Mount Sinabung, Sumatra,

Indonesia

~5000 foot plume

Evacuated in September, then

“all clear” on Friday

History: last eruption 2010; not

for 400 years before that

Actual casualties and causes

still unknown

- Thanks Shedavia !

bad

Bad

spot

Emirates Palace, Abu

Dhabi

Approx. $25

Also used in

champagne, sushi,

even bagels - Thanks Maria !

Hydrocarbon formation

Coal, oil, natural gas

Demand and consumption

Resources

Extraction

Costs and benefits

Fossil Fuels rely on energy stored in chemical bonds of ancient life

Really a delayed form of solar energy!

Boiling water was fist large scale energy used for steam engines

Mid 19th century: biomass burning coal burning in less than a century

Mid 20th century: oil overtakes coal as main fossil fuel AND plastics raw material

1970s: first real, obvious US

energy crisis

1980s: rebound of cheap oil

1990s-2000s: : first market-

driven alternative energies

solid organic matter will be converted to liquids + gases (hydrocarbons)

• Coal: accumulated plant matter compressed into rock

• Petroleum: complex suite of chemical compounds including oil

and natural gas associated with it

• Natural Gas: gaseous hydrocarbon compound most commonly

methane (CH4)

Rapid burial of organic matter [peat

swamp, marine fallout]

Heat and pressure act to modify the

organic molecules

Large organics - „heavy‟ hydrocarbons)

will be broken down into smaller

molecules through maturation

The mobile fossil fuels are often connected and extracted by drilling

After migration, oil and gas will pool there

to make economically usable deposits

Reservoir rocks for hydrocarbon are

overlain by impermeable caps that trap

the migration of the hydrocarbons

New horizontal drilling tech allows lots of

new access to these reservoirs

Example: Bakken field in N Dakota

Liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons are very mobile, just like water

They will migrate out of the rocks in which they formed and can be found in

geologic traps

drillable

} 60%

imported

US uses 25% of world oil production, produces much less

We‟ve produced ~200 billion barrels, about 25 to go

PRO

Transportable – allows distant destination

Abundant – 10‟s to 100‟s of years

Cheap – er than alternatives

CON

Polluting extraction

Polluting combustion – CO2

Nonrenewable nonsustainable

Limited supply = „tech trap‟

Oops events – toxic spills

About 10,000 spills each year in U.S. waters

Where does Minnesota oil, gas, natural gas come from?

Nearest reserves: North DakotaMost often oil comes from the

Athabasca region of Canada

Huge reserves of “oil sands”

A classic example of NIMBY

Exploration challenges:

• Most promising areas have been explored

• Protected & environmentally sensitive fields remain The costs have gone up, as yields declineExisting wells may use enhanced recovery techniques such as hydraulic

fracturing [“fracking”]

7.4 billion barrels

„undiscovered technically

recoverable oil‟

Conventional, cheap sources will be increasingly harder to find and

extract but technology creates more opportunities

As costs rise, our situation will

change accordingly

“peak oil‟ example

Provides about 20% of U.S. energy supply

More than 50% of U.S. electric power generation

Formation of Coal Deposits

Remains of land plants, not from marine organisms

Anaerobic, swamp settings ideal with abundant trees and leaves

Requires anaerobic conditions to convert the fallen trees and dead

leaves into coal

In general, the longer the time to form, the higher the grade of coal

PRO

Transportable – allows distant destination

Abundant – 10‟s to 100‟s of years

50x oil, 40x gas

Cheap- much, much less than alternatives

CON

Polluting extraction

Polluting combustion – CO2, S, ash,

even U

Really expensive reclamation

Nonrenewable nonsustainable

Oops events – toxic spills, fires,

collapse

Great Barrier Reef will be smothered with silt, because coal

Much like gas only over long long term

Mitigation tech like „clean coal‟, carbon sequestration

“peak coal‟ predictions

are on much longer

time scales than „peak

oil‟ predictions

Alternatives in context

Nuclear, wind, solar

Demand and consumption

Basics

Costs and benefits

Alternatives represent a small but growing amount of energy resources

…this is exponential growth!

U is found in sedimentary rocks and mined like other metal oresPower plants use fission – splitting apart the atom releases energy,

heating water within the core of a reactor

…the trick is controlling the chain reaction produced!

www.industcards.com/

PRO

Cheap in mid cycle

No emissions in production

Large energy density

CON

Nonrenewable [?]

Invasive extraction

Really expensive start AND finish

Oops events are global scale

Toxic storage is a huge NIMBY problem

Complicated and water intensive

Nearly all energy is solar energy

reaches the earths surface

Passive solar heating: no mechanical

assistance

Active solar heating: mechanical

circulation of solar-heated water

Electricity

comes from

photovoltaic

energy

PRO

Abundant

Free

Nonpolluting

Renewable – no extraction

Local or regional

CON

Inefficient: 6-40%

Expensive construction

Inconsistent

space intensive

The earth contains heat: most from early history, some radioactive decay Magma rising into the crust bring abundant heat up into the crust as geothermal energy, mostly through circulating heated water

Many areas away from plate boundaries have high geothermal gradients

Actually, a kind of „nuclear energy‟ tapping nearly limitless interior heat

PRO CON

Abundant may cause tremors[?]

Low impact extraction uneven distribution

Nontoxic may be toxic?

nonpolluting expensive startup

stable

Another traditional power source, now for electricity generation

Falling water has considerable potential energyHydroelectric power produces less than 5% of

U.S. energy requirementTypically, a stream is dammed and the

discharge is regulated to produce electricityVariation on water power is tidal power,

harnessing two-directional tidal motion

PRO

Abundant

Nonpolluting

Little extraction disturbance

stable

CON

Massive site disturbance

VERY site restricted

expensive startup

nearly at world capacity

a variant of solar energy“Wind Farms” are large scale operations producing about 1 megawatt

per windmillAbundant small scale windmills involve small wind turbines lifting water

on a ranch or farmNew projects includeoffshore wind farms

Interest and capacity and investment are all increasing exponentially

Rapidly growing sector of economy & supply

Where is best to build them?

PRO

Renewable and “free”

Nonpolluting

No extraction

Local / regional

CON

Expensive

Inconsistent

Ugly

Oops outcomes

Biomass refers to the total mass of all the organisms

living on earth; waste material is burned as fuel

Wood, paper, crop waste, burned directly

grains, such as corn produce alcohols like ethanol

Qualifies as a renewable resource

Although very cheap and easily sourced, biomass can take lots of

resources to sustain and may divert those resources from other uses

(for instance, corn for ethanol)

Sustainability depends on supply-demand balance

Not always 100% safe…

40 Megawatt project

maybe to increase to

100 megawatts

fertilizer

chemicals

H

power

Integrated projects

Big and small solar projects including passive solar and solar thermal

Continued expansion of wind projects including offshore wind

Hydro mostly maxed out, but watch for tidal power

More thermal energy studies like ocean thermal

Coal mining and gas drilling will continue

Oil exploration will go into deep water

Its all about

economics…

Absurdly low tech solution,

but also high tech

innovations

US conservation efforts have

kept up with demand increase

of ~2% /year

Lots of consumer driven change,

including products & behaviors

Lots of government driven change

90% efficient furnaces

47-60 MPG cars

CFL bulbs

A significant influence on the US energy budget