ENERGY RESOURCES

ENERGY RESOURCES
•Supplementing free solar energy
–99% of heat comes from the sun
–Without the sun, the earth would be –240
0C (-400 0F)

•We supplement the other 1% with

primarily non-renewable energy sources
 ENERGY RESOURCES
• Renewable (16%) • Non-renewable
–Solar (84%)
–Wind –Oil
–Falling, flowing –Natural gas
water –Coal
–Biomass –Nuclear power
 ENERGY SOURCES AND USES
• Uses of Energy
– industrial
– domestic
– transportation
• Note: Electricity is not an energy source,
converted from another source (coal, hydro,
nuclear, etc.).
• 1st Law of Thermodynamics - You can’t get
more energy out of something than you put in
• 2nd Law – In any conversion of heat energy to
useful work, some energy is always degraded
to a lower quality energy
 EVALUATING ENERGY RESOURCES
• Renewable
• Future availability
• Net energy yield
• It takes energy to get energy
• Habitat degradation
• Cost (initial and ongoing)
• Community disruption
• Political or international issues
• Suitability in different locations
• Polluting (air, water, noise, visual)
Fossil Fuels

Coal

Oil

Natural
Gas
What is Fossil
Fuel?
Why is Fossil
Fuel
important?
 FORMATION OF FOSSIL FUELS – COMMON
CONDITIONS
•High Organic Production
•Burial of organic material
•Reducing conditions – little or no free
oxygen
•Reducing conditions preserve organic
matter
•Coal and Petroleum diverge from here
What is coal?
 COAL
•Coal is a combustible black or
brownish-black sedimentary
rock usually occurring in rock
strata in layers or veins called
coal beds or coal seams.
 COAL
•The harder forms, such as
anthracite coal, can be regarded
as metamorphic rock because of
later exposure to elevated
temperature and pressure.
 COAL
•Coal is composed primarily
of carbon along with variable
quantities of other elements,
chiefly hydrogen, sulfur,
oxygen, and nitrogen.
 FORMATION OF COAL
•Accumulation of land plant material
•Reducing conditions – coastal and
inland swamps
•It started forming over 350 million
years ago, through the transformation
of organic plant matter.
 FORMATION OF COAL
•Coalification is the formation of coal
from plant material by the processes
of diagenesis and metamorphism.
Also known as bituminization or
carbonification. It all starts with a
swamp on the edge of a sedimentary
basin, such as a lagoon or a lake.
 FORMATION OF COAL
•Tectonic activity raises sea levels,
covering and killing vegetation. Plant
debris accumulates and is buried under
layers of mud and sand in a process
known as sedimentation. This protects
the debris from the air and slows down
the decomposition process.
 FORMATION OF COAL
• The vegetation grows back, until the
next flooding. The sedimentary basin
gradually sinks under the weight of the
sediments, and the layers of dead plants
are subjected to rising temperatures
that gradually “cook” them, leading to
their transformation.
 FORMATION OF COAL
• The different stages of sedimentation
turn cellulose, the main component of
wood, from peat to lignite (brown
coal), then sub-bituminous coal,
followed by bituminous coal and,
finally, anthracite. Anthracite has the
highest carbon content.
HOW COAL WAS FORMED?
 FORMATION OF COAL
• Organic accumulation
is greater than
destruction (because
of reducing
conditions)
• Organic matter builds
up to form peat
 TYPES OF COAL
•Peat consists of partially decomposed
vegetation. Technically speaking, it isn’t
coal. It has a carbon content of less than
60% and is composed entirely of volatile
matter. A poor fuel that was once used
throughout Europe in the form of dried
briquettes for heating, today it is used
only in a few regions, such as Ireland.
 TYPES OF COAL
• Lignite is 65 to 70% carbon and 63
to 53% volatile matter. It is a low-
grade fuel with a high moisture content
that is used in industrial boilers.
•Sub-bituminous coal is 70 to 76%
carbon and 53 to 42% volatile matter.
It is burned in industrial boilers.
 TYPES OF COAL
•Bituminous coal contains 70 to 86%
carbon and 46 to 31% volatile matter.
It is used to make coke, used in
metallurgy.
•Anthracite is 86 to 98% pure carbon
and 8 to 3% volatile matter. It is an
excellent fuel that is still used to heat
homes.
FORMATION OF COAL

• Peat is compressed to form

lignite – brown coal
• Lignite is compressed and
volatile compounds are lost to
form bituminous coal – soft
coal
• Bituminous coal is further
compressed and heated to form
anthracite – hard coal
 GEOLOGICAL TIME FOR THE FORMATION
OF COAL
• The most favorable conditions for the formation of
coal occurred 360 million to 290 million years ago,
during the Carboniferous (“coal-bearing”) Period.
However, lesser amounts continued to form in some
parts of the Earth during all subsequent periods, in
particular the Permian (290 million to 250 million
years ago), and throughout the Mesozoic Era (250
million to 65 million years ago).
 GEOLOGICAL TIME FOR THE FORMATION
OF COAL
• The accumulated plant matter buried during the
Tertiary Era — less than 65 million years ago — is
generally less mature. It is often in the form of lignite,
which still contains a high content of volatile matter
(bitumen and decayed wood) and has a lower carbon
content. However, there is also some higher rank coal
from the Tertiary Era, coal that matured early, heated
by plate tectonics.
 GEOLOGICAL TIME FOR THE FORMATION
OF COAL
•Examples of this include Paleocene coal
(65 to 55 million years ago), found in
Columbia and Venezuela, and Miocene coal
(20 million years ago), found in Indonesia. In
Indonesia, where the geothermal gradient is
very high, anthracite lies close to the
surface.
 GEOLOGICAL TIME FOR THE FORMATION OF
COAL
• However, the deposits in the Moscow Basin
have never gone beyond the lignite stage as it is
too cold. Finally, recent accumulations (from
10,000 years ago to today) are very rich in
fibrous debris known as peat, in which the
shapes of branches and roots can still be
discerned. This material was not buried deep
enough to contain elemental carbon.
 GEOLOGICAL TIME FOR THE FORMATION OF
COAL
• However, the deposits in the Moscow Basin
have never gone beyond the lignite stage as it is
too cold. Finally, recent accumulations (from
10,000 years ago to today) are very rich in
fibrous debris known as peat, in which the
shapes of branches and roots can still be
discerned. This material was not buried deep
enough to contain elemental carbon.
 What is
Natural Gas?
 NATURAL GAS
•A hydrocarbon is a compound that
contains the elements carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen. Natural gas is a mixture of
hydrocarbons that are in the form of gases.
Natural gas includes methane, propane, and
butane, which can be separated from one
another.
HOW OIL AND GAS DEPOSITS ARE FORMED
•Deep in the Earth, oil and natural
gas are formed from organic matter
from dead plants and animals. These
hydrocarbons take millions of years
to form under very specific pressure
and temperature conditions.
A LIVING ORGANISM DIES, IT IS GENERALLY
RECYCLED IN ONE OF TWO WAYS:
• It is eaten by predators, scavengers or bacteria.
• Through exposure to ambient air or oxygen-rich
water, it oxidizes. That means that the hydrogen,
carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus contained in
the matter combine with oxygen atoms present in the
air. The organic matter breaks down into water (H2O),
carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrates, sulfates and
phosphates that nourish new plants.
 THE SLOW FORMATION OF SOURCE ROCK
• A tiny proportion of this organic matter — about 0.1%
— escapes this fate. Transported by water, it sometimes
sinks to the bottom of the sea or large continental lakes.
It is partly preserved in these poorly oxygenated
environments, well away from tidal currents. It mixes
with inorganic matter, such as clay particles and very fine
sand, and with dead marine plankton (microscopic
organisms). This mixture is transformed into dark, foul-
smelling mud by anaerobic bacteria.
 THE SLOW FORMATION OF SOURCE ROCK
•Over time, this mud accumulates and
hardens. Mud that contains at least 1 to 2%
organic matter may be transformed into
source rock, which eventually produces oil
and gas deposits. This percentage may seem
low, but that is because one or more specific
requirements are necessary to enable the
process to take place:
 THE SLOW FORMATION OF SOURCE ROCK
•- A hot climate that is conducive to the
growth of large quantities of plankton.
•- A location near the mouth of a major river
carrying a lot of plant debris.
•- No nearby mountains that could limit the
volume of inorganic sediment within the
rock.
SOURCE ROCK SUBSIDENCE
FORMATION OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL
GAS• Accumulation of organic
material – typically marine
mud
• Burial and preservation of
organic material – reducing
conditions
• Reducing conditions in deep
sea or on continental shelves
during times of unusual
oceanic circulation
 FORMATION OF PETROLEUM AND
NATURAL GAS
• Black, organic-rich mud is buried deeper and
converted to rock – shale
• With burial, the organic matter is heated
• When heat is sufficient (but not too great) – in the
range of 100-300 degrees C – the organic matter is
“cooked” and oil forms
• Process is called thermal maturation
 FORMATION OF PETROLEUM AND
NATURAL GAS
•If heat is greater than 300 degrees C, the
liquid petroleum is further broken down
to form natural gas
•If heat is too great, even the natural gas is
broken down to form carbon dioxide,
which has no value as a fuel