Reliance On Fossil Fuels - From Kindle Flashcards
What is a fossil fuel?
Fuel consisting of the remains of organisms preserved in rocks in the Earth’s crust with high carbon and hydrogen content’.
What is renewable energy source?
A renewable energy source is ‘a form of energy derived from natural sources that do not use up natural resources to harm the environment.
Briefly outline the formation of coal. State two problems associated with the combustion of coal.
Coal is formed when dead plants fall and accumulate on the ground over time eventually forming peat. Eventually under the ever increasing weight the remains turn into different grades of coal.
It is the most polluting of the three main fossil fuels.
It takes hundreds of millions of years to renew and so is not sustainable.
Briefly outline the formation of crude oil and natural gas and state to problems with the combustion of these fossil fuels.
Natural gas and crude oil are formed from the dead remains of sea organisms after settling on the bottom of the oceans and under increasing pressure begin to compress and form crude oil and natural gas.
Harvesting these fossil fuels involves using massive manmade drills which can put the inhabitants of that particular spot in the ocean at risk.
Oil spills can occur when harvesting these fossil fuels which can result in the destruction of much of the habitats underwater.
State the three fossil fuels used on Earth.
Coal, crude oil and natural gas.
What percentage of the world’s energy demands was met by fossil fuels in the 1960’s? What is this percentage as of 2015?
94% in the 1960’s then dropped to approximately 80% in 2015.
List four uses of fossil fuels in modern day life.
Plastic
Pharmaceutics
Transport
Fibres.
Suggest a number of ways in which human reliance on plastic can be reduced in the future.
The use of reusable storage containers to replace plastic packaging in shopping centres has proven that progress can be made.
Explain briefly why global action is required to tackle fossil fuel depletion
Global action is required as every nation is using fossil fuels. Some nations have taken positive steps to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and implement a transition towards renewables and low carbon alternative. Global action is also needed because the impact of excessive resource use affects the whole world.
Why is conservation of fossil fuels an important issue
Population growth and the continued development of emerging nations, in particular India and China, will continue to increase demand humans have for fossil fuels. This continued rate of fossil fuel usage will result in the more rapid depletion of these resources.
Describe the trends in fossil fuel usage since the industrial revolution.
fossil fuels, namely coal, natural gas and crude oil take hundreds of millions of years to form. The rate of usage of fossil fuels has expanded rapidly since the Industrial Revolution.
How long are of the three fossil fuels projected to last for? Are these figures accurate? Justify your answer.
Coal is easily projected to last the longest, in the region of 114 years. More alarmingly, natural gas and crude oil are projected to last for a shorter time. Both will effectively be used up in the next 50 years.
This figures may not be that accurate though as there can potentially be many crude oil fields discovered thus increasing the time period until we have used it all up.
What role will technology play in determining the lifespan of fossil fuels in the future?
As technology continues to advance, new crude oil fields have the potential to be discovered each year. This initially seems like a good thing and would lead on to naturally expect the duration of the availability of crude oil and natural gas to increase. But the accessibility of each fossil fuel also needs to be considered. A new crude oil Freil might be discovered in the North Sea, but this is not significant if engineering solutions do not currently exist that enable this crude oil field to be drilled and exploited.
How does the price of crude oil impact the lifespan of crude oil availability?
When the price of crude oil is high, then businesses such as BP have much more justify investment in new engineering solution to drill to deeper depths. It is evident that higher prices therefore would tend to increase the duration of crude oil and natural gas availability.
Name the global scientific panel that publishes data that proves the humans are causing climate change and state its abbreviation
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
State six pieces of evidence provided by the global scientific panel that proves that climate change is caused by humans.
1.More volatile weather patterns have been observed such as increased frequency of flooding events, storms, forest fires (extension of the fire season in the USA) and droughts (leading to crop failures and famine).
2.Sea temperatures have risen.
3.Ecological changes such as the damaging of the coral reefs off the coast of Australia.
4.Polar ice caps are melting.
5.Rises in sea levels (75% of which is due to the thermal expansion of water particles and 25% due to the polar ice caps melting).
6.Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased significantly.
7. Increased hurricane activity
8. Fewer cold days, nights and frost events
9. Hot days, nights and heat waves are more common.
What is carbon trading?
Carbon trading is a method that aims to reduce carbon emissions of a nation, by providing incentives for major polluting industries
Outline the aims of carbon trading and how the process works
Carbon trading is a method that aims to reduce carbon emissions of a nation, by providing incentives for major polluting industries. A nation is provided with a certain number of carbon permits based on its national target levels set by the Kyoto Protocol. This international agreement which took place in 1997 in Japan came into effect in 2005. It committed natin to reducing their carbon emissions. The European Union (EU) has a carbon trading scheme called the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), it is mandatory for all EU members. Under the EU ETS, each member states passes a portion of the permits granted under the Kyoto Protocol to its major polluting industries. A permit in the existing carbon trading scheme is considered equivalent to on tonne of carbon dioxide.
State four advantages of carbon trading.
Environment - reduce Co2 emissions
Control - control over Co2 emissions by a government
Financial Incentive - provides governments and large industries financial incentives to use the scheme
Flexibility - allows a period of transition
State four disadvantages of carbon trading.
Complexity of the market
Economy
Size of permits
Difficulties surrounding the measuring of emissions
Carbon trading is a policy used to alter greenhouse gas emissions.
explain what is meant by carbon trading and outline three aspects of how it works in practice
*A carbon trade is an exchange of carbon credits between countries.
*Countries are assigned max level carbon emission levels.
*If a country exceeds its max level it is penalised.
*Countries that have higher carbon emissions can buy the right to release more CO2 into the atomsphre from countries that have lower carbon emissions.
State one reason why carbon trading policy may not alter greenhouse gas emissions
There are difficulties in governing the carbon trading scheme. As a result, markets are open to fraud and manipulation (investors priorities buying and trading permits to make money, not help the environment.
Name nine different forms of energy and give a description and example of each.
Kinetic; a person walking
Thermal; a hot cup of coffee or tea
Gravitational potential; an apple on a tree that might fall
Chemical; food, batteries, such as petrol and diesel
Sound; sound waves in the air or water
Electrical; electricity in a home or on a phone
Elastic potential; a stretched elastic band
Nuclear; nuclear fission r fusion
Radiant; energy to heat the earth and solar PV and thermal cells.
Describe what the thinness of the arrows in a Sankey diagram represent
The width of the arrows represents the law of the conservation of energy
What exactly does heat mean and how does it differ from thermal energy
Heat is the process of energy being transferred from one point to another due to the difference in temperature between them. Every single body possesses thermal energy, but heating occurs when this energy is conveys away (cooling) or towards (heating up) the body.
What is the definition of the law of conservation of energy?
Total Energy in = Total Energy out or E in = E out
State the law of observation of energy.
Total energy in should be equal to the total energy out.
Which type of fossil fuel, as of 2019, does the UK currently rely on heavily?
As of 2019 the UK relies heavily on Crude Oil.
Which fossil fuel does to UK intend to phase out by 2025? Why is this the case?
The UK intends to phase out coal by 2025. This is because it is the most heavily pollutant of all three fossil fuels.
State and describe the four stages in the production of electricity in a fossil fuels power plant.
Stage 1. Combustion of the Fossil Fuel / The fossil fuel is combusted in a furnace, as per figure 5.1, to release the chemical energy that it contains. This combustion specifically releases thermal energy.
Stage 2. Evaporation of Water/ The thermal produced by the combustion of the fossil fuel is then used increase the temperature of the water in the furnace. Water enters the furnace in liquid form. The temperature of the water in the furnace is very high and increases the temperature of the much cooler water as energy is transferred to the water. The temperature of the water increases considerably, and it evaporates at 100*C into steam. This steam is ejected from the furnace and directed into the steam turbine.
Stage 3. Steam Used to Turn a Turbine/ This steam turbine turns when the high-pressure steam is forced through it. Steam, which is extremely high velocity water molecules, collides with the fins of the steam turbine causing the turbine to turn. But the steam molecules have less energy after each collision. Hence the steam which is entering the steam turbine at its hottest temperature, leaves at a lower temperature, but is still hot. The hot steam is now sent to the cooling towers.
Stage 4. Condensing in The Cooling Towers/ The hot steam from the steam turbine Exeter’s the cooling towers which can be viewed in Figure 5.2. Here the steam loses substantial energy so that the steam condenses back into water (liquid). Then the liquid which is cold as per figure 5.1 is recirculated back to the furnace and process is repeated.
indicate any disadvantage associated with the cooling towers as used in traditional power plants.
The cooling towers take considerable energy from the steam and eject it into the atmosphere. Clearly this will tend to reduce the efficiency of a power plant considerably.
State typical efficiencies of conventional fossil fuel power plants.
Depending on the specific thermodynamic cycle implemented by the power station the efficiencies will fluctuate slightly above or below 40%. A relatively new method, Combine Heat and Power (CHP), aims to capture this energy lost in the cooling towers. It is used to heat buildings near the power plant.
State the definition of a direct renewable energy source.
These renewable energies take energy from a renewable sources such as the wind or waves in the ocean and can convert this into electrical energy directly.
State the exact four example of direct renewable energy sources specified by CCEA.
Wind, hydroelectric, wave and tidal energy.
State the definition of an indirect renewable energy sources specified by CCEA.
These take energy from a renewable source such as the sun using a physical characteristic of the material being used, and convert this energy into electrical energy.
State the two examples of indirect renewable energy sources specified by CCEA.
Solar PV and Biomass
Renewable energy sources can be used to generate electricity either directly or indirectly. Give one example of their use to generate electricity directly and one example of their use to generate electricity indirectly.
renewable energies take energy from a renewable sources such as the wind or waves in the ocean and can convert this into electrical energy directly. These take energy from a renewable source such as the sun using a physical characteristic of the material being used, and convert this energy into electrical energy’.
Examples include solar PV and Biomass.
Identify the main energy transformation that take place in a wind turbine.
Wind energy enters the turbine and is then converted into kinetic energy to push the plane along.
Describe the traditional means by which electricity has been supplied across the National Grid.
Over the past number of decades electricity was distributed from a small number of producers, power plants run from various different fuels, to the end consumer of which there are many. This involved the flow of electricity in one direction; this was from the power plant to the end user. An illustration of the conventional means of distributing electricity on the National Grid
Outline how a SMART grid works.
A SMART grid is needed to incorporate renewable sources of electricity and plan and manage the intermittent nature of these energy sources.
What are the benefits of a SMART grid
A SMART grid maximises the proportion of renewables providing electricity for a nation.
Explain how a SMART grid facilitates the incorporation of electricity generated from renewable sources.
The SMART gird will have a network of intelligent meters located throughout the National Grid to accurately predict demand.
Explain the concept of a SMART grid.
A computer-controlled electricity network that switches input from one energy source to another as demand for energy varies on the gird.
What is an interconnector
An interconnector is simply an electrical cable joining two nations together
Identify and describe the chareateristics of two interconnectors that exist between the Irish SEM grid and GB
The electricity markets of NI and the ROI joined what is known as the SEM which became operational in 2007. This all-island grid aims to provide electricity at least cost, incorporation the maximum proportion of renewables.
State the economic benefits of a SMART grid with nations in Europe interconnected.
With more competition for business, this will drive down costs for consumers. A nation’s and a region’s fuel security is increased greatly, and the EU member states will be less reliant on volatile fossil fuel prices in the years ahead.
