Fossil Fuel Production By: Teddy VanRanst

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Fossil Fuel ProductionBy Teddy VanRanst   

• Physics 2 I.B.
• Period 4
• 1/30/09

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8.3.1     Historical and Geographical reasons for
the widespread use of fossil fuels

• Historical
•     As industrialization boomed during the mid
  1700s and early 1800s, so did the need for coal,
  due to the fact that it was the prime energy
  source for the most widespread used machine, the
  steam engine. 

• Geographical
•     Britain benefited greatly from the industrial
  revolution simply because it had large deposits
  of coal, iron, lead, copper, tin, limestone and
  water power, which resulted in excellent
  conditions for the development and expansion of
  industry.
•     Also, iron factories were created next to
  large coal deposits due to the fact that coal
  could be used in the production of wrought iron,
  as seen on the next slide.

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Reverberatory Furnace

• The reverberatory Furnace could produce wrought
  iron using mined coal. The burning coal remained
  separate from the iron ore and so did not
  contaminate the iron with impurities like
  sulphur. This opened the way to increased iron
  production.
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• However,  the reverberatory furnace is quite
  innefficient compared to other furnaces.

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8.3.2 Energy density of fossil fuels and demands
of power stations

• Power plants demand a very large amount of fossil
  fuels in order to put out energy for the
  surrounding areas.
• Many power plants have trains that can be as long
  as a mile, with a hundred cars, each carrying 100
  tons of coal. 10,000 tons are needed for an
  average day of energy production. Gas plants are
  built adjacent to gas pipelines or have a
  dedicated pipelines sent directly to them. Oil
  burning plants have oil pipelines directed to
  them or have tankers ship oil to the plant, which
  totals about 5 million gallons of oil used in a
  day.
• In peak season, (winter) plants may receive as
  many as five train loads of coal a day in order
  to put out the necessary amount of extra
  power.They can also receive as many as 25 million
  gallons of oil a day.
•  An average power plant can power as many as
  150,000 homes

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8.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of
transportation and storage of fossil fuels

• Advantages
• When natural gas isn't shipped very far due to
  factories that are close, then cost to keep up
  the transportation line is rather low.
• Coal is easy to pile up for storage and does not
  flow like gas.
•  Coal and oil are relatively cheap to mine,
  relative to the total value that they has in this
  day and age.
•  Readily available
• Simple combustion techniques produce large
  amounts of electricity.
• Distributed easily

• Disadvantages
• The transportation and use of coal and oil is a
  large contributor to global warming. 
•  Methane gas is highly combustible and is a very
  dangerous fire hazard.
•  If gas needs to be transported over a far
  distance, then a pipeline is required. This
  requires round the clock maintenance and is very
  costly
•  Use of coal or oil with unfiltered emissions can
  cause acid rain.
• Some areas in the world have questionable
  availability to fossil fuels 
• If oil is spilled, it's very hard to clean up and
  kills many animals. ex. Oil spills in the ocean.

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8.3.4 Efficiency of fossil fuel plants

• The US today converts fossil fuel into
  electricity at 33 efficiency, throwing away
  two-thirds of every unit of fuel we burn in
  cooling towers and smoke stacks.
• Thats the same conversion efficiency we had in
  1957!
•  Industrial Natural Gas Fired Turbines are
  between 21 and 40 efficient.
• Microturbines, which are about the size of a
  refrigerator, run on natural gas and are about
  80 efficient.
• Combined Cycle Units, or plants with both turbine
  and steam production of electricity are about 60
  efficient.
• Oil power plants are approximately 45 efficient.

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8.3.5 Environmental problems with recovery and
use of fossil fuels

• Finding and obtaining fossil fuels
• Strip mining for coal erodes the ground away and
  leaves a large hole in the ground.
• Traditional mining, such as surface mining, only
  extracts about 65 of the total amount of coal on
  that certain sight.
• Traditional drilling for oil leaves about 10 of
  the total amount of oil still in the ground.
• Oil well fires are somewhat common and very
  dangerous.

• Using fossil fuels
• Basically, the main environmental problem with
  fossil fuels is that they produce a large amount
  of a few, select pollutants.
• The burning of fossil fuels produces very large
  amounts of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
• Fossil fuel plants are not very efficient. 
• The burning of coal also produces large amounts
  of sulphur dioxide, which is the main contributor
  to acid rain.

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Sources

•  lthttp//www.awma.org/gt.
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•  lthttp//www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/links/html/f
  ossil_fuel/fossil_fuel_green.htmlgt.
•  
• lthttp//www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter08.htm
  lgt.
•  
•  lthttp//www.solcomhouse.com/fossilfuels.htmgt.