Man and his energy resources Flashcards
What is energy?
Energy is the capacity to do work and is required for life processes
What is an energy resource
This is something that can produce heat, power, electricity or move objects
Matter that stores energy is called a?
Fuel
Categories of energy resources
Non-renewable energy resources
Renewable energy resources
What is non-renewable resources
These are resources that can not be easily replenished. They are reserve based.
What are three dominant non-renewable resources
Oil, natural gas and coal also known as fossil fuels
Fossils are also known as?
Oraganic sediments
What is fractional distillation
This is a method adopted to seperate a mixture of liquids into its components parts based on their boiling points.
Expain the fraction distillation of oil. Give the steps
GGKDF(Gas Goes first, Kerosene Does Fine Later)
Gas - 20C
Gasoline(Petrol) - 150C
Kerosone - 200C
Diesel Oil - 300C
Fuel oil - 370C
Lubricating oil, parfin wax, asphalt - 400C
What are renewable energy resources
These are sources of energy that are continaully replenished through natural processes.
Common sources of renewables
Biomass
Hydropower
Wind
Direct solar energy
Geothermal energy
Nuuclear eneryg
What is biomass?
This is the term used to describe any fuel derived from plants
Applications of biomass energy
Used for heating applications
Electricity generation in a power plant
Used to generate other fuels: ethanol, methanol and vegetable oils
Anaerobic decomposition of biomasss leads to the production of methane gas.
What is hydropower
This is a source of energy that comes from falling water.
Best prospect for hydropower are?
Mountainous regions
Factors determining the total power from a hydropower source
The volume of water available - flow
The vertical drop - head
Main types of hydropower plants
Run-of-river hydro plants- eletricity is produced from the available flow of the river. Usually subject to seasonal variations.
Resorvoir hydro plants - water is stored in a reservoir
Pumped Storage plants - water is pumped from low reservoirs to high reservoirs when demand for eletricity is low and vice versa
Major types of wind turbines
Utility-scale wind with > 100MW
Distrubuted wind with <100MW
Offshore wind - wind turbines installed in large bodies of water, mostly on the continental shelf.
Types of direct solar energy
Low temp solar power energy
Photovoltaic energy
High tem solar thermal energy
explain low temp solar power energy
Direct sunlight strikes surface of dark opaque material which captures energy that is absorbed.
Explain photovoltaic solar electric energy
Employs the use of semiconductor material technology for electricity generation when struck by direct sunlight
Explain high temp solar energy
Concentrated solar plants. This is usually used for electricity and heating applications at industrial scale.
What is nuclear energy
Nuclear energy is the energy available at the nucleus
Explain nuclear fission and fusion
Nuclear fission, which entails splitting the atoms apart.
Nuclear fusion, which entails the joining of atoms together
What is geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is heat energy from within the earth’s crust.
