Everything You Need to Know About Fossil Fuels*and how to give a good energy presentation

How Fossil Fuels Work Fossil fuels are burned to produce heat

Produces CO2 and water Greenhouse gas, plant food

Also produces C, CO, NOx , SOx

Toxic, acid rain, smog Catalytic converters limit this

How Fossil Fuels Work Coal: C(s) + O2 CO2 + H2O + 25.6 kJ/g

Nat’l gas: CH4(g) + O2 CO2 + H2O + 55.5 kJ/g

Gasoline: C8H18(l) + O2 CO2 + H2O + 45.6 kJ/g

Propane: C3H8(l/g) + O2 CO2 + H2O + 50.4 kJ/g

Source: Encyclopedia of Earth

How Fossil Fuels Work Power plants

Heat boils water to make steam Steam spins turbine/generator

Same as in nuclear power plant

Vehicles Fuel burns in cylinder Produces hot gas, which expands LNG has promise

Availability* 82% of total US energy consumption

68% of US electricity production 42% coal, 25% nat’l gas, 1% petroleum**

95.5% of energy in Transportation Need electric cars to avoid

*Source: Institute for Energy Research **Source: US Energy Information Administration

Capacity We could provide 100%

We have in the past

Cost of Electricity Coal

Total: 10 cents/kW-hr Fuel: 3 cents/kW-hr

Natural Gas Total: 7 cents/kW-hr Fuel: 5 cents/kW-hr

Source: Institute for Energy Research

Renewability Fossil fuels are not renewable Coal: 150-400 yr

US has 27% of world supply Russia (18%) and Canada (13%) Source: Institute for Energy Research, Wikipedia

Oil: 45-150 yr Physics/ucsd.edu, wikipedia

Nat’l Gas: 60-170 yr Wikipedia

Independence  In 2011, 45 percent of US was imported

Canada Mexico Saudi Arabia Venezuela Nigeria.

Source: Energy Information Administration

Domestic supplies could increase with technology Fracking, shale oil, oil sands

Environmental Impact Emissions

CO2 (last IPCC says 99% cause of AGW) NOx, SOx Particulate Heavy metal VOC’s

Oil spills Drilling , transportation, refining

Mining issues

New Technologies Fracking may increase our NG supply

tremendously Environmental concerns

New domestic sources of petroleum Shale oil Tar sands

Quote of the Day “The stone age didn’t end for lack of

stone …

… and the oil age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”

70’s Saudi oil minister

Opinion No choice soon enough Economics a big pos.

But we’re rich enough to move on Environmental impact big neg. Develop alt energy for job growth Energy independence undervalued Petroleum is undervalued as chemical

source

References (1) Encyclopedia of Earth

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Heat_of_combustion?topic=49557

(2) Institute for Energy Research http

://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy-overview/fossil-fuels/

(3) US Energy Information Administration http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=

427&t=3