Carbon Flashcards
Tar sands
- Mixture of clay, sand, water, and bitumen which forms a very viscous oil
- has to be pumped and mixed with steam to be extracted
Deep water oil
Oil found very deep under oceans
Oil shale
Fossil fuels that haven’t been under enough pressure to form oil
Shale gas
Natural gas trapped inside impermeable shale rocks
Positives of deep water oil
- Robots can now stop oil spills in 45 seconds
- creates jobs in places like Brazil
Negatives of Deep water oil
- Difficult to extract
- High costs
Positives of tar sands
- Can be economically worth it when the price of standard oil is high
Negatives of tar sands
- The extraction is very bad for the environment ( 3x worse than normal oil)
- Disrupts landscape as you need to quarry for it instead of drill down
- destroys ecosystems by contaminating water supplies
Positives of oil shale
- New technology means it can be extracted a lot more efficiently
Negatives of oil shale
- High level of energy used in extraction
- uses a lot of water to extract
Positives of shale gas
- Lower carbon footprint when transporting compared to other fuels
- Flexible uses
Negatives of shale gas
- Fracking is used to extract it which can cause tremors and contaminate water supplies
Location example of deep water oil
Brazil
Location example of tar sands
Canada, Venezuela
Location example of oil shale
Colorado, Utah, Wyoming
Radical technology: carbon capture
Capturing carbon and storing it deep under ground
Positives of carbon capture
- reverses the problem instead of just reducing it
- The carbon captured can be sold which keeps things sustainable
Negatives of carbon capture
- Very complex technology
- Not many capture stations
Radical technology: Hydrogen fuel cells
Fuel cells that intake hydrogen and release water as a waste product instead of carbon
Positives of hydrogen fuel cells
No bad emissions
Negatives of hydrogen fuel cells
- can combust which is very dangerous
Radical technology: electric vehicles
- Using electricity to fuel cars over fossil fuels
- Only really effective if electricity is original gained sustainably
Positives of electric cars
No bad emissions
Negatives of electric cars
- lower battery capacity
- fewer charging stations
- quiet engine noise, can cause traffic accidents