Using Hydrofracking to Produce Oil and Natural Gas Where Does the Energy We Use Come From? Some 99% of the energy that heats
please see attachments below on how to help with this assignment. APA style cite all work please us information that has been provide to help with this assignment.
15 -Chapter Introduction
Core Case Study
Using Hydrofracking to Produce Oil and Natural Gas
15.1
Energy Resources
15.1a
Where Does the Energy We Use Come From?
15.1b
Net Energy: It Takes Energy to Get Energy
15.1c
Some Energy Resources Need Subsidies
15.2
Oil
15.2a
We Depend Heavily On Oil
15.2b
Are We Running Out of Crude Oil?
15.2c
Environmental Impact of Heavy Oil
15.3
Natural Gas
15.3a
What Is Natural Gas?
15.3b
Natural Gas and Climate
15.4
Coal
15.4a
Coal: A Plentiful but Dirty Fuel
15.4b
The Full Cost of Using Coal
15.4c
The Future of Coal
15.4d
Converting Coal into Gaseous and Liquid Fuels
15.5
Nuclear Power
15.5a
How Does a Nuclear Fission Reactor Work?
15.5b
The Nuclear Fuel Cycle
15.5c
Radioactive Nuclear Wastes
15.5d
Nuclear Power and Climate Change
15.5e
Nuclear Power’s Uncertain Future
15.5f
Nuclear Fusion
Tying It All Together
Fracking, Nonrenewable Energy, and Sustainability
Chapter Review
Critical Thinking
Doing Environmental Science
Data Analysis15.1aWhere Does the Energy We Use Come From?
Some 99% of the energy that heats the earth and makes it livable comes from the sun—in keeping with the solar energy principle of sustainability. Without this free and essentially inexhaustible input of solar energy, the earth’s average temperature would be and life as we know it would not exist.
To supplement the sun’s life-sustaining energy, we use commercial energy—energy produced from a variety of nonrenewable and renewable resources and sold in the marketplace. Nonrenewable energy resources, include fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived long ago and in the nuclei of certain atoms (nuclear energy). We discuss these resources in this chapter. Renewable energy resources that are replenished by natural processes include energy from the sun, wind, flowing water (hydropower), biomass (energy stored in plants), and heat in the earth’s interior (geothermal energy). They are discussed in Chapter 16 .
85%
Percentage of the world’s commercial energy that comes from nonrenewable energy (mostly fossil fuels)
In 2017, 85% of the world’s commercial energy and 80% of U.S. commercial energy came from nonrenewable resources (mostly oil, natural gas, and coal), while the rest came from renewable resources ( Figure 15.2 )
Figure 15.2
Energy use by source throughout the world (left) and in the United States (right) in 2017.
(Compiled by the authors using data from British Petroleum, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and International Energy Agency (IEA)
15.1bNet Energy: It Takes Energy to Get Energy
Producing high-quality energy from any energy resource requires an input of high-quality energy. For example, before oil can be used, it must be located, pumped from beneath the ground or ocean floor, transferred to a refinery, converted to gasoline and other fuels, and delivered to consumers. Each of these steps uses high-quality energy, obtained mostly by burning fossil fuels, especially gasoline and diesel fuel produced from oil. Because of the second law of thermodynamics (Chapter 2), some of the high-quality energy used in each step is degraded to lower quality energy that typically flows into the environment as heat.
Net energy is the amount of high-quality energy available from a given quantity of an energy resource, minus the high-quality energy needed to make the energy available.
This information can also be expressed as a net energy ratio (NER) , also known as the energy returned on investment (EROI).
Net energy values are rough estimates depending on the items included and the availability of data. For this reason, Figure 15.3 shows generalized net energies for major energy resources and systems. It is based on several sources of scientific data and classifies estimated net energy as high, medium, low, or negative (negative being a net energy loss).
Figure 15.3
Generalized net energies for various energy resources and systems.
Critical Thinking:
1. Based only on these data, which two resources in each category will give the greatest return on the investment?
(Compiled by the authors using data from the U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. Department of Agriculture; Colorado Energy Research Institute, Net Energy Analysis, 1976; Howard T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Odum, Energy Basis for Man and Nature, 3rd ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981, and Charles A. S. Hall and Kent A. Klitgaard, Energy and the Wealth of Nations, New York: Springer, 2012.) Top left: racorn/ Shutterstock.com. Bottom left: Donald Aitken/National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Top right: Serdar Tibet/ Shutterstock.com. Bottom right: Michel Stevelmans/ Shutterstock.com.
15.1cSome Energy Resources Need Subsidies
Resources with low net energies are costly to bring to the market. This makes it difficult for such energy resources to compete in the marketplace against energy resources with higher net energies unless they receive subsidies and tax breaks from the government (taxpayers) or other outside sources.
For example, electricity produced by nuclear power has a low net energy. This is because large amounts of high-quality energy are needed for each step in the nuclear power fuel cycle: to extract and process uranium ore, upgrade it to nuclear fuel, build and operate nuclear power plants, dismantle each radioactive nuclear plant after its useful life (typically 40-60 years) and safely store for thousands of years the highly radioactive wastes created in operating and dismantling each plant.
The low net energy and the resulting high cost of the entire nuclear fuel cycle (discussed later in this chapter) is one reason why governments (taxpayers) throughout the world heavily subsidize nuclear-generated electricity to make it available to consumers at an affordable price. However, such subsidies hide the true costs of nuclear power and thus violate the full-cost pricing principle of sustainability.
Another factor that can affect the usefulness of an energy resource is its energy density , the amount of energy available per kilogram of the resource. The two energy resources with the highest densities are uranium-235 fuel, used to produce electricity in nuclear power plants, and compressed hydrogen gas , which when burned does not emit climate-changing gases or other air pollutants. However, energy density can be misleading because it does not take into account the high-quality energy needed to make the energy resource available for use. For example, the entire nuclear power process of using uranium-235 to produce electricity has a low net energy as described above, and producing hydrogen gas results in a net energy loss.
17.4fImplementing Pollution Prevention
Pollution prevention programs by 3M and other companies are leading the way but there are major challenges in applying the precautionary principle more widely in the United States. A key to pollution prevention is banning the use of harmful chemicals or regulating their use.
At U.S. Congressional hearings in 2009, experts testified that the current regulatory system in the United States makes it virtually impossible for the government to limit or ban the use of toxic chemicals. Under this system, by 2009 the EPA has required testing for only 200 of the more than 85,000 chemicals registered for use in the United States and had issued regulations to control fewer than 12 of those chemicals.
However, there has been some progress. In 2011, after a 35-year delay promoted by politically powerful coal companies and utilities that burn coal to produce electricity, the EPA took a step toward pollution prevention by issuing a rule to control emissions of mercury ( Core Case Study ) and harmful fine-particle pollution from older coal-burning plants in 28 states.
Many eastern states suffer from deposition of mercury and harmful particles produced by older coal-burning power and electric plants in the Midwest and blown eastward by prevailing winds ( Figure 17.20 ). The new proposed air pollution standards could prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths, 200,000 non-fatal heart attacks, and 2.5 million asthma attacks, according to the EPA. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld these new EPA regulations but there have been growing efforts in Congress and pressure from coal companies to roll back or eliminate this standard.
Atmospheric wet deposition of mercury in the lower 48 states in 2010. Since then some progress has been made in reducing mercury levels in the eastern half of the 48 states.
Critical Thinking:
1. Why do the highest levels occur mainly in the eastern half of the United States?
(Compiled by the authors using data from the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Atmospheric Deposition Program)
In 2018, under pressure from coal industry the head of the EPA, who for 10 years served as the top attorney for the chief executive of a major coal company, was reviewing the 2011 and 2015 mercury air pollution standards, which the American Lung Association estimated would prevent 11,000 premature deaths per year and has dramatically reduced mercury pollution. The EPA head hoped to see how the standards could be greatly weakened, along with other air and water pollution standards for potentially toxic chemicals, because of the high costs to the coal industry. The goal is to set lower, more coal industry-friendly standards and possibly set the stage for full repeal of the EPA mercury standards.
Pollution prevention is happening on an international scale. The Stockholm Convention of 2000 is an international agreement to ban or phase out the use of 12 of the most notorious persistent organic pollutants (POPs), also called the dirty dozen. These highly toxic chemicals have been shown to produce numerous harmful effects, including cancers, birth defects, compromised immune systems, and declining sperm counts and sperm quality in men in a number of countries. The list includes DDT and eight other pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins. In 2009, nine more POPs were added, some of which are widely used in pesticides and in flame-retardants added to clothing, furniture, and other consumer goods. The treaty went into effect in 2004 but has not been formally approved or implemented by the United States.
Representatives from many nations developed a United Nations treaty known as the Minamata Convention which seeks to curb most human-related inputs of mercury into the environment ( Core Case Study ). The overall goal is to reduce global mercury emissions by 15% to 35% in the next several decades. In August 2017, the treaty went into effect after 50 countries (including the United States) had ratified or signed it. The treaty requires countries to implement the best-available mercury emission-control technologies within five years. It also restricts the use of mercury in common household products, thermometers and other measuring devices, light bulbs, batteries, and some cosmetics. However, there are no penalties for not meeting these requirements.
17.5aThe Greatest Health Risks Come from Poverty, Gender, and Lifestyle Choices
Risk analysis involves identifying hazards and evaluating their associated risks (risk assessment; Figure 17.2 , left), ranking risks (comparative risk analysis), determining options and making decisions about reducing or eliminating risks (risk management; Figure 17.2 , right), and informing decision makers and the public about risks (risk communication).
Statistical probabilities based on experience, animal testing, and other assessments are used to estimate risks from older technologies and chemicals. To evaluate new technologies and products, risk evaluators use more uncertain statistical probabilities, based on models rather than on actual experience and testing.
In terms of the number of deaths per year ( Figure 17.21 , left), the greatest risk by far is poverty, followed by air pollution and tobacco use. Many deaths due to poverty are caused by malnutrition, increased susceptibility to normally nonfatal infectious diseases, and often-fatal infectious diseases transmitted by unsafe drinking water.
Figure 17.21
Estimated numbers of deaths per year in the world from various causes. Numbers in parentheses represent these death tolls in terms of numbers of fully loaded 200-passenger jet airplanes crashing every day of the year with no survivors.
Critical Thinking:
1. Which three of these causes are the most threatening to you?
(Compiled by the authors using data from the World Health Organization, Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Studies show that the four greatest risks in terms of shortened life spans are living in poverty, being born male, smoking (see the Case Study that follows), and being obese. Some of the greatest risks of premature death are illnesses that result primarily from lifestyle choices that people make ( Figure 17.22 ).
Figure 17.22
Leading causes of death in the United States. Some result from lifestyle choices and are preventable.
Data Analysis:
1. The number of deaths from tobacco use is how many times the number of deaths from alcohol?
(Compiled by the authors using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
Case Study
Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes
Cigarette smoking is the world’s most preventable and largest cause of premature death among adults. The WHO estimates that smoking contributed to the deaths of 100 million people during the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people during this century unless governments and individuals act to dramatically reduce smoking.
The WHO and a report by the U.S. Surgeon General estimated that each year, globally tobacco contributes to the premature deaths of about 6 million people resulting from 25 illnesses, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, lung and other cancers, memory impairment, bronchitis, and emphysema ( Figure 17.23 ). This amounts to an average of more than 16,400 deaths every day.
Figure 17.23
The difference between normal human lungs (left) and the lungs of a person who died of emphysema (right). The major causes of emphysema are prolonged smoking and exposure to air pollutants.
Arthur Glauberman/Science Source
In a study led by Rachel A. Whitmer, researchers tracked the health of 21,123 individuals for 30 years. They found that people between the ages of 50 and 60 who had smoked one to two packs of cigarettes daily had a 44% higher chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia (which reduces blood flow to the brain and can erode memory) by age 72.
The projected annual death toll by 2030 from smoking-related diseases is 8 million—an average of 21,900 preventable deaths per day—according to the CDC and the WHO. About 80% of these deaths are expected to occur in less-developed countries, especially China, with 350 million smokers. The annual death toll from smoking in China is about 1.2 million, an average of about 137 deaths every hour. By 2050, the annual death toll from smoking in China could reach 3 million. There is little effort to reduce smoking in China, partly because cigarette taxes provide up to 10% of the central government’s total annual revenues. A study by Zhengming Chen and a team of other researchers, projected that smoking could lead to 3 million deaths per year in China by 2050.
According to the CDC, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing about 492,000 Americans per year—an average of 1,348 deaths per day, or nearly one every minute ( Figure 17.22 ). This death toll is roughly equivalent to almost 7 fully loaded 200-passenger jet planes crashing every day of the year with no survivors. Smoking kills far more Americans each year than car crashes, alcohol, legal and illegal drugs, suicides, and murders combined. Smoking also causes about 8.6 million illnesses every year in the United States. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the nicotine inhaled in tobacco smoke or in e-cigarettes is highly addictive, with the addictive power of heroin and cocaine. A British government study showed that adolescents who smoke more than one cigarette have an 85% chance of becoming long-term smokers.
Studies indicate that cigarette smokers die, on average, 10 years earlier than nonsmokers, but that kicking the habit—even at 50 years of age—can cut such a risk in half. If people quit smoking by age 30, they can avoid nearly all the risk of dying prematurely. However, it is difficult for smokers to quit because of the strong addictive power of nicotine.
Secondhand smoke—smoke inhaled by people living with or working around smokers—is also a hazard. Children who grow up living with smokers are more likely to develop allergies and asthma. Among adults, nonsmoking spouses of smokers have a 30% higher risk of both heart attack and lung cancer than spouses of nonsmokers have. A study by British researchers found that, globally, exposure to secondhand smoke contributes to about 600,000 deaths per year. According to the CDC, daily exposure to secondhand smoke is responsible for nearly 42,000 deaths per year in the United States.
A growing number of people are using various forms of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, battery-operated nicotine inhalers ( Figure 17.24 , left). The nicotine is extracted from tobacco and mixed with chemicals such as propylene glycol and flavorings such as menthol, mint, and diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione (which provide a buttery taste). A lithium-ion battery heats the nicotine solution and converts it to a vapor that contains nicotine and other chemicals (mostly flavorings) that is inhaled and then exhaled ( Figure 17.24 , right). Smoking e-cigarettes is called vaping.
Figure 17.24
An e-cigarette that can be refilled with a solution of nicotine (e-juice), left photo. A battery converts the liquid to a vapor that is exhaled (right photo).
jps/ Shutterstock.com; deineka/ Shutterstock.com
Are e-cigarettes safe? No one knows, because they have not been around long enough to be thoroughly evaluated. E-cigarettes reduce or eliminate the inhalation of tar and numerous other harmful chemicals found in regular cigarette smoke. However, they expose users to highly addictive nicotine, which is categorized as a poison ( Table 17.1 ), sometimes at levels of up to 5 times as high (10% nicotine) as that found in regular cigarettes (2% nicotine). There are claims that e-cigarettes may help smokers quit by discouraging e-cigarette users from smoking conventional cigarettes. However, evidence on these claims is controversial and will take years of research to evaluate. In 2015, a new type of very high-nicotine e-cigarette was released. Most commonly called a Juul and resembling a USB drive, it exposes users to an amount of nicotine equivalent to 200 puffs, or a pack of cigarettes.
There is pressure on the FDA to ban some of the flavorings, especially menthol and mint, which make it easier for teenagers to smoke e-cigarettes. However, such a ban will take years to implement and is opposed by the major tobacco companies.
Some scientists warn that we are hooking a new generation of young people on nicotine with potentially unknown risks. The same thing happened to the generation of young people who became addicted to cigarette smoking in the 1950s and 1960s.
The European Union (EU) has banned the advertising and sales of e-cigarettes and tobacco products to minors, as well as internet sales of these products. EU regulations also limit the concentration of nicotine in e-cigarettes to 2% and require the disclosure of e-cigarette ingredients. They require that these products have childproof and tamper-proof packaging that carries graphic warnings on the harmful health effects of nicotine. In 2016, the FDA issued a set of rules that banned the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18. The rules also require package warning labels and make all existing and new e-cigarette products subject to FDA approval.
Currently the United States is suffering from an opioid drug overdose epidemic that kills 49,000 people per year, an average of 134 deaths a day. Many people are addicted to, and many die from, fentanyl and other opioids. Since 2017, the number of deaths from overdoses of synthetic opioids sold illegally exceeded those from opioids sold legally as prescription painkillers.
17.5bEstimating Risks from Technologies
The more complex a technological system, and the higher the number people required to design and run it, the more difficult it is to estimate the risks of using the system. The overall reliability of such a system—the probability (expressed as a percentage) that the system will complete a task without failing—is the product of two factors:
With careful design, quality control, maintenance, and monitoring, a highly complex system such as a nuclear power plant or a deep-sea oil-drilling rig can achieve a high degree of technological reliability. However, human reliability usually is much lower than technological reliability and is almost impossible to predict.
Suppose the estimated technological reliability of a nucle
Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers
Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.
Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS
Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?
Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.
We write plagiarism Free Content
Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.
Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.
