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Geog > Carbon 2.5 - 2.8 > Flashcards

Carbon 2.5 - 2.8 Flashcards

1
Q

Fracking process 1

A

Long vertical hole, divided down through layers of sediment to 2.5-3k, for about 1.5k through shale rock.
- specialised gun fixed in the rock, creating small holes which burst rock layers
- 3-4 months after drilling, fracking fluid pumped in at high pressures = crack shale rock, gas and oil escape from these fractures

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2
Q

Fracking process costs

A
  • expensive
  • high tech
  • disfigures landscape
  • releases methane during process
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3
Q

Tar/ Oil Sands process definition + con

A

Open pit mining used to extract bitumen within 75m of surface

Wastewater stored in manmade dams, very contaminated

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4
Q

Tar/ Oil sands

A
  • Oil sands shovelled into crushers to be broken down + mixed with heated water to separate bitumen from sand bitumen.
  • Steam pumped underground through horizontal wells to liquid bitumen, then pumped up to surface
  • Bitumen requires upgrading process to become conventional oil
  • Refined into common petroleum products
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5
Q

Deep water oil, Gulf of Mexico

A

Approx. 3400 offshore drilling wells in the gulf of Mexico which can reach considerable ocean depths (>150 m)
• Deepwater Horizon drilling rig is a semi-submersible –owned by TransOcean and leased by oil company BP to supply USA
• Drilling rig is not fixed and can be transported by ship
• Famous for BP Oil disaster 2010
• Site located in Macondo Oil well offshore from
• Water depth was ultra-deep at 1,500 m (5,000 ft)
• Recent improvements in technology have meant profitability of deepwater oil rests at ~$50 per barrel (competitive) – but still double that of Middle East

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6
Q

Deepwater horizon disaster 2010

A

Occurred 20th April 2010
- BPs Deepwater rig exploded as methane gas was released
- ,later collapsed and sunk into the Gulf of Mexico
- killed 11 people and injured 17 others
- blowout of oil lasted for 87 days following incident
- 4.2 million gallons of oil released in total
- area home to 8332 animal species, now at risk
- huge risk to Louisiana’s £2.4 billion fishing industry and coastal tourism
- transocean received £401m insurance for loss of rig, whereas BP could face up to 20 billion in charges

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7
Q

Economic costs

A

Potential high costs of extraction and supply due to technical difficulties
• High prices lead to better returns of difficult Areas
• The easy areas have generally been discovered; some areas could be economically marginal due to extraction costs / variability in oil price
• Disputed areas such as the Arctic could lead to political conflict, with associated economic costs

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8
Q

Environmental costs

A

• Some areas are fragile and ecosystems are sensitive to human impact, e.g. the arctic tundra and Peruvian Amazon
• Extraction from oil shales and tar sands, plus heavy oil, is energy intensive; could raise CO2emissions even before fuel is used.
• Possibility of spills in marine areas, especially as technology is new; could lead to damage to the sea bed and even impacts on areas that have yet to be ecologically explored

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9
Q

Consequences of using alternative energy sources

A

Lower oil prices, which is a commodity. Energy independency for country, employment improves quality of life. Improves wealth, can have knock on effects on social welfare e.g. investment into social programs

Spills can deteriorate ecosystem deeply. Breaking of rocks causes fractures and faults in rock, and methane leaks are potent.

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10
Q

Wind turbines - Iceland

A

• KE is converted into electricity
• Cheap to build, w/ huge generation capacity offshore
• 2 turbines installed in South Iceland (2012)
• plans to build offshore wind plant
But: Lots of energy is lost running through electricity transmission lines
• Iceland receives lots of storms
- Wind turbines do not pollute or produce GHG

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11
Q

Solar energy:

A
  • High costs + use up farmland + unreliable
    • Iceland low solar insolation = very little sunlight in winter
    • Expensive transmission lines needed to move electricity you lose efficiency
    • Local want solar panels on houses – look out of place in Iceland’s rugged
    • Rare earth minerals are needed – Iceland has many of these
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12
Q

Hydro electric power:

A

• Flowing water drives turbine, which generates electricity, dams hold back water, fed by gravity through turbines
• 80% of Iceland’s electricity from HEP – mainly Karahnjukar Plant.
• 8 other HEP plants
• Iceland only generates 17% of the total harnessable hydroelectric energy in the country
• Building dams floods farmland, causes erosion downstream and ugly in landscape + maintenance to prevent leakage

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13
Q

Global strategy

A

• IPCC target is to treble renewable and recyclabe output by 2050 (from 3%)
• The use of wind and solar energy is increasing but others are uncertain, e.g. nuclear down in Japan

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14
Q

How does Denmark do it - Nordpool

A

• Reciprocal agreements with Norway, Sweden, Germany (e.g. HEP from Norway) to share energy generation.
Passing expertise to other groups of countries

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15
Q

How else does Denmark do it

A

National policies and reducing consumption
• Wind energy is 40%
• They’ve developed a holistic strategy
• Green / carbon taxes
• Underground heating system
• Building codes
• Energy efficiency
• Investment in renewables
• Climate change laws
• Tax incentives
Energy saving

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16
Q

Motivating factors, why do renewables?

A

• Wealth creation through research and development
• ‘Green’ politics (‘green economy)
Fear of nuclear

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17
Q

Demotivating factors, why hold off renewables?

A

• Declining oil prices (LT)
• Local-scale impact on the environment (e.g. reservoirs)
Perceptions of nuclear

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18
Q

Denmark

A

• Considerable fossil fuel reserves
• self-sufficiency threatened from 2050+
• Energy Strategy 2050: to be independent of fossil fuels
• Now highest energy security in the EU
• 42% came from wind in 2015
• Connected to NordPool countries

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19
Q

Biofuels in Brazil

A

• Began to diversify in the 1970s – investing in HEP and then biofuels
• 4% comes from renewable sources, 90% of passenger vehicles sold have flex-fuel engines
• It’s the world’s largest producer of sugar cane: - leading exporter
• Sugar cane grown for 500 years, now in order to produce ethanol
• Cars run on mixture of ethanol and petrol (flex-fuel)
• With oil price increases in 1970s, this was all heavily encouraged by the government.
• Subsidies started to be removed in 1990s – but still vast usage and demand

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20
Q

Advantages of biofuels in brazil

A

• Bio-refineries produce 930,000 barrels of oil / day, $50bn/yr, 1.34 direct jobs, 16% of energy
• They’ve also worked out how to produce electricity from Bagasse – recycled waste plant material
• Ethanol industry provides 11 jobs for every tonne of oil that is produced – work is formalised and better paid
Sugar cane provides between 8-10 times more energy than input required – and reduces ghg emissions by 90%

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21
Q

Problems of biofuels

A

• Removal of carbon storage (less sequestration) – so there is more CO2 in the atmosphere.
• Government reduced taxes on fossil fuels to control inflation– and this created problems for biofuel farmers (less stability)
• More recent demand increases have meant larger areas need for sugar cane production
Less space for pastoral land and agriculture = competition for primary rainforest , and increased methane production

22
Q

If developing countries take the burden of producing biofuels

A

Ideas of a perpetual poverty cycle for farmers if developing countries take the burden of producing the most biofuels. Will create further inequality, a staple of neocolonialism as investors will gain and get richer, while the farmers will remain in the primary sector, causing further inequalities in the long term.

23
Q

General advantages of biofuels

A

Only viable replacement to petroleum transportation fuels as they can be used in existing combustion engines

Energy security in regions without hydrocarbon, but strong natural

Replenish a lot faster

24
Q

General problems with biofuels

A

Agricultural product, so producing could mean competition with other essential resource like food, water.

1st generation use only edible crops, so have displaced food in some regions

Deforestation and biodiversity losses well as water use

25
Q

Brazil case study extra

A

Brazil makes it law to mix ethanol and petrol.
Has huge amount of energy on biofuels.
When gov reduced taxes on fossil fuels, ethanol struggled to compete, biofuel plants were bankrupted, suggesting that fossil fuels are still the rational choice, without considering negative externalities

26
Q

Taxing - impact on ecosystems

A

• The polluter pays could be argued; in ‘green’ countries (Norway) taxes are highest therefore accounting for the externalities of the technology.
• Promotes reduced fuel use therefore better for environment
Taxes may not be spent on improving things

27
Q

Subsidising: impact on ecosystems

A

• Promotes excessive use and damage to the environment e.g. air pollution.
Urban sprawl / road building encouraged due to low fuel prices

28
Q

Taxing: impact on humans

A

• Unhappy, highly taxed people e.g. ‘I’m sick of being the polluter who pays’
• Could reduce pollution and therefore promote health; taxes may be spent on public transport or directed into other areas e.g. healthcare.
Could mean protest against gov if taxes seem unfair?

29
Q

Subsidising: impact on humans

A

• Promotes excessive use, likely to increase pollution and reduce effective allocation of resources
• negative externalities of low air quality
- opportunity cost

30
Q

Will radical technologies work (PEEST)

A

• P: public may be against/ not care enough for there to be a political incentive.
• E: might use tax which is unpopular - Grants for micro-generation in the UK have been criticised for being difficult to obtain and under-funded.
• E/S: limited by physical geo + expensive, but emissions are low
• E/T: tech not fully proven, e.g hydrogen .
- T: CCS allow coal to be used without releasing CO2, but unproved on a commercial scale likely to be costly.

31
Q

Norway carbon capture storage

A

• The Sleipner CO2 Storage facility was the first in the world to inject CO2 into a dedicated geological storage setting.
• Located offshore Norway, has captured CO2 as part of the Sleipner area gas development since 1996.
• The captured CO2 is directly injected into an offshore sandstone reservoir.
• Approximately 0.85 million tonnes of CO2 is injected per annum and over 17 million tonnes has been injected since inception to date (2017).

32
Q

Norway energy timeline

A

Discovered oil in 1960s – and used it to develop significant sovereign wealth funds
Wanted to avoid Dutch Disease: so diversified
Electricity entire from HEP
Also uses tidal power and connects to Sweden and Netherlands
Developing thorium (based on waste product of nuclear)
First Carbon-Capture storage in 1995
Still has to reduce CO2 emissions

33
Q

Thorium process + some pros cons

A
  • mining of thorium with plutonium to provide a substitute to uranium fuel pellets
  • could also be used for turning existing waste into fuel
  • still produces harmful, radioactive waste
  • produces energy without negative externalities
34
Q

Tar sands in general

A

Tar sands - mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen, tar sands have to be mined and then injected with steam to make the tar less viscous so that it can be pumped out

35
Q

Oil shale in gens

A
  • Oil shale = oil bearing rocks that are permeable enough to allow the oil to. Be upped out directly, either mined or shale is ignited so light oil fractions can be pumped out
36
Q

Shale gas in gens

A

natural gas trapped in fine grained sedimentary rocks, extracted by fracking: pumping in water and chemicals forces out the gas

37
Q

Deepwater oil

A

oil and gas found well offshore and at considerable oceanic depths, drilling takes place from ocean rigs

38
Q

General cons with unconventional fossil fuels

A
  • Tar sands, oil shale, shale, gas, deepwater oil

• They are still fossil fuels, extraction is costly and requires high tech, threaten environmental damage - deepwater horizon.

39
Q

Renewable energy in gens

A
  • Hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, tidal
  • Difficulties include: expensive, environmental costs from drowning river valleys to create HEP reservoirs and large areas of land covered by solar/ wind farms
40
Q

NUCLEAR IN GENS

A

nuclear waste can be reprocessed and reused, but risks from safety and security, disposal of radioactive waste with long decay life, tech is complex - not suitable for developing, startup costs are high

41
Q

BIOFUELS IN GENERAL

A
  • Organic matter used as fuel. Growing of biofuel crops is being increasingly recognised as one way to reduce both burning of fossil fuels AND carbon dioxide emissions.

BUT: each hectare farmland used to grow energy crops = less for growing much needed food in high demand for food world, also reduce carbon sinks, and u have to burn them which releases carbon

42
Q

The major issue with biofuels in Brazil

A

Large areas of central southern Brazil set aside for cultivation fo sugar cane and therefore prod of ethanol = displacement of other types agriculture, like cattle rearing, need to find replacement pastures haas led to large scale clearance of tropical rainforest in amazon basin = nullifies reducing in co2 as huge carbon sink gone

43
Q

In general carbon capture and storage

A

involves capturing the co2 released by fossil burning, burying it deep underground

44
Q

Hydrogen fuel cells

A

Combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, heat and water, promising tech for use as as source of heat and electricity for builds, and power source for electric vehicles.

45
Q

In general advantages of hydrogen fuel

A

• No dangers to the environment
• No GHG
• We could get electricity for electrolysis from renewable sources, e.g. wind/solar/hydro
• cheap to produce
• Multiple uses – power / transport / low-carbon heating
• Water is the only by-product
- Quick refuelling – full tank = several hundred km

46
Q

Lifestyle considerations for hydrogen fuel cells

A

• Lower fuel consumption means lower tax – Vehicle Licence Duty removed if CO2 emissions are < 100gm/km
- Electric / Hybrid cars still have a limited range (esp. electric given the weight of the battery)

47
Q

Problems of hydrogen fuel cells

A

• NB: hydrogen is not a pure element – you can’t ‘find it’
• Where do you get electricity for electrolysis? (e.g. GHG…) 80 of CO2/km (same as average hybrid)
- Difficult to store safely / efficiently

48
Q

Norway thorium

A
  • Norway holds 170k tonnes thorium - 15% of worlds total
  • convert thorium to uranium, but reactors not yet developed with current tech
  • 3 times abundance of thorium than uranium
  • far less long term waste like plutonium produced + plutonium is used up
  • but need €500 mil, + 700oC reactors
49
Q

UK energy stats

A
  • UK = 41.4% electricity from renewables, rapidly growing wind sector, between 2016 to 2021 - £19billion being invested into offshore wind in the UK.
  • Over next 5 years 60 billion forecasted.
  • Fossil fuels account for 38%, what seems to be a falling value.
50
Q

Growing resource demand for food fuel and other resource demands

A
  • deforestation
  • grassland conversion
  • urbanisation

Geog (52 decks)

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