Environmental Biology Part 3 Flashcards
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, how much is transportation?
38%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, how much is industrial?
31%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, how much is residential?
15%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, how much is commercial/institutional?
13%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, how much is agriculture?
3%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, what uses up the largest amount of energy?
Transportation
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What is percent energy expenditure on space heating?
31%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What is percent energy expenditure on space cooling?
12%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What is percent energy expenditure on water heating?
12%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What is percent energy expenditure on lighting?
11%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What is percent energy expenditure on refrigeration OR electronics OR washing clothes/dishes?
~7%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What is percent energy expenditure on cooking?
3%
In the percent use of energy in Canada by sector, the residential component is broken down. What category has the percent energy expenditure?
Space heating
What are the three BIGGEST things in terms of residential energy use that theoretically could be reduced to save fossil fuels?
Is that realistic?
Space heating
Space cooling
Water heating
No
What can we do personally to reduce fossil fuel usage that will actually make a big difference?
Transportation
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from oil?
32
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from natural gas?
24
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from hydroelectric power?
25
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from coal?
10
Nuclear?
7
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what source is the largest contributor for energy?
Oil
What percent of energy sources in Canada (2006) comes from non renewable sources?
75
What non renewable energy source is heavily mined in Canada, with a small amount contributing to electric power then the rest being exported?
Uranium
TRUE or FALSE: nuclear power can be a clean source of power?
TRUE
How much of the hydro power harvested is exported?
None.
Ha that was a trick question because it can’t be exported unless converted to electrical power.
How much natural gas is used vs. exported?
50:50
TRUE or FALSE: Canada exports more coal than what we use?
FALSE
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from fossil fuels?
80
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from renewable sources?
17
For oil consumption in Canada (2006), what percent comes from nuclear power?
3
What type of renewable source does the majority of renewable energy come from worldwide?
Biomass heat
How much does biomass heat contribute to the renewable energy for total world energy consumption (2010)?
68
How much does hydropower contribute to the renewable energy for total world energy consumption (2010)?
20
How much does wind power contribute to the renewable energy for total world energy consumption (2010)?
3
What is the definition of renewable energy?
Supplies of energy will not be depleted by our use
What is the definition of non renewable energy?
At our currents rates of consumption we will use up Earth’s accessible store of these sources in a matter of decades to centuries
True or false: Canada and the US use more oil per person than other industrialized countries?
TRUE
True or false: USA uses more oil per person than Canada?
FALSE - they use the same
What do Canada and the US use so much oil on? How much more do they spend vs. other industrialized countries?
Transportation
2x
What are the other two high energy consumption per capita countries (other than CAN and USA)? WHY?
Norway and Saudi Arabia
Because they are big energy producers so they don’t care about conserving it.
What does EROI stand for?
Energy returned on investment
What is EROI?
Ratio of energy returned vs. energy invested
Why could EROI ratios decline?
When we extract the easiest deposits first and now must work harder to extract the remaining reserves
What do high EROI ratios mean?
Receive more energy than you invest
What energy type has the highest EROI? What is the ratio?
Historic oil and gas fields
40:1
What type of energy has the lowest EROI? What is the ratio?
Oil shale
1:1
What is the economically viable threshold EROI ratio?
7
What are the 2 energy sources that do NOT meet the economically viable EROI threshold?
Solar PV
Biomass
What is the definition of fossil fuels?
Highly combustable substances formed from remains of organisms from past geologic ages: coal, oil and gas
How many years ago did the organisms who’s fossils are used for fossil fuels were alive?
100-500 million years ago
What type of environment is required for fossil fuel production?
Anaerobic
Nearly 70% of the worlds proven crude oil is located in _____
Middle East
The use of wood peaked at ____ due to the ____.
1875
Industrial Revolution
In the past 30ish years the use of coal in USA has ____ while the use of natural gas has ____
Declined
Inclined
In the past 20ish years, the use of coal in CHINA has ____
Increased
What is the definition of coal?
Organic matter (woody plant material) that was compressed under very high pressure to form dense, solid carbon structure
True or false: coal is the worlds most abundant fossil fuel
True
What is the definition of peat?
Organic material that is broken down anaerobically but remains wet, near the surface and not well compressed
What type of coal is the most compressed?
Anthracite
What type of coal is least compressed?
Lignite
True or false: the coal that is the least compressed has the most energy
FALSE
Sulphur content in coal depends on….
…whether the coal was formed in salt water or freshwater
True or false: coal was used in the 2nd-3rd century Britain
TRUE
True or false: coal was used in China for 3000 years
TRUE
Commercial mining began in the ____
1700s
The invention of the ____ expanded coals market
Steam engine
What type of fossil fuel has the largest carbon content?
Coal
What is the dirtiest fossil fuel?
Coal
What is the cleanest fossil fuel?
Natural gas
What countries have the largest natural gas consumption per capita?
USA
Canada
Russia
It is estimated that the natural gas consumption in China is supposed to be ___ x the 2008 levels.
2-3x
What is the main ingredient in natural gas?
Methane
World supplies of natural gas are projected to last until ____
2070
What is biogenic gas?
Natural gas created at shallow depths by bacterial anaerobic decomposition of organic matter (aka swamp gas)
What is thermogenic gas?
Natural gas resulting from compression and heat deep underground
Why is natural gas the fastest growing fossil fuel in use today? (2 reasons)
- More environmentally friendly
2. Cheaper –> being produced in lots of areas that have the ability to export lots
The use of natural gas is ___
rising
The first commercial extraction of natural gas occurred in
1821
What was natural gas first used for?
Street lamps
What is LNG?
Liquefied natural gas
What is liquefied natural gas?
Liquid gas that can be shipped long distances in refrigerated tankers
Gas is accessed by sophisticated techniques such as
Fracturing
What is the fracturing technique (AKA fracking) for extracting natural gas?
Pumps high pressure salt water into rocks to crack them causing them to release content it has
What is the immediate impact of fracking?
Collapse of layers above therefore damaging environment to humans and everything else
Fracking occurs at ___ km under ground
2
What is the worlds most used fuel? Why?
Oil
Easier to mine, less man power
The first modern extraction of oil was in __.
1850s
The first extracted oil was sold as a ___
Healing aid
Why is Edwin Drake important?
Drilled the worlds first oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859
Canada consumes __% of the worlds oil
2.5%
Oil is formed in what conditions?
Heat, time, pressure, anaerobic
What is biotic theory?
Tiny sea plants and animals died and were buried on the ocean floor. Over time they were covered by layers of sediment and rock. Over millions of years the remains were buried deeper and deeper. The enormous heat and pressure turned them into oil and gas.
Definition of crude oil =
A mixture of hundreds of different types of hydrocarbon molecules
How deep is crude oil formed?
1.5-3 km underground
What is technically recoverable oil?
Reveals oil that could be extracted with current technology
What is economically recoverable oil?
Recognizes the balance between the costs of extraction, transportation and current price of oil
What is a proven recoverable reserve?
Oil that is technologically and economically feasible to remove under current conditions
What is better? Regular oil or shale oil?
Regular oil
Will we run out of oil in the next few hundred years?
No because large shale oil reserves
What is primary oil extraction?
Initial drilling and pumping of available oil
What is secondary oil extraction?
Solvents, water, or stream is used to remove additional oil; expensive
What is more environmentally damaging - 1° or 2° oil extraction?
2°
Most oil pollution comes from ____ sources.
Small
How much (%) oil pollution comes from naturally occurring leads from the seabed?
45
How much (%) oil pollution comes from consumption?
35
How much (%) oil pollution comes from transport?
15
How much (%) oil pollution comes from extraction?
5
Hubert prediction of peak in US oil production has the peak at ______ and a decline to zero at ____
1960-1970
2050
The actual US production of oil peaked at _____ and is currently ______
1970
Declining
We have use up ~ ______ barrels of oil
1.1 trillion
We have depleted ____ of our oil reserves
Half
What is the reserves to production ratio?
The amount of total remaining reserves divided by the annual rate of production
Current levels of oil production =
30 billion barrels/year
At current levels of production, we have ___ years of oil left
40
Oil sands aka
Tar sands
What are oil sands?
Sand deposits with 1-20% bitumen
What is bitumen?
Thick form of petroleum rich in carbon poor in hydrogen
How are oil sands mined?
Strip mining
How much freshwater is needed per barrel of oil?
0.4-3.1
How much natural gas is needed per barrel of oil?
0.3
What is oil shale?
Sedimentary rock willed with kerogen that can be processed to produce liquid petroleum
True or false: shale oil = oil shale
FALSE
How can oil shale be processed to produce liquid petroleum?
- Burned like coal
2. Baked in hydrogen = prylosis
More than 40% of oil shale is found in ____
USA
The EROI ratio for oil shale is ___ than crude oil
Lower
Alternative fossil fuels (oil shale, tar sands) have a ____ environmental impact
Greater
What is suquestration?
Storage of materials in geologic reservoirs on a long timescale
True or false: some emission from FF burning can be captured?
True
What is nuclear power?
The use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat
What is a nuclear power plant?
Thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. (Typical for heat to be used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to an electric generator which produces electricity)
True or false: nuclear power generation contributes to the prevention of global warming my ELIMINATING CO2 emissions?
True
France with a population of 66 million (which is ___ than Germany) produces ___ tWh electrical generation (which is ___ than Germany). What percent is nuclear?
LESS
600
MORE
66%
Germany with a population of 81 million (which is ___ than France) produces ___ tWh electrical generation (which is ___ than France). What percent is nuclear?
MORE
480
LESS
30%
What nuclear disaster occurred on March 11, 2011?
Fukushima Japan
What nuclear disaster occurred on April 26, 1986?
Chernobyl Ukraine
What nuclear disaster occurred on March 28, 1979?
Pennsylvania USA = Three Mile Island accident
The only sustainable way to guaranteeing a reliable long term supply of energy is to ensure sufficiently…
…rapid development of renewable energy sources
Who are the top 2 producers of coal?
China
USA
Who are the top 2 consumers of coal?
China
USA
Where are the top 2 proven coal reservoirs?
USA
Russia