Final Study Guide 14 Flashcards
ENergy and Global Changes
What are ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide?
- Transition to cleaner emitting energy sources such as nuclear, water, wind, and solar
- Plant more trees
- Burn less fossil fuels
What are some of the problems with nuclear energy?
Nuclear energy is harmful to human health and the environment because of the radioactive waste it produces. The half life of these radio-active ions last long periods and affect human health.
Why is nuclear energy a possible solution to the climate crisis?
Nuclear energy does not emit the amount of carbon based gases that cause the greenhouse effect on earth
Is nuclear energy a renewable source?
- No, but it is preferred to fossil fuels because it does not emit greenhouse gases.
- Nuclear energy is not a renewable source of energy because there is only a certain amount of iridium that can be found on Earth
Why are all hydrocarbon fuels non-renewable?
- At the pace that we use them and at the pace they regenerate it will be almost a million years before there will be enough to use at current level.
- They are used faster than they are regenerated
Watt
1 watt is defined as the energy consumption rate of one joule per second
Joule
Basic energy unit of the metric system
Btu
- Traditional unit of energy equal to about 1055 joules
- It is the amount of energy needed to cool or heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit
Quad
- A quad is a unit of energy equal to 1015 BTU
- Used by the U.S. Department of Energy in discussing world and national energy budgets
Efficiency
using less energy to provide the same level of energy. It is therefore one method to reduce human greenhouse gas emissions
Nonrenewable
- A resource that is utilized faster than it is replenished
> ex: fossil fuels, nuclear energy
Oil
- Formed when heat and pressure compressed the remains of prehistoric plants, animals, and aquatic life under the bed of the sea or lakes for millions of years
- Drilled and pumped from giant underground pockets, or oil wells, and processed through a system called distillation
Natural Gas
- A fossil fuel formed when layers of buried plants and animals are exposed to intense heat and pressure over thousands of years
- Cleanest fossil fuel
- colorless, odorless, tasteless
- Highly flammable
Coal
a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams
Nuclear Energy
- Use of exothermic nuclear processes to generate useful heat and electricity
- Includes nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion
Deforestation
Clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use
Oil Trap
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Carboniferous
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Crude Oil
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Petroleum
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Reserves
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End of Oil
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Hubbert’s Peak
The Hubbert peak theory says that for any given geographical area, from an individual oil-producing region to the planet as a whole, the rate of petroleum production tends to follow a bell-shaped curve. It is one of the primary theories on peak oil.
Oil shale
- Oil shale is commonly defined as a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter that yields substantial amounts of oil and combustible gas upon destructive distillation.
- Oil shale extraction is more complicated than crude oil extraction; it includes the extra steps of retorting and refining.
Fracking
fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid in order to obtain some type of oil or gas
Gas Hydrate
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EROI
- Energy return on investment (EROI) is the ratio of the energy delivered by a process to the energy used directly and indirectly in that process. EROI - - is defined as:
EROI = quantity of energy supplies/ quantity of energy used in supply process
CSS
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Caprock
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Chain Reaction
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Fission
a splitting of something into two parts
Salt Dome
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Reserves
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Hydropower
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Solar Power
- Direct energy coming in from the sun - Can be used to heat homes (solar panels) - Main use for heated water panels in US: swimming pools
- Solar energy in photovoltaic cells can be used, or we can concentrate sun energy - Ex: If you drive to Vegas, you see 3 big towers –> A solar facility that concentrates solar power
- Affordable, Renewable - Solar Energy cons:
> There may be environmental consequences
> Requires a lot of land
> There isn’t always a lot of sun
Photovoltaic
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Resource
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Deposit
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Reservoir Rock
high porosity rock formation, capable of storing oil
Trap
- Something that prevent oil from continuing to rise
- Ex: impermeable caprock around a reservoir rock
> others: salt dome trap, fault trap
Source Rock
an initial sediment with organic material
Wind Energy
- Fastest growing energy segment in the world and has been for 25 years
- Cost of wind power has dropped by 99%
- In the next 20 years, wind energy will be a top competitor for energy provision
- Disadvantages: need different kind of power grid, ugly, kills birds
Concentrated Solar
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Geothermal Energy
Idea that we can extract heat from the Earth
Fusion
process of joining 2 or more things to form a single entity
