, absorb it, etc.✦ Food webs can be

disrupted. ✦ Habitat destroyed and

nursery and feeding grounds are damaged.

Meet The Dakota Pipeline✦ Specs:

✦ 1,134 miles of pipeline connecting the Dakotas to Illinois.

✦ Move 570,000 barrels of oil per day

What’s The Controversy?✦ Runs through Standing

Rock Sioux Nation’s lands.

✦ Claim it will damage the environment and cultural sites.

✦ Environmental groups are targeting the pipelines to reduce fossil fuel use and prevent climate change.

✦ Joined with Sioux that are more concerned with local issues such as water contamination, fishing rights, and the description of sacred lands.

Why So Negative?✦ Oil and natural gas production and use are associated

with nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, heavy metals, particulates, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

✦ Coal leads to the formation of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and particulates.

✦ Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides lead to acid rain.

✦ Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides lead to acid rain.

✦ VOCs and Nitrogen oxides lead to the formation of smog.

Clean Coal✦ Clean Coal technologies have led to more efficient

combustion of coal with reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. ✦ Different technologies have been implemented.

✦ Fluidized-bed combustion

✦ Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle

✦ Flue Gas Desulfurization

✦ Low Nitrogen Oxide Burners

✦ Selective Catalytic Reduction

Liquified Natural Gas✦ Natural gas is taken from the production field,

impurities are removed and then it is liquified. ✦ The gas is cooled to a temperature of -260°F at

ambient pressure. ✦ Allows for safe storage, safe transport, and safe usage.

✦ When it reaches its destination, it is often turned back into a gas.

✦ Piped to homes for heating ✦ Use for electricity generation

Liquified Natural Gas Cars✦ Another use for LNG is transportation.

✦ Hope to replace diesel with LNG, which would reduce… ✦ GHG ✦ NOx ✦ Particulates

GM’s LNG Car!✦ Main issues are…

✦ Get less miles per gallon. ✦ More expensive ✦ Not enough fueling stations.

Methane Hydrates✦ A cage-like lattice of ice which

traps molecules of methane. ✦ If warmed or depressurized, it

will revert back water and natural gas.

✦ Found beneath the Arctic permafrost and beneath the ocean floor. ✦ Believed to be a larger

hydrocarbon resource than all of the world’s fossil fuel resources combined.

Methane Hydrates✦ Extraction is currently only

small scale or experimental. ✦ If extraction increases

temperature or decreases pressure then the methane escapes.

✦ Concerns of Methane Hydrates ✦ The conversion of solid sediments into liquids and gases

reduces support and shear strength. ✦ Causes submarine slumping, landslides, or subsidence.

✦ Melting of the permafrost releases methane into the atmosphere, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

USGS research doesn’t support this concern!

Oil Sands✦ A mixture of sand, water, clay, and bitumen.

✦ Bitumen is oil that is too heavy or thick to flow or be pumped without being diluted or heated.

✦ Found in Canada, the United States, Venezuela, and Russia.

Oil Sands✦ Oil sand is mined and then processed to extract

the bitumen, which is then refined into oil. ✦ Usually obtained using strip or open-pit mining.

✦ The only commercial operation involving oil sands is in Alberta, Canada. ✦ Behind the Keystone XL

Pipeline proposal. ✦ Extension of the Keystone

pipeline that will move oil from oil sands to U.S.

15% more GHG emissions than normal oil production!

Keystone XL

What Do You Think?

Oil Shale✦ A fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic

matter that yields substantial amounts of oil and combustible gas upon destructive distillation.

✦ The organic material is known as kerogen. ✦ Releases hydrocarbons when heated.

✦ Thought of as a precursor to oil and natural gas.

✦ Increases in temperature cause the rock to release shale oil, which is refined into diesel fuel, gasoline, and liquid petroleum gas.

Expensive to extract and process!