Skip to main content
Fachgebiete
Automobil + Motoren Bauwesen + Immobilien Business IT + Informatik Elektrotechnik + Elektronik Energie + Nachhaltigkeit Finance + Banking Management + Führung Marketing + Vertrieb Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe Versicherung + Risiko
DE
EN
Themenseiten
Organisationspsychologie Projektmanagement Marketing Smart Manufacturing
Bücher
Zeitschriften
Weitere Formate
Podcasts Webinare Technik Webinare Wirtschaft Kongresse Veranstaltungskalender Awards
Jetzt Einzelzugang starten
Zugang für Unternehmen
Referenzkunden
ATZ-Fachkongress

Chassis.tech plus 2024


4 Kongresse in einer Veranstaltung

Treffen Sie in München die Fachleute von Chassis, Lenkung, Bremsen sowie Reifen/Räder.
Erweiterte Suche
Anmelden
nach oben

2000 | Buch

Energy Concepts, Forms, Laws Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Energy Resources

Occurrence, Production, Conversion, Use

verfasst von: Wendell H. Wiser

Verlag: Springer New York

Enthalten in: Professional Book Archive

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten
insite
SUCHEN

Über dieses Buch

This book is directed primarily toward two types of readers. First, it is intended for use as a textbook for students in a liberal education course in science for non-science and non-engineering majors in college or univer­ sity. The technical level of presentation assumes no background in chemis­ try or physics on the part of the reader, and no science prerequisites or prior preparation are of concern. At the same time, elementary equations of chemistry and physics are included, particularly in relation to interconver­ sion of energy resources and utilization, for the benefit of the student with a more than passing interest in science who can learn much about these aspects of chemistry from equations presented in the book. Second, and considered to be of major concern and importance, it is intended for use as a reference book for teachers of science in the high schools and junior high schools. Because of the importance of energy in the daily life of the average citizen, a need is usually felt by the teacher at those levels to discuss various aspects of energy in daily life. However, often a source containing valid information is not available to the teacher. In the absence of a valid text, the teacher often resorts to information found in the press-information that is rarely accurate. The information presented in this book is soundly based in science, and in most cases the data presented are up-to-date as of the date of this writing.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Energy Concepts, Forms, Laws
Abstract
In a developed country, such as the United States, energy is a vital component in almost every phase of life. Consider the fuel consumed in modern transportation systems; in lighting and heating and air conditioning, at home and in the work place; the many appliances in the home which provide for the comforts of modern living; the operation of machinery and other equipment in the work place; and numerous other purposes. In the United States, more than 99 percent of work defined as mechanical work, which term includes essentially all physical labor, is performed by machines, all of which require energy for operation. Almost everything one does during the waking hours has energy involved in it somewhere.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 2. Petroleum
Abstract
One hears and reads various uses of the word “petroleum,” mostly by people outside the industry, which lead to confusion when considering quantities of energy resources. An appropriate definition for petroleum is: “A naturally occurring, oily liquid, consisting mostly of hydrocarbons, with small amounts of other compounds.” The key elements of this definition are the terms naturally occurring, oily liquid, and mostly hydrocarbons. Thus, liquids produced synthetically from other materials should not be called petroleum. Materials that contain hydrogen and carbon but are solid in the natural state cannot appropriately be called petroleum. The organic material in oil shale, either as it occurs in the rock or after release from the rock, should not be called petroleum. To further distinguish petroleum from related organic materials, people in the industry have identified the heavy, black organic material in tar sands by the name “bitumin,” and heavy oils estimated at more than one trillion barrels in Venezuela alone, which are too viscous to be recovered by current techniques, are called “black oils.” By adhering to these definitions, quantities assigned to the various energy resources become meaningful; otherwise, they are without meaning.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 3. Natural Gas
Abstract
It will be remembered from discussions in the previous chapter that petroleum is understood to have been formed from both animal and plant marine life. In the process, hydrocarbons were formed ranging in size from one carbon atom to as many as 35 or more carbon atoms per molecule. Natural gas is formed principally from the same materials, in a similar manner but with some modifications to reaction conditions, with the resulting product consisting mostly of molecules at the lighter end of the series. Even a high-grade petroleum reserve, such as an East Texas crude or an Arabian crude, contains molecules ranging in size down to a single carbon atom, so it is not surprising that a reserve consisting mostly of methane will also contain molecules ranging well into the liquid petroleum structures; and so it is.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 4. Coal
Abstract
By a very large margin, coal is the largest reserve of known and recoverable fossil fuel, both in the United States and in the world as a whole. When one counts only the fossil fuel reserves for which technologies for recovery are now available and operative, on an energy content basis coal represents about 96 percent of the total known and recoverable fossil fuel reserves in the United States, with petroleum comprising about 1.8 percent and natural gas about 2.2 percent.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 5. Gaseous and Liquid Fuels from Coal
Abstract
In the 1920s German scientists discovered that it is possible to convert coal to liquids in large quantities. During the 1930s they developed commercial technologies for such conversion, and a major portion of the transportation fuel demand to support the German war effort during World War II was provided by producing liquid transportation fuels from coal. The technologies were developed to a state that they were reliable, although the costs for such fuels were much greater than for fuels from petroleum.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 6. Fuels from Oil Shale, Tar Sands, Biomass, Waste
Abstract
Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock. It consists mostly of inorganic material (rock), with smaller amounts of organic material that is generally hydrocarbon in nature, but with various other atoms in many of the molecules. In the field of chemistry organic chemistry is basically the chemistry of compounds containing carbon. For purposes of this discussion, and as the term is used in relation to fuels, organic material may be considered to be carbon-based material that can be burned. The inorganic material is a shale and may be considered to be rock, which cannot be burned.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 7. Fossil Fuel Reserves Versus Consumption
Abstract
In Table 2.1 of Chapter 2, data are presented which reveal that the U.S.’s known and recoverable reserves of petroleum are about 22.5 billion barrels (early 1998), representing about 2.2 percent of the known and recoverable reserves of the world. In Chapter 4, recoverable coal reserves in the United States are listed at 434 billion tons, representing about 35 percent of the known and recoverable reserves of the world. For more than three decades petroleum has supplied more than 40 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States, and in 1997 that percentage stood at 40 percent of consumption. (See Figure 1.3.) Coal is 23 percent of consumption. During most of that period petroleum imports as a percentage of demand increased steadily, standing at 52 percent of demand for the year 1996 (Figure 2.1).
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 8. Electric Power
Abstract
The atom consists of a nucleus, where most of the mass of the atom is concentrated, with electrons in orbits around the nucleus. The electrons are negatively charged. In a material that is an electrical conductor, such as copper, aluminum, and a number of other metals, it is possible for certain of the electrons to move from atom to atom along the conductor. The force that can cause these electrons to move along the conductor is called a voltage, or electromotive force (emf).
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 9. Nuclear Energy
Abstract
Atoms are considered to be the building blocks in nature. All of the materials, solid, liquid, or gas, with which we have daily experience are made up of atoms, by interactions between and among atoms. Chemical reactions involve changing partners among the atoms. This is not to say that atoms are the smallest of particles, or to say they cannot be subdivided. Rather, it states only that our daily experience involves changes between or among atoms, but does not involve subdivision of the atoms.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 10. Solar Energy
Abstract
By definition a star, such as our sun, generates its own energy. The energy emitted from the sun is understood to be generated by nuclear fusion, based on hydrogen. The surface temperature of the sun is about 6000°K.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 11. Other Sources of Energy for Electric Power Generation
Abstract
As noted previously, at this writing about 88 percent of total energy consumed in the United States is provided by combustion of fossil fuels, An additional 7.5 percent is supplied from nuclear energy in the form of electric power. Electric power supplies about 40 percent of total energy demand and is the fastest growing form of energy use, the rate of use of electric power increasing about twice as fast as the overall rate of increase in energy consumption generally. With the exception of the period of dramatic reduction in energy use between 1978 and 1982, overall energy consumption in the United States over the past several decades has increased at a rate of about three percent per year, while demand for electric power has increased at a rate of about six percent per year.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 12. Energy Storage
Abstract
Suppliers and/or users of fossil fuels in a direct use mode enjoy the capability to store the energy resource, to be withdrawn and used when needed. For example, coal can be mined at a constant rate as determined by average rate of use, then stored in piles or bins when the rate of production exceeds the rate of demand, to be removed from the piles or bins when the rate of demand exceeds the rate of production. Similarly oil can be stored in tanks, to be withdrawn at some later time. Natural gas is removed from the formation only as fast as required to satisfy the demand, then piped to the site of use. This variation in rate of production can be controlled simply by turning a valve. In this case the natural gas formation serves as the storage facility.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 13. Energy Use in Agriculture
Abstract
Production of food in the United States today has become an energy-intensive industry. All aspects of farming in the United States now involve use of machinery, all of which, of course, require energy for operation. A much higher percentage of the land under cultivation today for production of food is irrigated than was the case early in the twentieth century. Most of farm irrigation today involves pumping of water, an energy-intensive operation, as opposed to gravity-feed systems used a few decades ago. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, plant nutrient requirements were provided by animal manure, combined with careful crop rotation. Today, the great majority of crop fertilizer requirements are supplied by chemical fertilizers. Production of most chemical fertilizers is very energy intensive. This is particularly true for nitrogen fertilizers containing ammonia. The plant nutrient in which soils are most often deficient, thereby requiring fertilizer application, is nitrogen, and by far the most often-used form of nitrogen is anhydrous ammonia. Production of ammonia is extremely energy intensive.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 14. Energy Use in Transportation
Abstract
Transportation accounts for a large fraction of total energy consumed in the United States. If one considers only the energy consumed as fuel in transportation vehicles, that use amounts to 25 percent of total energy consumption. If one includes the energy consumed in the manufacture of transportation vehicles, sales, and any additional energy expenditures directly involved with transportation vehicles, the total fraction required to provide for the transportation of the country is about 40 percent of total energy consumption.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 15. Pollution of the Atmosphere from Energy Use
Abstract
When the earth’s population was much lower than today it was common practice, especially in the industrial sector, to consider the atmosphere and the oceans to represent depositories for pollutants without serious harm. However, the capacity of the societies of the world for producing pollutants is increasing even more rapidly than its population. The attitude of using the atmosphere and oceans as depositories for pollutants is no longer acceptable, and most of the more advanced industrial nations of the world have enacted legislation designed to prevent such pollution of both the atmosphere and the oceans.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 16. Energy Conservation
Abstract
In keeping with the objectives of this book, the discussion of energy conservation will be confined to attempts to conserve nonrenewable energy reserves, particularly fossil-fuel reserves, by using energy more efficiently to accomplish a desired task, thereby consuming a smaller amount of an energy reserve while still achieving the objective in the application, and avoiding waste or unnecessary consumption of energy. Other, more technical scientific and engineering definitions of energy conservation will not be discussed here.
Wendell H. Wiser
Chapter 17. Energy Supply for the Future
Abstract
As early as the 1960s, in the days of the Office of Coal Research in the Department of the Interior, attention was focused on a need to expand our evaluation of various energy options, to determine whether any of them could replace petroleum or natural gas, which one day are certain to run into short supply, giving consideration to both the technical viability and the economics of the respective technologies. Following the Arab oil embargo in 1973, a sense of urgency arose, fueled by a realization that as a nation we were vulnerable to interruptions in oil supply from overseas, with national security implications.
Wendell H. Wiser
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Energy Resources
verfasst von
Wendell H. Wiser
Copyright-Jahr
2000
Verlag
Springer New York
Electronic ISBN
978-1-4612-1226-3
Print ISBN
978-1-4612-7050-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1226-3