Energy Flashcards
Why is coal considered a form of high quality energy?
When coal burns, large amounts of heat energy are released
Why is steam considered a form of low-quality energy?
This is energy lost to the environment and does not do much work.
What law of thermodynamics is efficiency based on?
The first law of thermodynamics: energy can not be created or destroyed
What are the changes in a coal-fired power station?
chemical potential energy => heat energy => Kinetic energy => Electrical energy
what percentage of efficiency is a coal-fired power station; approximately?
35% - 40%
A gas-fired power station has an energy output of 1.75 × 1025 J. The input energy required to produce this amount of energy is 3.65 × 1025 J. Calculate the percentage efficiency of the power station.
Efficiency = (1.75 × 10^25 / 3.65 × 10^25) × 100
Efficiency = 47.9%
What is energy density and its units?
- This is the energy stored per unit volume.
- the SI unit for energy density is J/m^3
What information does energy density provide about a fuel?
The higher the energy density of a fuel, the more energy can be stored per unit volume
What is the energy density of gases compared to other states for the same conditions?
Gases tend to have lower energy densities than liquid or solid fuels s they take up a greater volume under same conditions
What is specific energy and its SI units?
- This is the energy produced per unit mass
- The SI unit for specific energy is given as J/kg
Calculate the specific energy of butane (C4H10) using sections 1, 6 and 13 of the IB data booklet.
1) Use section 13 to determine the enthalpy of combustion (ΔHc) value for butane, in kJ kg-1.
According to section 13, the ΔHc for butane = -2878 kJ mol-1
2) Use the equation in section 1 to calculate the specific energy.
Specific energy = energy released from fuel/mass of fuel consumed
The ΔHc value is for the combustion of one mole of a compound, therefore divide the ΔHc by the molar mass of the compound (using section 6 to calculate the molar mass of C4H10).
Specific energy of C4H10 = 2878 / (58.14 /1000) = 4.950 × 104 kJ kg-1
what are renewable energy sources?
- These are energy sources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale
What are the advantages of renewable energy sources?
They are less polluting than non-renewable energy sources
Why are renewable energy sources limited?
Due to factors such as cost and availability of the renewable energy source
Provide examples of renewable sources of energy?
- Solar
- Tidal
- Geothermal
- Biomass
- Wind
- Hydroelectric
How does solar power work, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this energy source?
- Used to convert the light energy from the Sun into Electrical energy
- Advantages: Little negative disadvantages to the environment
- Disadvantages: Only generated during daylight hours and the Sun’s energy is available in a very dispersed form, meaning large areas of land must be covered by solar panels
What is tidal energy, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this energy source?
- Energy is generated by tidal waves in the oceans and seas as a result of the moon’s gravitational pull on the water; kinetic energy is transformed to electrical energy
- Advantages: Has high efficiency and a long working life
- Disadvantages: Causing disruption to migrating fish; can only occur twice a day meaning that electricity can only be generated for about ten hours a day
What is geothermal energy and how does it work?
- Type of energy stored within the Earth; originates from radioactive decay happening at Earth’s core
- Heat is radiated outward the Earth’s crus where it is used to heat water; the steam is used to heat buildings or generate electricity.
What is biomass energy, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this energy source?
- it is organic material storing chemical energy that originates from the photosynthesis of plants; includes wood and sugar cane
- Biomass, unlike fossil fuel can be grown in a relatively short time.
- Sugar cane is converted to ethanol which is added to petrol to form gasohol
- Advantages: it is carbon neutral
How does wind power work, and provide the advantages and disadvantages of of this source of power?
- wind converts the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy through turbines
- Advantage: wind power emits no carbon dioxide
- Disadvantage: Electricity is only generated when the wind is blowing
How does hydroelectric energy work, and what are the advantages and the disadvantages of this source of energy?
- Converts gravitational potential energy of water to electrical energy
- Advantages: no greenhouse gases are produced and it is relatively cheap
- Disadvantages: large areas of land are flooded to create a reservoir behind the dam
How are the non-renewable sources, fossil fuels formed
Ancient plants absorbed energy from the Sun during photosynthesis, producing glucose, a biological compound with the molecular formula C6H12O6. The reduction of biological compounds that contained carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen led to the formation of coal, oil and natural gas.
Describe the formation of coal.
- formed from the remains of prehistoric plants
- When the plants died, they became buried under layers of mud and sand.
-Over millions of years, heat and pressure, combined with the anaerobic conditions, converted the decaying plant material into coal
What do the different types of coal formed depend on?
- depending on the time and pressure they were subjected to