The six energy sources shown are mainly used in the world today and also show the amount of energy we get from each fuel.
Coal
Coal has been used for a very long time and still provides more than a quarter of all the fuels used in the world today. Coal is mostly made of carbon and has been used as part of providing heat and when machines were invented they were powered by burning coal. Coal is a heavily mined mineral. Modern machines are used to bring oil to the surface.
Gas
Gas is a very important fuel, because together with oil they make up about half of the worlds energy. It comes from tiny plants and animals remains that used to live in oceans over a million of years ago. As their remains built up on the ocean floor, layers of sediment were formed and gas was produced by heat and pressure. Gas is cleaned and processed after it has been taken from the ground to get rid of impurities. After this it is pumped into storage tanks and carried around the country. Natural gas really has no smell but the distinctive smell has been added as a warning of leaks.
The advantages of gas are:
- Shrinks when cooled
- Turned into liquid, when put under pressure.
- Easily portable in liquid form.
The production platform of gas to homes:
- Gas is pumped to processing plants on shore.
- Sent to compressor station.
- Into storage tanks.
- Gas companies supply it.
- Into peoples homes.
- Gas metres record how much gas is used.
Oil
Oil is a very important fuel and is used for many mostly to make them run smoothly. Oil is used as one third of the energy we use today. There are many types and in many forms; one form is crude oil, which comes straight out of the ground. It can be used in many different ways, like:
- In power stations- oil is burnt for the heat energy it can provide.
- In engines- that convert heat energy to chemical energy.
- Jet engines- burn fuel oil for power.
- Fuel oil
- Petrol
- Diesel
- Kerosene
The ways of finding oil is by digging dug wells. Oil can be found anywhere but because they are not everywhere, it takes great skills to find them. Oil wells can be very deep. Geologists use special techniques to locate oil by using sound wave and mapping what is underground.
Fossil fuels provide 90% of the world’s energy. We are using nuclear power and hydroelectric power as our two main alternatives.
Nuclear
Nuclear is atomic energy, which is an energy that is released from atoms. It is the most powerful source of energy known. It is what powers the sun itself. The reactor is the heart of the power plant. Energy is released as heat by atoms of uranium fuel, which are inside the core of the reactor. A cooling substance carries away the heat from the core and it then circulates through steam generator, where water is boiled into steam, which is piped to steam turbine generators.
Fusion And Fission
Some energy giving of energy naturally can be speeded up by fusion and fission and these both depend on the controlled collusion of atoms.
To make sure the reaction care doesn’t get to hot or cold the fission process is carefully controlled by control rods, which are raised up to, speed up fission and increase heat output and lowered to show down fission and reduce heat output. Using nuclear energy is complicated, expensive and dangerous. Nuclear fissions waste’s are radioactive and can harm living things, so they should be stored in living things, so they should be stored in special containers to make sure that the radiation does not escape. Disposing can be very expensive.
Environmental Problems
The environmental problems of using fossil or nuclear fuels are:
- Oil spills waste precious resources and cause damage.
- Fossil fuels give up poisonous gases when they are burned.
- Acid rain is a very poisonous type of pollution caused by burning coal.
- When radioactive materials are released into the environment they can poison for hundreds or even thousands of years.
- Nuclear reactors need a lot of water to keep them cool and to provide steam. After it is warm and released into lakes and rivers where it raises the temperature, which damages the aquatic environment.
- Plutonium, a commonly used fuel could be lethal if its dust is breathed in.
Nuclear Power Stations: For or Against?
FOR
Clean - the atmosphere isn’t polluted because of any toxic fumes.
No Ash
No lorries or trains – bringing coal
AGAINST
Radiation Danger – not confined to the local area or even to the country owning the power station.
Radioactive waste – disposal problems
Bomb Making Dangers
How Can Environmental Problems Be Reduced?
Protective suits are worn when radiation may be present in areas of the power stations. Workers radiation level is checked using a body monitor. The whole of the power station must be leak proof for the safety of people living by. So the atmosphere is checked constantly but sometimes problems do happen. Low-level waste is disposed fairly easily, by placing it in deep trenches dug in the ground, which are then filled with a covering layer of at least one metre of soil. Lower level liquid washes mat be diluted and discharged into rivers, lakes and seas. High-level waste and intermediate are buried deep underground in the UK.
RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES
Renewable energy resources are environmental resources that are replaced by the natural processes of growth, geology, or climate change. Renewable energy resources include:
- Sunlight
- Wind
- Waves
- Tides
- Geothermal energy.
Sunlight
The earth uses the sun’s energy in all kinds of ways. People have used the suns energy for many years. Light from the sun as well as heat can be used as an energy source. The sun makes energy by turning hydrogen gas to helium and it releases energy, which escapes outwards into space (nuclear fusion). When energy from the sun reaches our atmosphere, almost a third is replaced straight back into space. The suns energy helps:
- By being a force behind our weather and climate.
- By creation wind
- Plants grow
- Cook
- By trapping in fuels which:
- Keeps us warm
- Carry us around
- Make factories work
Solar Power
In sunny countries solar power is a very reliable source of energy, but only in the daytime. Solar power will still provide some energy even in cloudy countries like Britain.
There are three different ways that solar energy can be related:
-
SOLAR CELLS generate electric currents directly from the sunlight. They are quite expensive.
-
SOLAR PANELS are much less complicated. They simply contain water pipes under a black surface. Heat radiation from the sun is absorbed by the black surface to heat the water in pipes
3. A SOLAR FURNACE is a large array of curved mirrors, which are all focused onto one spot to produce very high temperatures so water can be turned to drive a turbine.
Wind
Winds are moving air. They are formed when the heat from the sun warms up the cool air near the grovnel. They warmed up air rises, and cool air rushes to take its place. The faster the air moves from one place to another, the stronger the wind. Wind contains large amount of kinetic energy and if it is trapped it can be used to make electricity. Wind energy alone cannot make all the power we need because they are changing and not giving out the same amount of energy all the time. Wind turbines are modern wind machines that make electricity. The wind turns the blades, which drive the generator to make electricity.
Water (Electricity)
Moving water has kinetic energy and this energy can be used to generate electricity. A hydroelectric power station needs a dam. Water from the river is stored in a reservoir behind the dam. The water flows through the power station, which is inside the dam. The water turns turbines with spin generators to generate electricity. Tidal barrage – when the tide comes in, water fills the lake behind the dam. As the tide goes out, the water flows through the power station to turn the turbines and generators. In a wave power generator as the wave rises and falls, they push air up and down past the turbine. The turbine turns the generator to produce electricity.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal power stations use the energy of hot rocks inside the earth. This is geothermal energy. The rocks are hot because they contain uranium. Only a few places in the world have the right conditions underground for geothermal power stations.
Generating Electricity
Fuel like coal, oil and natural gas are burnt in the boiler, which releases heat energy. Petrol is not burnt in power stations because it would be too expensive. Oil is burnt in a power station, that’s why it is too expensive. This is used to heat up water, which then changes to high-pressure steam. The steam is then used to drive huge turbines, which are just like really big fans. These turbines are attached to a generator, which spins round like dynamo. Dynamo makes the electricity which is fed onto the natural grid and out to our homes where it powers out TV’s, transits etc. It also supplies a lot of industries.
Power For The Future
Fossil fuels cause pollution and may run out during the foreseeable future. The renewable energy resources are still not producing enough energy to run the world. Nuclear power could well be the answer but the effects it has on the environment are very serious. Nuclear fusion could be a solution to future problems.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I have written this bibliography to show the references I have used and also the author.
Internet
Energy from the Sun- Jan Burgess
Radiation and Nuclear energy- Jay Palmer
Power from the wind- Hazel Songhutst
Physics- David Sang
Co-ordinated Science (Physics)- Stephen Pople and Peter Whitehead