Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

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Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources
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Energy Resources and Fossil Fuels
Chapter 17
Know the numbers!

• A fossil fuel is a nonrenewable energy resource
  formed from the remains of organisms that lived
  long ago examples include oil, coal, and natural
  gas.
• Most of the energy we use comes from fossil
  fuels.
• We use fossil fuels to run cars, ships, planes,
  and factories and to produce electricity.

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List of Non-Renewable Resources
1. Fossil Fuels -Coal -Natural Gas
-Oil 2. Nuclear Energy
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Energy Resources and Fossil Fuels

• Fossil fuels are central to life in modern
  societies, but there are two main problems with
  fossil fuels.
• The supply of fossil fuels is limited.
• Obtaining and using them has environmental
  consequences.
• -Using fossil fuels increases the carbon
  footprint
• -Examples of negative consequences
• -Acid Rain
• -Global warming (increase in CO2)
• -release CFCs (destroys the ozone layer)

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How Fossil-Fuel Deposits Form

• Fossil fuel deposits are not distributed evenly.
• There is an abundance of oil in Texas and Alaska,
  but very little in Maine.
• The eastern United States produces more coal than
  other areas.
• The reason for this difference lies in the
  geologic history of the areas.

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Coal Formation

• Coal forms from the remains of plants that lived
  in swamps hundreds of millions of years ago.
• As ocean levels rose and fell, swamps were
  repeatedly covered with sediment.
• Layers of sediment compressed the plant remains,
  and heat and pressure within the Earths crust
  caused coal to form.
• Much of the coal in the United States formed
  about 300 to 250 million years ago.

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Oil and Natural Gas Formation

• Oil and natural gas result from the decay of tiny
  marine organisms that accumulated on the bottom
  of the ocean millions of years ago.
• These remains were buried by sediments and then
  heated until they became complex energy-rich
  carbon molecules.
• Over time these molecules migrated into the
  porous rock formations that now contain them.

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Nuclear Energy

• In the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear power plants were
  seen as the power source of the future because
  the fuel they use is clean and plentiful.
• In the 1970s and 1980s, however, many planned
  nuclear power plants were cancelled and others
  under construction were abandoned.
• Today, nuclear power
• accounts for 17 of the
• worlds electricity.

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Fission Splitting Atoms

• Nuclear power plants get their power from nuclear
  energy.
• Nuclear energy is the binding energy of the
  atomic nucleus energy released by a fission or
  fusion reaction
• Fissionsplit apart Fusionput
  together
• The forces that hold together a nucleus of an
  atom are more than 1 million times stronger than
  the chemical bonds between atoms.
• In nuclear power plants, the element uranium is
  used as the fuel.

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Fission Splitting Atoms

• The nuclei of uranium atoms are bombarded with
  atomic particles called neutrons. These
  collisions cause the nuclei to split in a process
  called nuclear fission.
• Nuclear fission releases a tremendous amount of
  energy and more neutrons, which in turn collide
  with more uranium nuclei.

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Renewable Energy

• Renewable energy is energy from sources that are
  constantly being formed.
• Types of renewable energy includes
• Solar energy
• Wind energy
• Hydroelectric
• Geothermal
• Biomass
• Tidal Power
• Wave Power

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Solar EnergyPower from the Sun

• Nearly all renewable energy comes directly or
  indirectly from the sun.
• Direct solar energy is used every day, like when
  the sun shines on a window and heats a room.
• Solar energy can also be used indirectly to
  generate electricity in solar cells.

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Passive solar heating

• Passive solar heating is the use of sunlight to
  heat buildings directly.
• Large windows that face the sun can be used to
  heat a home
• Active solar heating is the gathering of solar
  energy by collectors that are used to heat water
  or heat a building.
• A liquid is heated by the sun as it flows through
  solar collectors.
• The hot liquid is then pumped through heat
  exchangers, which heats water for the building.

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Photovoltaic Cells

• Photovoltaic cells are solar cells that convert
  the suns energy into electricity.
• Solar cells have no moving parts, and they run on
  nonpolluting power from the sun.
• However, they produce a very small electrical
  current. Meeting the electricity needs of a small
  city would require covering hundreds of acres
  with solar panels.

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Wind Power

• Energy from the sun warms the Earths surface
  unevenly, which causes air masses to flow (wind)
• Wind power, which converts the movement of wind
  into electric energy, is the fastest growing
  energy source in the world.

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Wind Farms

• Windmills spin a turbine, which is used to
  capture the energy from the wind.
• Large arrays of wind turbines are called wind
  farms. Large wind farms supply electricity to
  thousands of homes.
• In windy rural areas, small wind farms with 20 or
  fewer turbines are also becoming common.
• Because wind turbines take up little space, some
  farmers can add wind turbines to their land and
  still use the land for other purposes.

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BiomassPower from Living Things

• Biomass fuel consists of plant material, manure,
  or any other organic matter that is used as an
  energy source.
• Fossil fuels can be thought of as biomass energy
  sources, although they are nonrenewable.
• Renewable biomass fuels, such as wood and dung,
  are major sources of energy in developing
  countries.

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Methane

• When bacteria decompose organic wastes, one
  byproduct is methane gas.
• Methane can be burned to generate heat or
  electricity.
• In China, more than 6 million households use
  biogas digesters to ferment manure and produce
  gas for heating and cooking.
• Some landfills in the United States generate
  electricity by using the methane from the
  decomposition of trash.

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Alcohol

• Liquid fuels can also be derived from biomass.
• For example, ethanol can be made by fermenting
  fruit or agricultural waste.
• Cars and trucks can run on ethanol or gasohol, a
  blend of gasoline and ethanol. Gasohol produces
  less air pollution than fossil fuels.
• Some states require the use of gasohol in
  vehicles as a way to reduce air pollution.

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HydroelectricityPower from Moving Water

• Hydroelectric energy is electrical energy
  produced by falling water.
• Hydroelectric energy accounts for 20 of the
  worlds electricity.
• The water in a reservoir is released to turn a
  turbine in a dam, which generates electricity.

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Geothermal EnergyPower from the Earth

• Geothermal energy is the energy produced by heat
  within the Earth.
• Although geothermal energy is considered a
  renewable resource, the water that is used must
  be managed carefully so that it is not depleted.

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Geothermal Energy

• Geothermal power plants generate electricity
  using the following steps
• Steam rises through a well
• Steam drives turbines, which generate electricity
• Leftover liquid is pumped back into the hot rock
• The leftover liquid, water, is returned to
  Earths crust because it can be reheated by
  geothermal energy and used again.

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Other terms to know -aggregate The mixture of
gravel, sand, and crushed stone which is an
extremely useful
construction material. -carrying capacity The
number of organisms that any given environment
can support -desertification the rapid
depletion of plant life and the loss of topsoil
in semiarid regions, usually caused by a
combination of drought and the overexploitation
of grasses and other vegetation by people.
-peat a brown, soil-like material
characteristic of boggy, acid ground, consisting
of partly decomposed vegetable matter. It is
widely cut and dried for use in gardening and as
fuel. -Clean Water Act is the primary federal
law in the United States governing water
pollution. Passed in 1972, the objective is to
restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and
biological integrity of the nation's waters by
preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources,
providing assistance to publicly owned treatment
works for the improvement of wastewater
treatment, and maintaining the integrity of
wetlands.