Week 9: Alternative Energy, Beyond Fossil Fuels, Mineral Resources Flashcards
What is “Deep Decarbonization”?
A strategy to reduce the carbon emissions which involves:
- Energy efficiency
- Decarbonization of electricity supply
- Switching end use fuel to electric sources
What is “electrification” and what are its benefits?
The changing of the source of power from direct fossil fuel burning to electricity.
Creates options for power generation in the future.
There is a huge opp. to reduce non-renewable sources in the transportation sector: need vehicles to stop burning fossil fuels AND relying heavily on them!
What was the name of the first ever aircraft to fly around the world with no fuel?
Solar Impulse
What is an alternative to fossil fuel for cars?
Hydrogen fuel cells (renewable energy sources used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen).
This requires platinum, Pt, which requires a lot of E to extract.
What is the difference between “alternative” and “renewable” energy sources?
Alternative: produced (and reproduced) by the Sun or Earth within a time frame that is useful to people.
Renewable: generally inexhaustible and often associated with minimal environmental degredation.
Why is geothermal heat extraction NON-renewable?
If one draws the heat from the Earth too quickly, one can lose the capacity of the geothermal system.
List three examples of renewable energy.
- Hydropower
- Solar
- Wind
- Tidal
- Hydrogen
- Biomass or waste
- Biofuels
What are some of the concerns associated with wind power?
- Kills birds (?)
- Cost of generation due to large capital outlay
- Local climate change (?)
- Land for roads and windmill pads
- Degradation of scenic resources?
- Light and sound pollution
- Relies on surrounding weather, so how can we store energy when wind is not blowing?
What is a possible resource for biofuel, and what is its major advantage?
Create biofuel from switch grass; actually produces net negative emissions!
In 2018, nuclear energy consisted of ___% of the world’s electricity generation, while coal made up ___%.
10%, 38%
___% of Ontario’s electricity generation is nuclear.
59.0%
There are around ___ nuclear power reactors worldwide.
440
What are some concerns regarding nuclear power?
- Nuclear facilities are insanely expensive
- Public perception stifles nuclear power as an energy alternative
- Haven’t figured out a concrete way to get rid of nuclear waste
- Nuclear war and distaster
What are some sources of nuclear fuel?
Uranium-235 (fissile, 0.7% of natural uranium, half-life of 700 million years).
Plutonium-239 (forms from decay of U-238, highly fissile, half-life of 24,200 years)
Who is currently the world supplier for uranium-235?
Kazakhstan
Where is the world’s largest high-grade uranium mine?
MacArthur River, Saskatchewan.
Produced 7654 tonnes of uranium in 2010.
What are some of the factors associated with the perception the public has of nuclear energy?
- Nuclear disaster
- Clean energy
- War
- Waste
Nuclear energy consists of ___% of the fatalities due to energy production.
0.001%
How is nuclear waste typically contained?
- Nuclear waste is sealed in a cladding tube.
- Cladding tube is contained in a copper canister with a cast iron insert.
- The canister is placed in a crystalline bedrock body.
- The canisters and tubes are then stored ~500m underground (they can also be stored in pools)
Hydroelectric power is a function of _______ and _______.
Hydroelectric power is a function of HEIGHT and VOLUME.
What are some of the consequences of hydro-electric power?
- Reservoir sedimentation/pollution (N in failing water)
- Loss of land and wildlife to reservoir, changes to river ecology and downstream hydrology
- Damage and flooding of indigenous lands
- Loss of downstream aquifers and riverbank erosion
- Loss of livelihood from fisheries
What are some tools and technology behind mineral exploration?
- Research
- Geophysics
- Field mapping
- Exploration drilling
- Geochemical sampling
- Structural modelling
- 3D orebody estimation
- Confirmation drilling
What is “geochemistry”?
The search for indicator minerals in soil and rock using elemental isotopes to examine history in search for orebodies.
Describe a “mineral resource” vs. an “ore reserve”
Mineral resource: elements/compounds/minerals/rocks concentrated in a form that can be extracted
Ore reserve: a confirmed portion of resource that can be extracted for profit.