Introduction to

Environmental Science
ENV 101
Dr. Sylvia-Monique Thomas

Section 3003; Mon & Wed 7:30–8:50 pm

Overview – Nonrenewable and Renewable Energy

1. Energy Production
2. Coal
3. Oil and Natural Gas

4. Nuclear Power (Extra Credit #4)

5. Electric Power (Extra Credit #4)
 Energy Production
Where does the energy we use on a daily basis come
from?
• Limited resources
• Undergoes transformations before use
• Resources vary regionally and depend on economic sectors
• Future energy use: affected by supply of different sources and
environmental impacts

• Primary energy: energy contained in natural resources

such as coal, oil, sunlight, wind, and uranium

• Energy conversion: change of primary energy in other

forms of energy, that is, secondary energy
• Example: oil energy --- electricity or kinetic energy (car)
• further conversion: electricity --- charge a battery --- power an
appliance
 Energy Production
• End use: final application of energy (e.g., running an
appliance or driving a car)

• Primary energy end use:

• Coal: 80% electricity production, 1% transportation
• Oil: 65% transportation, <1% electricity production
• Natural gas: 35% electricity production, remainder: heating,
cooking, other applications in industry, homes, businesses

• Energy conversion efficiency: percentage of primary

source energy that is captured in a secondary form of
energy
• Example: coal is used to generate electricity, 70% of energy is
transformed into unused heat --- efficiency is only 30%
 Energy Production
• Energy end use efficiency: product of the
efficiencies of all energy conversions from the primary
source to the end use
• Example: 100 units of coal energy are converted to electricity -
--- used to power a lightbulb that produces 1.2 units of light
energy = efficiency of 1.2%
6 units lost as heat
70 units lost as heat as the chemical energy due to resistance 22.8 units lost as heat as electrical
in coal is transformed to electrical current in transmission lines current is converted to visible light

Chemical energy
Electric current Electric current Visible light

100 units 30 units 24 units 1.2 units

Primary
Energy End use
Generation Transmission
Source
 Energy Production
• Production: amount of an energy source extracted from reserves
during a particular time (oil: barrels or metric tons)
• Consumption: amount of a primary energy source that is actually
used during a particular time
• production rates roughly equal consumption per year globally, but
differ from region to region or country to country

2015 US:
• 3.43 bio produced
• 7.08 bio consumed
• depends on other
countries
• consumption
increased 3-fold
since 1950
 Primary Energy
• Nonrenewable energy: derived from sources that exist in limited
quantities or that are replenished at rates below the rate of
consumption
• nonrenewable energy sources are consumed --- less available for
future use
• fossil fuels: coal, petroleum, and natural gas (from natural decay of
organic material)
• nuclear energy

• Renewable energy: derived from sources that are not depleted

when they are used (sunlight and wind) or that can be replenished
in a short period of time (such as fuelwood)
 Primary Energy
• Global energy needs:
• 80% fossil fuels
Nonrenewable energy
• 4% nuclear energy
• 7% traditional renewable energy (fuelwood, charcoal; esp. poor
countries)
• <10% modern renewable energy (hydropower, solar, biofuels,
wind, geothermal energy)
Primary Energy

Renewable
Energy: 9%
Primary Energy
Primary Energy
 Economics of Energy Resources
Amount of energy required to produce primary energy resource is a
measure of sustainability (concern: long-term availability of fossil fuels)
• Proved reserves: quantities of an energy resource that could be recovered
from known deposits using current technology at current prices

• Reserves-to-production (R/P) ratio: proved reserves for a given fuel

divided by a particular year’s level of production or use
• provides an estimate of how many years a fuel will last if the level of
production remains constant and no additional reserves are discovered
• Oil: proved reserves 1.69 trillion barrels; rate of production 33.5 billion
barrels/year --- R/P ratio ~ 50
At this rate, the reserves will be exhausted in 50 years.
• Natural gas: ~53
• Coal: ~110
We do not really know when we will “run out” of oil, natural gas, or coal
(estimates change, technologies, new deposits).
 Economics of Energy Resources
Energy must be invested to produce primary energy.
• Energy return on investment (EROI): useful energy provided from an
energy resource divided by the amount of energy it took to produce it
• Measure of sustainability of energy sources
• <1: more energy must be invested than can be produced
• Caution: estimates vary based on inputs (e.g., energy for mitigation of
pollution excluded, transportation)
 Resource versus Reserve
• Resources – include all
deposits on Earth (those
that are known and those
that have yet to be
discovered; those that are
economical and those that
aren’t economical yet)

• Reserves – a known
quantity of resource that can
be extracted economically by
today’s standards
 Formation of Fossil Fuels
• Coal is derived from plant matter in a terrestrial (land)
environment, from the Carboniferous
• Oil comes from algae (marine environment)
• Natural gas is a byproduct of thermal maturation of both oil
and coal
• Most abundant natural gas is methane (CH4)
 Advantages of Fossil Fuels
• Global availability
• Efficient source of energy
• Low cost
• Fossil fuels are more cost effective than nuclear or
renewable energy sources
• Existing infrastructure
• tankers/pipelines/refineries
• switching to another source would be costly
• Power plants can be set up anywhere
 Coal
• Most abundant of all
fossil fuels
• Nowadays, mostly used to
fire power plants
(electricity)
• Various environmental
problems (alters land,
water pollution, air
pollution)
• Formed from plants in
swampy forests (started
300-400 mio years ago),
covered by sediment and
water before decay
• Peat: wet, partially
decomposed mixture of
organic material
 Carbon and Energy Content Varies
• Coal seams: layers of sediment that contain coal
• Lignite: younger deposits, subjected to less heat and pressure
• Soft, high moisture content, 25–35% carbon, energy: 3.0–4.5 kWh/kg
• Sub-bituminous coal: 35–45% carbon; higher energy content than
lignite
• Bituminous coal: much denser because of higher heat and pressure, 45–
86% carbon, 5–8 kWh/kg
• Anthracite coal: dark and shiny, highest energy content of all types of
coal, 86–97% carbon, >8 kWh/kg, less common, only at great depths
 Proved Coal Reserves
• Hard coal: bituminous + anthracite coal, less pollutants, higher energy
content, more widely used
• EROI: 40-80
• Depends on accessibility, type, transport
• Highest for anthracite from anthracite that is burned closeby
• Majority: low-quality coal,
requires more energy
• Global reserves: >890 bio metric tons
• 45% hard coal
• R/P ratio: 114 (7.8 bio metric t in 2016)

• Coal deposits widely distributed

• 67% of recoverable reserves in 4 countries
(US, Russia, China, India)
• US ranks #1 in coal production
US Coal Deposits
 Coal Mining
• Underground mining (>200-1000 ft deep)
• Surface mining (strip mining, <200 ft)
• Overburden (=topsoil and rock layers) removed by machines
• Mountaintop removal (controversial), overburden dumped in valleys, affecting
stream water quality and habitats (e.g., West Virginia, Kentucky)

Mine shafts & tunnels

 Coal Mining
Surface Mining (strip
mining)
• Recover 90-95% of the coal
• Much cheaper to extract
coal
• Relatively safe
Underground Mining
• Recover only 40-50% of
the coal
• Leave some pillars of
coal for support
• More expensive method
• Extremely dangerous
• Collapse
• Explosions
 Coal Processing
• Processing:
• cleaning to remove dirt, rock, sulfur, and other impurities
• Transport to coal-burning power plant and end users (train, trucks, pipeline)
• Global use: 67% electricity, 30% industrial end use (steel production)
• US use: >90% electricity production (50 years ago >50% heating and
industry)

• Coal-fired power plant:

• Coal is burnt at high temperature to produce pressurized steam
• Turns turbines attached to a generator
• Scrubbers remove pollutants (Sox, Nox) from exhaust (released from smoke stack)
• Steam is emitted from conical cooling towers
• Solid material left behind is fly ash
• Old plants: energy conversion efficiency <25% (only ¼ converted into electricity)
• Modern plants: improved technology >40% efficiencies
 Coal Processing
• Coal is burned to produce heat --- captured in a boiler, used to produce
pressurized steam --- turns a turbine --- powers an electrical generator ---
steam condenses into liquid water --- remaining heat is dissipated to the
air in cooling towers or to the water in a river or lake
 Coal and the Environment
• More environmental challenges than any other energy source
• Dangers of underground mining:
• potential cave-ins, flooding, dust, gas explosions
• Mining accidents (2016 fatalities: US 10, China 900)
• Life-threatening respiratory diseases (coal dust inhalation)
• Mine tailings: rock and debris from mining operations, high sulfide
content, transformed to sulfuric acid due to O2 exposure, harms fish and
other aquatic organisms in nearby streams
• Surface mining:
• Destroys terrestrial ecosystems
• Overburden may be returned and
covered by layer of topsoil,
revegetation to prevent erosion
• Mountaintop removal:
• >700 miles of mountain streams buried
• Affects wildlife, flooding, degrades water
in streams
 Coal and the Environment
• Exhaust and fly ash from coal fires:
• toxic chemicals harmful to humans and other organisms
• Fine particulate soot causes respiratory distress
• Mercury accumulated in wetlands is released into atmosphere and streams/lakes ---
animal & human tissue --- neurological disorders
• 140 mio t fly ash/year (stored in open-air pits or waste ponds, Hg; can spill into
waterways)
• Other chemicals: nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides are converted to acids when
mixing with rainwater

Collapse of an old drainage pipe in a

North Carolina coal ash pond
resulted in the release of tens of
thousands of tons of coal ash
and millions of gallons of
contaminated water in the Dan
River in 2014. Cleanup costs will
likely exceed $300 million.
 Coal and the Environment
• Visual blight – eyesore (strip mining)

• Land subsidence (underground mining)

• Gradual or sudden sinking/settling of Earth’s surface due to the collapse
of underground mines

• Enormous amount of waste

• Coal industry produces hundreds of millions of tons of waste annually
• Leads to soil and water contamination issues

• Acid Mine Drainage – when rainfall infiltrates into coal waste

piles and reacts with pyrite (iron-sulfide mineral) in the presence
of free oxygen to produce acidic, metal-rich contaminated water
 Coal and the Environment
• Reduction of pollutant concentrations:
• New technologies
• Improved cleaning methods
• Scrubbers: remove NOx, SOx (>90% reduction), and Hg (30-40%
reduction)
• Impact of coal burning:
• 80% more CO2 released than by gas combustion
• 30% more CO2 than by oil combustion
• 1000-mW plant: produces 6 mio metric tons of CO2/year (= 2 mio
cars)
• Future:
• By 2030: doubling of coal consumption (mainly
electricity/developing countries)
• China: 2-3 plants commissioned each month
• Planned plants will emit as much CO2 as since the beginning of
Industrial Revolution
• Therefore: interest in alternative energy sources has increased
 Oil and Natural Gas
• Formed under specific conditions in few places
• Crude oil (petroleum) formed from the remains of microorganisms that
lived in shallow seas and coastal swamps hundreds of millions of years ago
• Microorganisms died --- sank to bottom ---thick layers of organic matter
---buried under sediment layers (tens of thousands of years)
• no oxygen, heat, pressure
• transforms to kerogen: waxy substance, precursor to oil and natural gas
• Kerogen becomes crude oil at depth of 2-3 miles above 200°F
• Natural gas:
• formed from kerogen at very high T and P in deep deposits
• mix of hydrocarbon gases (mainly methane, smaller amounts of other gases,
such as propane)
• colorless and odorless
• Oil and gas lighter than water --- migrate upward
 Oil and Natural Gas
• Conventional oil and gas reservoirs:
• formed in porous rocks with enough organic matter to produce oil
and an impermeable rock cap prevented its upward movement
• Natural gas is lighter than oil ---trapped above the oil
• Rocks with pores and fractures hold oil (similar to sponge)
 Oil and Natural Gas
• Unconventional reservoirs:
• oil and gas can accumulate in shale (sedimentary rock formed from
muddy deposits rich in organic matter)
• crude oil can also be produced from tar in sandy deposits (e.g.,
Canada, Kazakhstan, and Russia)

• Geological conditions necessary for reservoir formation:

1. Shallow sea with large concentration of aquatic organisms that died,
sank, were covered by sediments, and transformed into oil by T and
P
2. Oil must migrate upward into porous rock reservoir
3. Rock must be covered by impermeable rock layer (cap rock) that
traps the oil
 Oil Reserves
• Oil reservoirs are concentrated in certain geographical regions:
• >50% in five Middle Eastern countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates
• 18% Venezuela
• 10% Canada
(tar sands)
• 2% US
 Natural Gas Reserves
• Largest reserves generally occur where oil is abundant
• 2/3 in Middle East and Eastern Europe (~90% Russia, Turkmenistan)
• Challenge: distant from regions with largest demand
• North American countries:
• consume ~30% of
annual gas production
• posses ~6%
• Middle East:
• consume ~12%
• possess >40%

• US reserves: 8.5 trillion m3

• But R/P ratio = 12.5
• Production rate: 0.77 trio m3/a
 Oil and Natural Gas
• Oil supply is finite:
• Total global oil consumption (past 100 years): 1.2 trillion barrels
• Proved oil reserves: 1.7 trillion barrels
• Global annual production: 33.5 billion barrels
• R/P ratio = 50.7 (reserves depleted in ~50 years)
• BUT: oil demand is increasing (global consumption might exceed 70
billion barrels/year in less than 20 years) --- shorter time to depletion
• Uncertainties: how much oil in ground, how much can be accessed,
new technologies

• Natural gas supply is finite:

• Total global gas reserves (2016): 186.9 trillion cubic meters
• Global annual production: 3.54 trillion m3/year
• R/P ratio = 53
• BUT: production might double by 2030
 Oil Production
Oil extraction and processing:
• Crude oil is pumped from reservoirs and sent to refineries
• Primary oil recovery: during drilling, first, enough
pressure to push crude oil up to surface
• Original flow (first 20%)
• EROI ~25 (25 units of energy obtained for each unit of energy used to
extract it)
• Secondary oil recovery: additional methods, injecting
water to increase pressure
• Additional 10-20%
• EROI = 8-12
• Tertiary oil recovery: flow of additional oil is stimulated
by injecting Co2 steam or hot water into reservoirs
• Injection of CO2 steam
• Fracking
• Additional 10-20%
• EROI <6
 Hydraulic Fracking/Fracturing
• Some rocks not porous
enough for sufficient oil flow
• Hydraulic Fracking:
developed over past 25 years
• used to extract oil or natural
gas from shale deposits
several thousand feet beneath
the surface
• Well shafts are drilled
horizontally into the shale
deposits and injected with a
mixture of liquids and sand
(high-pressure liquids)
• Rocks fracture, sand holds
fractures open
• EROI = 5-6
Hydraulic Fracking/Fracturing
 Hydraulic Fracking/Fracturing
Environmental issues:
• Water availability (3.5–26 million
liters; 1–7 million gallons of
water per well)
• spills of chemicals at the surface
• impacts of sand mining for use in
the hydraulic fracturing process
• surface water quality degradation
from waste fluid disposal
• Noise and air pollution
• groundwater quality degradation
• induced seismicity from the
injection of waste fluids into
deep disposal wells
 Alternative Fossil Fuels
Tar sands (e.g., Alberta Canada):
• Deposits near the surface
• Accessed by process similar to open-pit mining, boreal forest is
cleared, sand is removed and processed
• ~2 t of tar sand produce one barrel of oil (42 gallons)
 Natural Gas
• pumped from underground reservoirs, purified (water,
S, other gases), and sent to consumers by pipeline
• Fracking used to produce natural gas from shale
deposits

Total reserves US: 14-28 trillion m3

 Natural Gas
• Liquefied natural gas (LNG):
• For transport across the ocean
• Natural gas cooled to -160°C --- liquid
• Takes up 1/600 of space compared with gas
• Transport becomes economical (ocean tankers)

• Global gas consumers:

• Industry (44% of total gas production; boilers, furnaces,
raw material)
• Electric power (25% energy source in households, 31%
generate electricity)
 Environmental degradation
Transportation of oil & gas and combustion have significant
environmental consequences:
• Building of artificial structures (roads, pipelines, cities) in
environmentally sensitive areas
• Disrupts natural ecosystem, risks habitat and wildlife
• Many oil and gas reserves in coastal waters
• Tanker or platform spills
• Ocean ecosystems at risk (wildlife/fisheries)
• 2010 explosion and fire BP’S Deepwater Horizon drilling platform; 11
workers killed; ~5 mio barrels oil released into Gulf of Mexico – largest
marine oil spill in history
• 1988 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill released ~11 million gallons (Alaska)
• Leaking pipelines can cause soil and water contamination issues
(methane; one broken gas pipe in Ca 2016: 97000 metric tons of
gas leaked over 5 months)
• Air pollution from gasoline and diesel-powered automobiles and
trucks (combustion accounts for 31% of human-caused greenhouse
gas emissions)
 Extra Credit #4 – 5 points each
Nuclear Power (Chapter 14.4)
• Describe the chain reaction that provides energy for
nuclear power plants.
• How is the heat from the fission of 235U captured to
produce electricity in a nuclear power plant?
• Describe two ways of storing high-level radioactive
waste.
Electrical Power (Chapter 14.5)
• Describe two ways that the current system of
distributing electricity impacts the environment.