Fuel Sources I
FUEL SOURCES I – Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Electrolysis, Wind, Solar, Water, Geothermal, Ethanol, Methanol, Hydrogen, Fuel Cell
COAL, a fossil fuel, is the most abundant on our earth with reserves estimated to last us about 1000 years. This is the main power source on the plant at present. Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter – supplying almost a third of coal traded worldwide. Yet it is the most carbon intensive fuel, releasing 29% more carbon per unit than oil and 80 % more than natural gas. The negatives include health problems, as in China where 50,000 premature deaths and 400,000 sufferers of chronic bronchitis are said to be created each year in 11 of its large cities (notes from a recent United Nations Global Environment Outlook report).
CLEAN COAL is a term in use to describe promising developing technologies that convert coal into a range of low environmental impact fuels. There are a considerable number of options, one of which is through ‘gasification’ of coal under pressure with the aid of oxygen and steam in a commercial venture having a final product that is being called ‘Syngas.’
OIL – world consumption now at 75 million barrels a day. Oil from fossil fuel supplies are predicted to last only another 40 years if current usage rate continues. But consumption is anticipated to increase rather than decrease and efforts to find alternatives are not speedy enough to suggest that there will be an answer to the insatiable greed for power, unless of course there is a breakthrough with conversion through solar energy. Economic chaos could arise in the coming decades. The 26 million vehicles in the UK generate one third of all the UK carbon dioxide and one third of all the air pollution there which kills around 10,000 people each year !!
NATURAL GAS is tipped to increase over the next 20 years as the fastest primary energy source for the world, as stated in a recent report. It is the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels and the earth holds unknown quantities and vast reserves. Methane is the primary component of natural gas and methane is a very potent greenhouse gas but many believe the positives outweigh the negative affect upon the environment.
NUCLEAR -ATOMIC ENERGY There are about 430 nuclear reactors supplying about 16% of the world’s electricity reports the Australian Geographic. 17 of the reactors currently under construction are in the developing Asian countries. New Scientist reports “ America’s existing reactors are being plagued by cracks and corrosion” and that in March 2002 the Davis-Besse reactor in Ohio “came close to a catastrophic meltdown” as a result of corrosion problems. There are obviously many serious issues to be resolved regarding nuclear fuel. The public is divided and many fear unknown consequences.
ELECTROLYSIS is seen as the simplest method of producing hydrogen and it releases no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However it is employed only on a small scale to this point because the technology demands are expensive and so not seriously considered as a viable proposition. However it has no carbon monoxide poisoning as a negative issue which presents us great benefits if we can master the technological and economic problems.
WIND POWER Wind has been used to harness power to propel sailing ships, turn grinding mills and to pump water. Now high tech wind turbines generate enough non-polluting power to provide electricity for 35 million people. Denmark generates 20% of its electricity from wind power alone. Germany, Spain and India are rapidly adopting wind power with India having the 5th largest wind power capacity in the world. The US has 13,000 wind turbines with increasing attention focussed upon this source of energy. Australia is also beginning to turn this way. The main issue to date would seem to focus upon the visual change of natural landscapes that to the aesthetic sense is downgraded by multiple installations of ‘windfarms’.
But recent reports of damaged health necessitates further studies. It is claimed that symptoms may be caused both through audible vibrations from the turbines as well as those that resonate beneath conscious hearing. If proven damaging to health perhaps wind power will have its limitations. Companies would be wise to think twice before great expenditure or risking later litigation. Farmers who are approached by business enterprises and allow their rural land to house large scale installations may understand the financial gains they attract but are not aware of the downside.
SOLAR POWER is the answer to all problems if economic factors can be overcome. Man made photo-voltaic cells are used to convert sunlight into electricity when the sun’s rays excite electrons in the cells. Worldwide 500 million watts of electricity are produced by this method and the market growing at 30% each year. However toxic chemicals such as cadmium sulphide and gallium arsenide are used in the cells’ manufacture so disposal and recycling of these materials which become inoperative cells over time could become a major problem. With recent (2009) discovery of a new technique and process that paints a substance on glass to provide a potential for a more economically viable system. This would represent a huge breakthrough for solar power technology.
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY The temperature beneath the earth’s crust is estimated at 4000 degrees Celsius and hot springs, thermal or volcanic fissures and deep geothermal power is harnessed in some countries such as Iceland that meets half its energy needs by this method. Australia is looking to tap this underground source of energy and Australian Geographic reports “some researchers believe that by pumping water down to that trapped heat and then using the hot water to turn turbines as it returns to the surface under very high pressure, we could generate power for decades – even centuries.”
WATER Hydro-electric power plants supply over 65 of the world’s energy. However, the downside of this method is on the landscape and environment which is severely affected by dams that alter the existing plant, animal and soil life in the ecosystem. Also considered are techniques using tidal flow and wave power.
ETHANOL Ethanol is a renewable energy source linked to photosynthesis through the medium of continual availability of sunlight as it means. Creation of ethanol begins using plant material and employing natural photosynthesis and fermentation. Many plants such as sugar cane or corn, bagasse, sugar beet, sorghum, barley, hemp, potatoes, cassava and many others can be processed into ethanol through the fermentation process. An alternative process to produce bio-ethanol from algae is being developed by a company using a process growing algae grown directly in sunlight to produce ethanol that can be harvested without killing the algae itself. The claim that the process can produce 6000 gallons per acre per year compared with 400 gallons for corn production would seem to be exaggerated and must be proven. Regardless of the plant material used, ethanol is now in regular supply at garages in countries such as Australia and Brazil.
METHANOL has been researched as a possible alternative fuel by a process of vaporizing liquid methanol and water before passing the vapour through a heated chamber to cause methanol molecules to split into carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen gas and water to split into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The oxygen combines with carbon monoxide to form carbon dioxide. It is thought that the method would reduce the amount of carbon monoxide that is released into the atmosphere. Research is inconclusive regarding several aspects of this process including its economic efficiency.
HYDROGEN -Hydrogen is colourless, odourless, combustible gas and most abundant element in the universe, integral part of all plant and animal tissue and bound up in fossil fuels. It is one of the two components of water, (H2O). In addition, hydrogen burns more cleanly and efficiently than fossil fuels. This has a great potential for the future as a means of energy.
Science News Online journal states that water ‘can be split into hydrogen and oxygen when electricity passes through it.’ Yet this is not yet economic to produce. Factories presently produce 45 million tons of hydrogen globally used in fertilizers and cleaning agents, extracted through fossil fuel processes which give off poisonous carbon monoxide and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Many automotive designers are hoping for hydrogen technology to be perfected as the fuel for the 21st century as a realistic alternative to hydrocarbon fuels and no emission problems as it only produces single waste product, water. One great attraction is that hydrogen is the most abundant element in our universe. But so far how to employ this still eludes us. The method has not shown to have made much headway over the last five years.
FUEL-CELL POWER A fuel cell is able to produce electricity from hydrogen but combining it with oxygen in a controlled chemical reaction process. Pure hydrogen is used so the only by products of the reaction are heat and water. It was developed first in 1839 by Sir William Grove, a British physicist and judge. Too expensive to build, it was rejected as a method and the technology lay undeveloped until the mid 20th century when it was developed for American space craft. Progress is hopeful that it will replace the internal combustion engine in motor vehicles and other power needs such as mobile phones computers etc. Economics is the problem, so it is not yet viable as the first choice for alternative energy sources.
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY OF THE COSMOS Some scientists suggest this as the answer!
More information to come in ‘ Fuel Sources II ’
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