Chapter 5 Energy:
Introduction to Energy and
Nonrenewable Energy Sources
Think Pair share questions
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What are the positives about using nonrenewable resources?
What are the negatives about using nonrenewable resources?
Why have we not switched over to renewable
resources?
Energy Basics
What is energy?
the ability to do work
What are some forms of energy?
chemical, electrical, mechanical, nuclear, light, heat
What do we use energy for?
transportation, heating, cooking, industry
Energy Basics
What is the difference between nonrenewable
and renewable sources of energy?
Once we use up nonrenewable, we can’t get
any more
What are examples of nonrenewable?
oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear
Energy Efficiency and Energy
Conservation
What is the difference?
Energy efficiency – the amount of useful energy produced compared to
the amount wasted as heat (2nd Law of Thermodynamics); built into the
device or system, unavoidable waste
Examples of levels of energy efficiency:
human body:
20-25%
incandescent lightbulb:
5%
internal combustion engine:
20-25%
steam turbine:
45%
Energy conservation – making an effort to reduce the amount of energy
used, some waste can be avoided – Examples?
Why should we try to increase both?
Use of energy resources in the U.S.
U.S. has 4.6% of world population; uses 24% of the
world’s energy
Nonrenewable energy resources removed from
the earth’s crust include: oil, natural gas, coal,
and uranium
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Fossil Fuels: Coal, Oil ,Natural Gas
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Fossil fuels that formed from the decay
(remains of plants and organisms) that were
buried and altered millions of years ago and
account for about 80% of the energy generated
in the U.S.
Coal
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Coal is sedimentary rock formed from
decayed plant material.
-most abundant fossil fuel in the world
Look on page 121, What happens to begin
the formation of coal in a swampy area?
Coal
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1.
2.
3.
4.
What are the four basic stages of coal
formation?
Coal: the first fossil fuel used
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Long history of use
Can be burned directly to produce a lot of
heat in a stove, train engine or factory
The dirtiest type of fossil fuel
Relatively cheap and abundant
Coal Mining
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Strip mining – very destructive
Underground mining, including longwall
mining – can be dangerous to the miners
Video clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylkdUuNOJzw&feature=related
Ranks of Coal
Lignite: A brownish-black coal of low
quality; energy content is less than
4000 BTU/lb
 Subbituminous: dull black; energy content
is 8,300 BTU/lb
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Bituminous: most common coal is dense
and black (often with well-defined bands of
bright and dull material); energy content
about 10,500 Btu/lb

Anthracite: a hard, black lustrous coal,
often referred to as hard coal; energy
content of about 14,000 Btu/lb
www.uvawise.edu/philosophy/Hist%20295/ Powerpoint%5CCoal.ppt
Acid Mine Drainage
The impact of mine
drainage on a lake after
receiving effluent from
an abandoned tailings
impoundment for over
50 years
Relatively fresh tailings in an
impoundment.
http://www.earth.uwaterloo.ca/services/whaton/s06_amd.html
The same tailings impoundment
after 7 years of sulfide
oxidation. The white spots in
Figures A and B are gulls.
Cutting edge research:
Clean Coal Technology (CCT)
Involves carbon capture and
storage, washing coal to
remove pollutants, use of
devices to purify air as it
leaves the plant, convert
solid coal to a gas (cleaner,
more efficient)
Video clips:
http://www.cleancoalusa.org/
Advantages and Disadvantages of Coal
Pros
• Most abundant fossil fuel
• Major U.S. reserves – contributes to energy
independence
• 300 yrs. at current consumption rates
• High net energy yield
Cons
• Dirtiest fuel (produces particulate matter, carbon
dioxide and sulfur dioxide)
• Mining causes major environmental degradation
• Major threat to health
© Brooks/Cole Publishing Company / ITP
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Oil
A thick, black liquid formed from buried remains
of microscopic marine organisms.
 Deposits of crude oil often are trapped within the
earth's crust and can be extracted by drilling a well
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Crude oil: complex liquid mixture of hydrocarbons,
with small amounts of S, O, N impurities

Example: the Deepwater Horizon was drilling to get
oil
Oil
Crude oil is transported to a refinery
where distillation produces
petrochemicals
One example: TransAlaska Pipeline
Oil refinery – notice the tall towers….
Oil refineries in the southern U.S.
Info for Oil:
Infrastructure
already in
place
Risk of
spills
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Natural Gas – another fossil fuel
 Fossil fuel formed from marine organisms
that often is found in tilted or folded rock
layers.
Mixture of gases
•50–90% Methane (CH4)
•Ethane (C2H6)
•Propane (C3H8)
•Butane (C4H10)
•Hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Sources of Natural Gas
• Russia & Kazakhstan - almost 40% of world's supply.
• Iran (15%), Qatar (5%), Saudi Arabia (4%), Algeria (4%), United
States (3%), Nigeria (3%), Venezuela (3%);
• 90–95% of natural gas in U.S. domestic (~411,000 km = 255,000
miles of pipeline).
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
What do we use natural gas for?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Produce electricity
Heat homes (inside homes, water heater)
Industry (heat for warmth and producing
things)
Vehicles
Cooking
Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking

Technique used to get gas out from
underground – pump water into spaces to
increase pressure
Fracking can
cause
groundwater
contamination
and earthquakes
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Fossil Fuels: Coal, Oil, Natural Gas
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1.
2.
3.
What are 3 ways you can conserve (avoid
wasting) fossil fuels?
Energy from Atoms
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Nuclear energy is an alternate energy source
produced from atomic reactions.
Energy is released during fission reaction
when a heavy atom is split into lighter atoms.
Fusion occurs when two atoms come
together to form a single atom.
Nuclear Energy
In a conventional nuclear power plant,
a controlled nuclear fission chain reaction
heats water to…
produce high-pressure steam that…
turns turbines which…
generate electricity
Nuclear Energy
Nuclear fission – splitting of an
atom
Once an atom splits, neutrons
cause other atoms to split – a
chain reaction occurs
In a nuclear power plant, the
chain reaction is kept under
control (using control rods),
and the heat is used to generate
electricity
Most common fuel used is
uranium – a nonrenewable
heavy metal that comes from
underground
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Controlled Nuclear Fission Reaction
cstl-cst.semo.edu/bornstein/BS105/ Energy%20Use%20-%203.ppt
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Radioactivity
• Types
• Alpha particles consist of 2 protons and 2 neutrons,
and therefore are positively charged
• Beta particles are negatively charged (electrons)
• Gamma rays have no mass or charge, but are a form
of electromagnetic radiation (similar to X-rays)
• Sources of natural radiation
•
•
•
•
•
Soil
Rocks
Air
Water
Cosmic rays
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Relative
Doses
from
Radiation
Sources
Unit for measuring
radiation dose: millisievert
(mSv)
cstl-cst.semo.edu/bornstein/BS105/ Energy%20Use%20-%203.ppt
Effects of Radiation
• Genetic damages: from mutations
that alter genes
• Genetic defects can become
apparent in the next generation
• Somatic damages: to tissue, such as
burns, miscarriages & cancers
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
www.geology.fau.edu/course_info/fall02/ EVR3019/Nuclear_Waste.ppt
Radioactive Waste
1. Low-level radiation (Gives of low amount of radiation)
• Sources: nuclear power plants, hospitals &
universities
• 1940 – 1970 most was dumped into the ocean
• Today deposit into landfills
2. High-level radiation (Gives of large amount of
radiation)
• Fuel rods from nuclear power plants
• Half-time of Plutonium 239 is 24000 years
• Safe method of storage is difficult – may be stored
in pools, or dry casks on land
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Yucca Mountain
Was going to be the nation’s
repository for nuclear waste –
this plan has been canceled
www.geology.fau.edu/course_info/fall02/ EVR3019/Nuclear_Waste.ppt
Nuclear Power Plants in U.S.
cstl-cst.semo.edu/bornstein/BS105/ Energy%20Use%20-%203.ppt
Three Mile Island
• March 29, 1979, a reactor near Harrisburg, PA lost
coolant water because of mechanical and human
errors and suffered a partial meltdown
• 50,000 people evacuated & another 50,000 fled
area
• Unknown amounts of radioactive materials
released
• Partial cleanup & damages cost $1.2 billion
• Released radiation increased cancer rates.
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Chernobyl
• April 26, 1986, reactor explosion (Ukraine) flung
radioactive debris into atmosphere
• Health ministry reported 3,576 deaths
• Green Peace estimates32,000 deaths;
• About 400,000 people were forced to leave their
homes
• ~160,000 sq km (62,00 sq mi) contaminated
• > Half million people exposed to dangerous levels of
radioactivity
• Cost of incident > $358 billion
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Effects of
Chernobyl nuclear
disaster
Fukushima disaster – Japan, March 2011
before
Earthquake, followed by tsunami –
subsequent loss of power to cool reactors,
plus fire at plant
Use of Nuclear Energy
• U.S. phasing out - ???
• Some countries (France, Japan) investing
increasingly
• U.S. currently ~7% of energy nuclear
• No new U.S. power plants ordered since 1978
• 40% of 105 commercial nuclear power expected
to be retired by 2015 and all by 2030
• North Korea is getting new plants from the US
• France 78% energy nuclear
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter14&15.ppt
Energy &
Mineral resources
Comparison of Supplies of Nonrenewable
Energy Sources:
garnero101.asu.edu/glg101/Lectures/L37.ppt
Self Check
1.
2.
3.
4.
Explain why coal, oil, and natural gas are
fossil fuels.
Explain why fossil fuels are considered to be
nonrenewable energy resources.
Describe two disadvantages of nuclear
energy.
Think Critically: Why are you likely to find
natural gas and oil deposits in the same
location, but less likely to find coal and
petroleum deposits at the same location?