10. Coal, Natural gas, fracking, and carbon sequestration Flashcards
What is coal?
- naturally occurring carbon rich rock
- was used for daily things, but now mainly to heat power plants and produce electricity
- 300 million years old, from carboniferous period.
- made of carbon, abundant in graphite
- formed from woody material , organic matter “peat” metamorphosed constantly, becoming more and more carbon rich and losing moisture
How much coal do we have left? How much have we burned?
We have 1 trillion tons left, we’ve burned 1 trillion tons
How much coal does the US produce every year?
1 billion tons of coal
What does burning coal release?
sulfuric acid, nitrogen oxides, basically air pollution (poor AQI, air quality index)
Walk through the metamorphosis of peat to form coal.
- Peat- organic matter
- Woody lignite (25-30%)
- Bituminous coal (60-80%)
- Anthracite (92-98%)
Is the production of coal dropping?
Yes.
What is natural gas?
- A fossil fuel we use to heat homes, make electricity, run cars
- ex butane, methane
- access it through fracking, which is terrible
What is fracking?
Drilling a hole, pumping watr with mud and chemicals to fracture underground rock
- wastes water, damages water supply, induce earthquakes
PETM (Paleocene- Eocene Thermal Maximum)
- time period with more than 5-8 celsius global average temperature rise
- had 1000 ppmv CO2
- if we burn all our carbon (1 trillion tons), we’ll have this much ppmv
- 50-60 million years ago
How much electricity generation comes from coal?
1/3
Coal and natural gas account for x amount of total energy consumption.
1/2
How much of electricity generated comes from coal?
1/3
What can we do to stop emission of CO2?
- Switch to renewable energy sources
- Use non-CO2 producing energy sources
- develop fusion
- sequester CO2- pump into bedrock
Order oil, natural gas, and coal in terms of CO2 production.
coal> oil>natural gas
