Energy Sources
✤ Nonrenewable energy sources are those whose resources are being used faster than can be replenished.
✤ Coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium (nuclear)
✤ Renewable energy sources replenish themselves or are continuously present as a feature of the environment.
✤ Solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, etc.
✤ Some forms are referred to as perpetual energy
A Little Fossil Fuel Humor
How do you confuse a coal
miner?
Show him two shovels and ask him to take his
pick!
U.S. Energy Sources
✤ What percentage of our energy comes from:
✤ Coal
✤ Oil
✤ Natural gas
✤ Nuclear
✤ Solar
✤ Wind
✤ Geothermal
✤ Hydropower
Resources and Reserves
✤ A resource is a naturally occurring substance used by humans
✤ A reserve is a known deposit that can be economically extracted using current technology, under certain economic conditions
✤ Reserve levels change as technology advances, new discoveries are made, and economic conditions vary
Resources and Reserves
✤ Reserves are easy to get to and make money
✤ Some resources are harder to get to and will not make as much money
Example: Tar Sands
✤ Tar sands are a mixture of clay, sand, water, and an extremely dense form of petroleum
✤ Because it is difficult to extract and process, oil from tar sands used to be too expensive to produce
✤ Now, with improved technology and higher crude oil prices, tar sands are finally considered somewhat economical
Coal Formation
✤ 300 million years ago, plant material began collecting in swamps, initiating decay, forming a spongy mass of organic material
✤ Due to geological changes, some of these deposits were covered with sediment and water
✤ Pressure and heat over time transformed the organic matter into coal
Coal✤ Coal is most abundant fossil fuel
✤ Primarily used for generating electricity
✤ There are 3 categories of coal:
✤ Lignite – least desirable because of its high moisture content
✤ Bituminous – most widely used because it is most abundant and easiest to mine
✤ Anthracite – has the highest energy content and is cleanest burning, but is hard to obtain
At the entrance to a collapsed coal mine. The trucks and shovel are trying to open the collapsed mine opening.
Environmental Damage – Collapsed Mine
Surface-Mine Reclamation
Surface-mine reclamation. By law, after a mine has closed the land must be restored to its pre-mining conditions.
Control & Pollution Prevention
✤ Reduce demand
✤ Use low sulfur coal
✤ Filter smoke stack smoke
✤ Filter bags
✤ Water spray
Waste Disposal & Accidents
✤ Ash and soot in landfills, radioactive materials concentrated
✤ Damage to land during mining:
✤ more with surface
✤ less with subsurface
In December, 2008 a storage lake filled with coal ash and water flooded the near by town. Kingston TN