Fossil Fuels

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Fossil Fuels

• Chapter 19

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1. Natural Gas

• What it is
• Mixture of methane (50-90), heavier hydrocarbons
  (ethane, propane, butane) and small amounts of
  H2S (highly toxic)
• Properties
• Highly flammable transportation difficult. Done
  in pipelines
• Cleanest burning fossil fuel
• Methane is dried, cleansed of H2S, pumped in low
  pressure lines nationally.
• Heavier gases are removed as liquefied petroleum
  gas (LPG) for use in rural areas.

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Natural Gas Distribution
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Hydraulic Fracturing

• How
• Pumping water chemicals under high pressure
  underground to force natural gas/petroleum to
  surface
• Problems
• Possible groundwater contamination
• CH4 released
• Release of Fracking Chemicals

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http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileHydroFrac.png
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How Long Will Natural Gas Last?

• At current consumption rate, factoring in
  undiscovered reserves, approximately 125 years.
• Including unconventional sources, 200-325 years

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2. Coal

• What is it
• Solid fuel formed from plant matter during
  Carboniferous period, 360-285 million years ago.
• C content increases, water content decreases over
  time
• Ranked according to energy content

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Type Energy Content (megajoules/kg) Location in US
1. Anthracite 30-34 PA
2. Bituminous 23-34 Appalachia, Midwest, West
3. Subbituminous 16-23 West
4. Lignite 13-16 Gulf Coast, No. Great Plains
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• Half is acquired through Strip-Mining (Surface
  Mining)
• Acid Mine Drainage
• rainfall reacts with exposed rock, reacts with
  sulfides, produces sulfuric acid.
• Processed to remove much sulfur before burning
• Uses of Coal
• converted into synthetic oil or gas.
• Mostly used by power plants to create electricity
  (60 of electricity produced).
• Transported by train and coal slurry pipelines
  (uses more water).

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Open Pit Mining digging at the surface to
extract ore
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Coal Surface Mining in Wyoming
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_miningStrip_mi
ning
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Coal Mine in India
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File182619562_00d6f7
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Pollution Coal

• Burning releases mercury into env.
• Takes a great deal of water expensive, heavy
  environmental impact
• Production of NOx and SOx
• Particulate Ash
• Treatment--Scrubbing
• calcium carbonate-rich materials are injected
  into the gases produced from burning coal,
  producing hydrated calcium sulfite as sludge.
• Disposal issues.

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How Long Will Coal Last?

• At current consumption, 225 years. If usage
  rises 2/yr, 65 years.
• Believed to be unidentified reserves projected to
  last 900 years.

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3. OIL!

• Petroleum (crude oil)
• thick liquid consisting of hundreds of
  combustible hydrocarbons.
• Impurities
• sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen other impurities.
• Formation
• decomposition of organic matter (mostly plant)
• extreme pressures temperatures
• millions of years
• Usually dispersed throughout pores in rocks.

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Oil Recover 3 Stage Process

• Primary
• Drilling a well, then remove oil that flows into
  the well.
• Secondary
• Pumping water under high pressure into a nearby
  well, forcing oil out, pump up to surface,
• remove water from oil and reuse the water for
  recovery.
• Tertiary
• Use of superheated steam, CO2 or detergent to
  dissolve oil, then removed from that.
• Large amounts of energy needed (1/3 barrel for
  every barrel produced)
• Production clip

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Fractional Distillation

• Separating the components that make up crude oil.
• Uses boiling points of the various fractions

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64 in the Middle East 26 in Saudi Arabia alone
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Oil Facts

• US uses 30 of crude oil extracted 68 for
  transportation
• 130.00 per barrel on 6/6/08
• 48.92 per barrel 4/22/09
• 91.58 per barrel 4/25/13
• 1 barrel petroleum 42 gallons

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Just How Much Is There?

• Resource
• A concentration of material that is economically
  feasible to extract, now or in the future.
• Reserve
• Portion of the resource that can be extracted
  now, economically legally.

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Reserves

• Production of reserves expected to peak between
  2010 and 2030. Peaked in US in 1975.
• Undiscovered supplies may extend it 20-40 years.

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Other Sources of Oil

• Oil Shale fine-grained sedimentary rock
  containing kerogen.
• Distilled to form shale oil.
• Potentially recoverable from CO, UT, WY.
• Generally very low grade, takes much energy.
• Tar sand mixture of clay, sand, water bitumen
  (thick, high sulfur oil).
• Most lie below earths surface those close can
  be mined.
• Largest deposits in Canada, UT, Venezuela,
  Colombia, Russia.

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Hubberts Prediction for Peak Oil Production
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileHubbert_peak_oil
_plot.svg