Conventional

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Conventional Nonrenewable Energy
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Evaluating Energy Resources

• U.S. uses 24 of the worlds energy
• 84 from nonrenewable fossil fuels
• 9 from nuclear power
• 7 from renewable sources

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Energy resources removed from the earths crust
include oil, natural gas, coal, and uranium
www.bio.miami.edu/beck/esc101/Chapter1415.ppt
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Fossil Fuels

• Originated from the decay of living organisms
  millions of years ago
• Used in energy generation are
• Natural gas
• Petroleum
• Coal

www.lander.edu/rlayland/Chem20103/chap_12.ppt
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COAL

• Plant material preserved in sediments, compacted
  and condensed
• Made up of
• C and H2O
• Impurities
• S, Hg, Pb, As and small amounts of radioactive
  materials
• As coal ages, carbon ? while water ?
• Carboniferous period (286 to 360 mya).

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Types of Coal

• Peat
• Swamps and bogs
• Lignite
• Soft, brownish-black coal
• Low quality of coal
• Subbituminous
• Black lignite
• Bituminous
• Dense and black
• Most common coal
• soft coal
• Anthracite
• 98 carbon (less common and more expensive)
• hard coal

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PEAT
LIGNITE
garnero101.asu.edu/glg101/Lectures/L37.ppt
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BITUMINOUS
ANTHRACITE
garnero101.asu.edu/glg101/Lectures/L37.ppt
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Main Coal Deposits
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Pros and Cons of Coal

• Pros
• Most abundant
• Major U.S. reserves
• Needs little refining
• High net energy yield
• Cons
• High environmental impact
• Severe land disturbance in mining
• Left over ash
• Releases
• CO2-highest
• SO2, radioactive particles, Hg, Pb, As

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Cons of Coal Cont.

• Negative impact on miners
• Death
• Between 1870 and 1950, more than 30,000 coal
  miners died of accidents and injuries in
  Pennsylvania alone.
• Black Lung Disease

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Mining

• 2 types of mining
• Strip-Mining or Open Pit Mining
• Topsoil and vegetation is removed
• Negative impacts
• Air quality-dust
• Large amounts of waste material involved
• Habitats destroyed/Soil is dumped back to where
  it was
• Toxic runoff

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Mining

• Underground Mining
• Pros?
• Cons?

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Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

• Water containing iron and sulfate that
  contaminates surface and or groundwater
• May also contain manganese and aluminum
• AMD comes from oxidation of pyrite, the
  crystalline form of iron sulfide
• contaminated water is often reddish-brown in
  color, indicating high levels of oxidized iron

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Restoration

• Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (1977)
• Difficult and expensive.
• Minimum reclamation costs about 1,000 / acre
  while complete restoration may cost 5,000 /
  acre.
• 50 of U.S. coal is strip mined.