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Natural Resources and the Environment > Hydrocarbons and Energy > Flashcards

Hydrocarbons and Energy Flashcards

1
Q

What is a hydrocarbon?

A

Naturally occurring compounds containing carbon and oxygen. These may be gaseous, liquid or solid.

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2
Q

Whats the most productive oil country

A

The middle east, they are in the centre of trade movement

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3
Q

What market do China control?

A

The rare earth element market

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4
Q

What is the hydrocarbon play?

A

A play is the particular set of circumstances that have combined to produce a group of oil or gasfields with similar trap structures or reservoir rocks.

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5
Q

What factors must be present to produce a hydrocarbon play?

A
  • Source rock
  • Reservoir
  • Migration
  • Cap/seal rock
  • Trap

Structures must be there before hydrocarbon generation occurs.

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6
Q

Define a source rock:

A

Rocks containing sufficient organic substances to generate oil and gas.

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7
Q

Wheres the best source rock in Britain?

A

Kimmeridge Clay, organic rich shale, most oil from algae and bacteria

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8
Q

Whats the source for gas

A

Gas forms if Organic rich material (same that forms oil) like algae and bacteria is buried at depth (deeper than that to form oil)
- Coal is plant matter and also a source rock for gas.

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9
Q

On burial of the plant matter in source rock:

A

Carbohydrates and proteins of plants are destroyed, remaining organic compounds form Kerogen.

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10
Q

What is the oil and gas window?

A

At ~100 degrees C it breaks down to oil, at 160 degrees C the long hydrocarbon chains get shorter to give light oil and gas.

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11
Q

Define a reservoir

A

Its an underground rock formation with sufficient porosity to act as a store for oil or gas

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12
Q

What is porosity:

A

Not interconnected void space in a rock that can host gas/liquids

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13
Q

What is Permeability:

A

Ability of a rock to permit flow of fluids through it.

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14
Q

What makes a good reservoir?

A
  • have sufficient porosity and permeability to store and migrate fluid
  • best type is poorly stored sandstone
  • limestone’s are permeable if they are fractured
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15
Q

What is a suitable cap rock?

A

Salt - or any impermeable rock

- migration is stopped or slowed

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16
Q

If the rock above and around a reservoir is impermeable it forms?

A

A trap - in which the seal is known as a cap rock

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17
Q

What is a Trap?

A

Oilfields and gasfields that are trapped in permeable reservoir rock.

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18
Q

What are the 3 types of trap and give examples:

A
  • Structural (Anticline, fault)
  • Salt dome
  • Stratigraphic (pinch out)
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19
Q

How is shale gas different from other hydrocarbons

A

The rock that contains the hydrocarbons is very impermeable and so acts as hydrocarbon source rock, reservoir and seal. The gas is both produced and trapped in the shale.

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20
Q

Give opposition to fracking:

A
  • Earthquakes/subsidence
  • Groundwater contamination
  • Britain is densely populated unlike America (British Columbia)
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21
Q

How is shale gas extracted?

A

Shale is drilled and artificially fractured so the gas can be extracted.
Fracking involves a process of pumping high pressure water into the shale along horizontal drill holes, to induce fracturing the rock, and the release of gas.

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22
Q

Whats in the Southern North Sea?

A
  • Most hydrocarbon fields in North sea are gas
  • Carboniferous coal measures
  • burial beneath Permian sandstones and evaporites (salt)
  • parts were at right depth for gas generation, which took place over 140Ma
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23
Q

Whats in the Northern North Sea?

A
  • Oil fields
  • buried rift valley, grabens (faults cause traps)
  • hydrocarbon deposits occur in a variety of different rock types
  • 140Ma Kimmeridge clay
  • the most prolific oil bearing reservoirs are the Brent delta deposits (Jurassic)
  • Brent delta deposits also contain coal seams from delta swamp
  • Cretaceous rocks are the seals (mudstone)
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24
Q

What are the common principles of carbon capture storage (CCS)

A

Collect and purify CO2 typically from mixed source gases e.g. power station and car exhausts.

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25
Q

CO2 is stored indefinitely, how?

A

CO2 is piped offshore, its injected under high pressure via a well into the storage site. The site is usually an abandoned rig.

  • Abandoned fields refill with saline water to produce saline aquifer which CO2 can be stored
  • CO2 stored in gas field, both storage locations have caprocks.
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26
Q

Describe the main process of hydrocarbon exploration

A

Seismic data is generated by bouncing sound energy off geological layers in the interior of the earth to construct images of the rocks present based on their physical properties (velocity and density).
- In both 2D and 3D

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27
Q

Advantage of using seismic imaging to find hydrocarbons

A

They provide a useful way of imaging strata in the subsurface, they provide info on stratal geometries and ancient sedimentary systems.

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28
Q

Why don’t we use boreholes instead of seismic imaging

A

They are very expensive, especially under the sea.

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29
Q

What is seismic reflection imaging?

A
  • It involves the reflection of elastic waves off subsurface geological interfaces.
  • By measuring the travel time the distance to the reflector can be calculated
  • data must be married to borehole data as rocks have different densities and therefore different velocities
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30
Q

What is coal?

A

A sedimentary, carbon rich deposit formed from the remains of fossil plants that can be used to produce energy.

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31
Q

How is coal measured?

A

By its RANK

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32
Q

What are the non-carbon components of coal?

A

Volatile matter

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33
Q

The higher the RANK

A

The higher the C content and the lower the volatile content.

34
Q

Name 3 volatile matter found in coal

A
  • Hydrogen and Oxygen (hydrocarbons, minerals, liberated as H2O)
  • Nitrogen (Organic compounds, ammonium, liberated as oxides)
  • Sulfur (pollution)
35
Q

What is the worst pollutant?

A

Sulfur

36
Q

How much sulphur produced in power production is acceptable?

A

1%

37
Q

The presence of sulphur and what mineral causes combustion?

A

Pyrite

38
Q

Name the RANKS of coal from low to high

A
  • Peat
  • Soft brown coal
  • Hard brown coal
  • Bituminous coal
  • Semi Anthracite
  • Anthracite
  • Meta Anthracite
39
Q

Name the minor constituents of coal?

A
  • Chlorine (Present as salts, causes pollution + corrosion)
  • Phosphorous (Apatite, 0.1% is acceptable)
  • Trace elements
40
Q

Name the economic properties of coal?

A
  • Hardness
  • Calorific value
  • Ash content (low ash <6% - best for steam)
  • Swell and Cake
41
Q

What is Swell and Cake?

A

Swell is the expansion of coal, cake is when coal sticks together.

42
Q

Name the historical uses of coal:

A
  • Energy production
  • Coke
  • Town gas
  • By-products
43
Q

What is Coke and what was it used for?

A
  • Coal heated without air

- Used in steel production (blast furnaces)

44
Q

What is Town gas?

A

It was later replaced by natural gas, Victorian era

45
Q

Name by-products from coal:

A
  • Sulphuric Acid
  • Ammonia
  • Sheep dip
  • Road tar
  • Moth balls
  • Nylon
  • Explosives
  • Creosote
  • Soap and detergent
    ALL BYPRODUCTS ARE NASTY
46
Q

Describe a coal cyclic formation:

A
  • Swampy plains develop
  • Sea level rises and floods organic material
  • River deltas build and coal is covered by sediments, and then more swamps develop
  • marine shales atop coal, then sandstones (the shoreline moves back forward and land and trees are reclaimed from the sea.
47
Q

What is a cyclothem?

A

A cyclic repetition of the same sequence as a response to fluctuations in sea level.

48
Q

List the layers of a cyclothem:

A
  • Coal is deposited atop seatearth
  • Sea level rise
  • Shale
  • Siltstone
  • Sandstone
  • Shale
  • Seatearth
  • Coal
49
Q

Why was the carboniferous perfect for coal formation?

A

Britain sat with a position in the tropics, with sea level fluctuations throughout.

  • 337Ma 6 degrees south of equator (Limestone)
  • 309Ma 6 degrees north of equator (coastal plains + deltas, Variscan orogeny builds mountains to the south)
50
Q

What was the world TPES in 2013 for coal?

A

29% and 46% of the worlds carbon emissions

51
Q

What are many people switching to instead of coal?

A

Natural gas

52
Q

What is clean coal?

A

A series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the pollution and other environmental effects normally associated with the burning of coal.

53
Q

Name some clean coal technology:

A
  • CCS (CO2)
  • flue-gas desulphurization (Sulphur)
  • low nitrogen oxide burners (NOx)
  • electrostatic precipitators (particulate matter)
  • selective catalytic reduction (N2, NOx, O2)
54
Q

Why aren’t clean coal method used everywhere?

A

It’s very expensive

55
Q

What is the Kyoto protocol

A

An international agreement linked to the UN framework convention on climate change which commits parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.
- heavy on developed countries

56
Q

Whats the Paris agreement?

A

Aim to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by KEEPING A GLOBAL TEMP RISE THIS CENTURY WELL BELOW 2 DEGREES CELSIUS ABOVE PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS and to persue efforts tolimit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

  • 25% of power production in USA is from Coal
  • USA have 26% of all coal
57
Q

What is the peak oil theory?

A

When demand for oil outstrips supply because the halfway point of the planets oil reserves has been passed.
- Natural gas replacement

58
Q

What is LNG? And why is it replacing oil

A

Liquefied Natural Gas, 80% of UK’s from Qatar and is cooled to -160 degrees C.

  • Its a good alternative to coal
  • Its still a finite resource
59
Q

Whats different about the resource used for nuclear energy compared to hydrocarbons?

A

Its found in a wide range of geological environments, 14 different types of deposit.

60
Q

Where is the highest source of Uranium?

A

Kazakstan

61
Q

What does a centrifuge do?

A

Separates U235 from U238

62
Q

How is energy grade U235 different from weaponised U235?

A

Weaponised U235 is 90% U

63
Q

What are the stages in going nuclear, how do you make a fuel rod?

A
  • Uranium ore mined
  • U extracted using acids
  • Dried and filtered to form yellow cake (U3O8) and then UO2
  • Heated with Hexigan Fluoride to form UF6 which is turned to gas
  • centrifuge purification
  • 0.7% of U is U235 but centrifuge creates a concentration of 5%
  • Enriched UF6 is converted back to UO2
  • Powder processed into pellets and put into fuel rods.
64
Q

How much does it roughly cost to commission a nuclear power station?

A

14bn

65
Q

What is a nuclear meltdown?

A

Melting of steel base due to heat from molten U.

- Germany have back up cooling because of Fukushima

66
Q

Give some advantages of nuclear power:

A
  • Its clean in terms of carbon emissions, 70 times less CO2/kWhr than coal and 30 times less than gas.
  • Huge capacity compared to renewables (1 = 16,000 wind turbines)
67
Q

Give some disadvantages of nuclear power:

A
  • Accidents
  • Perceived radiation risk to the general public
  • Costly to build
  • Terrorist attack risk
  • Decommissioning cost
  • Waste desposal
68
Q

Hydroelectric power:

A
  • tiny environmental impact
  • 500rpm
  • Norway get99.9% of their power from water (took them 70 yrs)
  • 20,000,000Wh = 1 persons average energy consumption
69
Q

How much does it cost to remove 2% of carbon emissions at one major plant?

A

$300,000,000

70
Q

Oil prices will?

A

Rise in the future

71
Q

Whats the depth of the deepest oil rig and how many people does it power?

A

8000ft, 22 wells beneath it.

  • it took 14yrs and several bn $
    1. 7M people
72
Q

How many years have the US been the leading producer of biofuel?

A

30yrs

73
Q

Name problems with biofuels

A
  • Use a lot of resources, fertiliser etc
  • Not everywhere can grow the same crop, NY has to use grass but most use corn.
  • Difficult to make it economical for amount of corn needed
74
Q

How are biofuels made?

A

You can make ethanol from cellulose - issue to scale it up to economical 10-15M Gallons a yr (small) - 10bn corn ethanol

75
Q

How are many people becoming more environmentally friendly?

A
  • Recycling
  • Cycling instead of driving
  • Catching public transport
  • Transition to hybrid vehicles and electric motor vehicles.
76
Q

Iceland get half their energy from?

A

Geothermal plants.

77
Q

What took Denmark 40yrs?

A

To convert 20% of their power generation to renewable.

- Wind powers 340,000 people per yr (out of 5M)

78
Q

The US are struggling to produce 20% of their power from wind, why and how do they solve it?

A
  • No one wants gridlines going to the turbines through their ranch/land.
  • 200,000 more turbines needed
79
Q

What energy sources have people turned to to combat energy supply from renewables?

A
  • Hydrofracking

- fills in gaps for energy demands for renewables like wind and solar.

80
Q

Give some advantages and disadvantages of hydro-fracking:

A
  • Inexpensive
  • produces half as much CO2 than coal
  • Contamination of groundwater supply has never happened due to the hydro fracking process.
  • 3M Gallons of water needed on average in each well
  • Fluids at the surface if split will contaminate water
81
Q

Describe Frances energy production:

A
  • They have no coal, no oil.
  • 80% energy from Nuclear
  • Recycle plant, reprocessed nuclear fuel
  • 17M people per year
  • 96% of frances fuel is renewable

Natural Resources and the Environment (3 decks)

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