Energy to Power the World: I What is Energy Photosynthesis Fossil Fuels

2 Energy is the ability to do work  Kinetic Energy  Energy contained in moving objects  Examples include your notebook falling down the stairs, your brother falling off the couch, water over a waterfall  Potential Energy  Stored energy  Two types: Physical and Chemical  Physical: examples include your brother teetering on the edge of the couch, water about to go over waterfall  Chemical: Energy stored in chemical bonds. In the foods you eat, gas you burn

3 What you need to know about the Universe  Energy and matter are conserved!  Implications:  matter is recycled on Earth (a carbon atom that was once in a Tyrannosaurus Rex could be in your little pinky)  Energy can change forms (potential to kinetic), but will not magnify or diminish itself  1 st Law of Thermodynamics  Energy is spread around as it is converted from one form to another – get less useful energy out than is put in  2 nd Law of Thermodynamics

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5 What you need to know about Energy on the Earth  The Earth’s energy comes from  The sun  The Earth’s internal and gravitational energy  The Sun’s energy powers  the weather  the ocean waves and currents  most living things  your car!

66 CS Fig. 3.7

7 Photosynthesis  Net chemical reaction:  6H 2 O + 6 CO 2 + solar energy  (enabled by chlorophyll) C 6 H 12 O 6 (sugar) +6O 2  Photosynthesis stores solar energy in chemical bonds  Energy can be used immediately for cellular respiration  C 6 H 12 O 6 (sugar) +6O 2  6H 2 O + 6 CO 2 + released energy  Energy can be stored for millions of years in organic deposits (fossil fuels)

8 Fossil Fuels  Coal  Oil  Natural Gas

9 Peat deposit in Ireland

10 Peat bog in US

11 Increasing depth of burial decreases moisture content and improves quality of coal

12 Decreasing moisture, increasing amount of fixed carbon

13 The Earth 350 Million Years ago Coal forming regions

14 Plant Fossils of West Virginia Web site: Vegetation 300 million years ago

15 US Coal Deposits Note: Few high quality (anthracite) deposits

16 CS Fig

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18 Today’s oil is yesterday’s plankton  Small marine and lake organisms live in surface waters  They die, fall to the bottom and get buried into an organic rich sedimentary layer  If geologic processes heat and squeeze these rocks sufficiently, they will create crude oil and natural gas from the fossils  Crude oil and natural gas will migrate toward the surface  Geologic traps must exist to create an oil field

19 Examples of geologic traps “pumping oil out is like sucking liquid out of a sponge”

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21 CS Fig. 21.9

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23 What it has taken the Earth millions of years to form, we will use up in <1,000 years

24 That pesky second law of thermodynamics!  1/2 of all the energy in primary fuels is lost during conversion to useable forms  2/3 of energy in coal is lost in power plant conversion to electricity  3/4 of energy in crude oil is lost by the time you finish burning it as gas in your car

25 Energy to Power the World: II  How it’s used, who uses it  How long will it last?

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27 CS Fig. 21.3

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29 CS Fig. 21.5

30 CS Fig. 21.4

31 Demographics of Energy Use  The 20 richest countries consume  80% of natural gas  65% of oil  50% of coal  US and Canada have 5% of world population, use 25% of available energy  Each person in US and Canada uses 60 barrels of oil per year – more than an Ethiopian would use in a year  Developed countries that import a large proportion of their fuel have better conservation methods

32 CS Fig. 21.4

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HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? 35

36 Similar to CS Fig

37 Similar to CS Fig

The End of Cheap Oil Campbell and Laherrere Scientific American,

39 Early steady growth in US oil production C & L, p. 78

40 What oil companies would have you believe  1,020 billion barrels of oil in reserve that will be just as cheap as it is today  Production can continue at today’s levels for many decades to come

41 What Campbell and Laherrere would have you believe  Amount of oil in reserve has been distorted  Production will not remain constant for very long  The last bucket of oil is not as easy to remove as the first

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43 Why distort reserves?  Looks good, nobody checks  When countries increase their reserves, they are allowed to export more oil

44 Hubbert Curve  Flow of oil starts to fall when ~1/2 of crude oil is gone  In 1956, M. King Hubbert of Shell Oil used this curve to successfully predict US peak in production in 1970 C & L, p. 80

45 Global discovery peaked in 1960 Industry has found 90% of oil that exists C & L, p. 82

46 How long will it last? Perhaps more importantly, when will it become expensive? C & L, p. 81

47 Major conclusions  US oil production peaked in 1970  Norway peaking about now  World production will peak this decade!  By 2002, Mid-East will have control over major part of supply

48 Oil will get expensive!  1,000 billion barrels left  At 20 billion barrels/year, will last ~50 years  Will start to decline in production within 10 years  Oil shales and tar sands may help ease pain, but will have environmental consequences

49 "The fundamental driver of the 20 th Century's economic prosperity has been an abundant supply of cheap oil.... Middle East share... is now about 30%. Unlike in the 1970s, this time it is set to continue to rise.... Share will likely reach 35% by 2002 and 50% by By then, the Middle East too will be close to its depletion midpoint, and unable to sustain production much longer irrespective of investment or desire." C. J. Campbell Oil and Gas Journal, March 20, 2000

50 The USGS estimates that economically recoverable oil is just 152 days of supply

“We are most fortunate to be living in a brief, bright interval of human history made possible by an inheritance from half-a-billion years of oil-forming Earth processes. We rarely give thought to the greatly depleted balance in the oil account we are leaving to future generations. When checks can no longer be written against that inheritance, world economies and lifestyles will undergo great changes. Life will go on, but it will be quite different from the present. Most people living today will see the beginning of those times.” Dr. Walter Youngquist, Geotimes, 1998

Energy to Power the World: III  Alternative Energy sources  Can they make up for declining oil production?

53 Alternative Energy  Nuclear  Sustainable

54 Nuclear Energy  FISSION (splitting)  How do reactors work?  Reactor models and safety  Waste issues  True costs?  FUSION (fusing)  How would it work?  Prospects?

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59 Nuclear Waste  Staggering amount of damage already done (1 curie=40 billion decays/sec.):  US, Europe, Japan didn’t stop dumping in ocean until 1970 (1.25 billion curies)  Soviet/Russia didn’t stop until 1993 (2.5 billion curies; 18 reactor cores at bottom of ocean!)  Where to put it now?  In temporary storage waiting for permanent storage  Yucca Mountain $1 billion so far; $10 to $35 billion by completion (2010?)

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61 True costs?  Environmental damage: tailings, runoff, health issues from U mining (200 million tons of tailings today)  $billions  Storage of reactor waste  $35+ billion  Decommissioning (tearing down, disposing of old plants – last only 30 years)  $200 billion to $1 trillion

62 Fusion  Heavy hydrogen + EXTREME heat, pressure = fused nuclei + energy  0.1 billion degrees C, millions X our atmospheric pressure  Much less radioactive waste produced  $25 billion invested worldwide, but not viable yet

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64 Sustainable Energy  Conservation  Solar Energy  Energy from Biomass  Energy from the Earth’s Forces  Research in Renewables

65 Conservation  Like in water resources movie, where every gallon of water conserved is equivalent to a new water source, every kilowatt of energy conserved is the same as a new energy source  Utility companies have found that conservation costs $350/kW; new coal plant $1000/kW  Superinsulated houses (i.e. Sweden) need 90% less energy  Fuel cell technology

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67 Fuel Cells  The GE HomeGen 7000  fuel processor extracts the hydrogen from the gas or propane.  fuel cell changes the hydrogen to electricity.  power conditioner converts the fuel cell electricity to the type and quality of power that you use today.  To be available 2001

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Solar Power

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Biomass

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78 Hydro Power  Trend to big dams  Issues as described in in-class movie  Advantages of small turbines  Submerged in stream; do not block navigation  Can operate under low-flow conditions  Don’t interfere with fish movement  If stream runs year round, cheaper than solar or wind

79 Wind Power  Played big role in settling Great Plains  Small role now, but World Energy Council says could replace 1-2 billion barrels of oil by 2020  Usually located in places impractical for residential use  Drawbacks: Affects scenery

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83 Researching Renewables  Money declined sharply in early 80’s (Reagan Administration)  Money slowly rising, especially in private industry  Affected by oil prices?

84 Scenario for the future Lundgren, p. 316