Energy and the Environment

Energy and the Environment

Fall 2012Instructor: Xiaodong Chu

Email ： [email protected] Tel.: 81696127

mailto:[email protected]

Course Meeting Times

• Lectures: 1 session (Mon.) or 2 sessions (Mon. and Wed.) / week, 2 hours / session

• Course materials accompanying the lectures can be obtained by visiting http://course.sdu.edu.cn/687.html –“教学资料” , “教学日历”

http://course.sdu.edu.cn/687.html

Course Overview

• This course describes the technology and scientific understanding by which nations of the world could address the growing urban, regional, and global environmental problems associated with energy use while providing sufficient energy to meet the needs of populations

• We talk little about social, economic, and political factors

Course Textbook

• James A. Fay and Dan S. Golomb. Energy and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

• An electronic version of the textbook is available for your reference.

Course Lecture StructureTopic # Topics Readings

1 Overview Chapters 1 and 2

2 Thermodynamic principles of energy conversion

Chapter 3

3 Fossil-fueled power plants Chapter 5

4 Nuclear-fueled power plants

Chapter 6

5 Transportation Chapter 8

6 Environmental effects of fossil fuel use

Chapter 9

7 Global warming Chapter 10

Grading Activities Percentages

Class attendance and participation

30%

Final exam 70%

Overview of Energy and the Environment

• Substantial consumption of fossil and nuclear fuels to provide for the operation of modern societies

• This energy use and its concentration in the urban areas causing the environmental degradation of air-, water- and land-dependent ecosystems on a local and regional scale

• Adverse global climate changes resulting from the accumulation of gaseous emissions, principally carbon dioxide from energy related sources

• How could the nations of the world limit the damage associated with the energy use without adverse effects on the social and economic circumstances?


• In the agricultural period, the major environmental impact of human activities is the increase of crop and pasture land, permanently replacing natural forest and grassland and decreasing the diversity

• The industrial revolution made available large amounts of energy from coal and later oil, gas, and nuclear fuel

• Urban populations and population density grew rapidly as energy-using activities


• By the middle of 20th century, nearly all major cities of the industrialized world experienced health-threatening episodes of air pollution

• Urban air pollution is a consequence of the burning of fossil fuels within and beyond the urban region


• It is technically possible to reduce the urban pollution to harmless levels but at some economic cost

• Unlike the urban pollutants, greenhouse gases will be very difficult to reduce while providing enough energy to the world, which is thought to cause the rise of the average surface air temperature and the change of climate


• The major sources of energy for modern societies are fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, and hydropower

• Non-hydro renewable energy sources, such as biomass, wind, geothermal, solar thermal, and photovoltaic power account for only a small portion of current energy production


• Energy needs to be stored and transported from the time and place where it becomes available to that where it is to be used – Fossil fuels stores energy in chemical form and

nuclear fuels in nuclear form– Hydropower systems store energy for periods of

days to years in their reservoirs– For most renewable energy sources, there is no

inherent storage capability


• Producing mechanical or electrical power from burning fuels required the invention of power producing machines, beginning with the steam engine and expanding to the gasoline engine, diesel engine, gas turbine, and fuel cell

• The science of thermodynamics prescribes the physicochemical rules governing how much a fuel’s energy can be transformed to mechanical power


• From the late 19th century, electrical power produced by steam engines became the preferred method to distribute machine power to distant users

• The generation of electrical power in steam power plants is the largest segment of energy use


• The operational principles of modern fossil-fueled power plants will be introduced in the lectures including the emission control

• The operational principles of nuclear power plants will also be introduced in the lectures with the processing problems of their radioactive fuel to be discussed

• Power generation from renewable energy sources is not a topic of this course


• Transportation energy is a major sector of the energy market

• Automobiles are a major consumer of transportation energy and emitter of urban air pollutants

• Under regulations by governments, the technology of automobiles has advanced considerably to reduce pollutant emissions and improve energy efficiency


• Air pollutants emitted into the urban atmosphere can reach levels harmful to public health

• Some of the pollutants can react in the atmosphere by absorbing sunlight to form more harmful toxic products, which is termed smog


• Greenhouse gases warm the lower atmosphere by impeding the radiative transfer of heat from the earth to outer space

• By combination of the methods of reducing the amount of fossil fuel burned, sequestering the CO2 below the earth’s or ocean’s surface, and improving the use efficiency of energy, the rate of rise of atmospheric green gases can be ameliorated at an acceptable economic and social rate


• The amelioration of environmental degradation caused by energy use is a responsibility of national governments through regulation and providing economic incentives

• Bilateral or global treaties can coordinate multinational actions to reduce regional or global environmental problems


• There is a minimum amount of energy needed to sustain human life

• The energy cannot be destroyed, but can be transformed from one form to another

• The world energy consumption rate far exceeds the minimum required to sustain human life


• The earth’s fossil and nuclear fuel resources are being depleted

• However, the current cost of these fuels remains low

• Renewable energy sources are not depletable but less energy-rich, which currently costs more to use than fossil energy


• Energy usage is divided into four sectors: industrial, transportation, commercial, and residential

• Generation of electric power is one prominent use of energy

• The quantities of fuel traded among nations is a significant fraction of overall energy production


• The growth of the electric power sector is one hallmark of industrialization in the 20th century, which consumes about 36% of the world’s energy

• Electrical energy is produced and consumed nearly simultaneously


• Ground, air, and marine vehicles powered by fossil-fueled combustion engines are the principal means for transportation

• Transportation fuels are nearly all petroleum-derived, so transportation systems are vulnerable to interruptions in the supply of imported oil

• Automobile promise to be one of the more cost-effective ways for reducing oil consumption and carbon emissions


• Energy is marketed as a commodity and traded internationally– Coal is the cheapest fuel to extract and inexpensive to

store and transport, but it is difficult to use efficiently and cleanly

– Oil is more expensive than coal to recover, but is more easily transported by pipeline and supertanker

– Natural gas is not easily stored or shipped and expensive

• The only sources that could supply energy indefinitely in the time scale of centuries are nuclear fusion and renewable energy


• Human activity has deleterious effects upon the natural world– Increasing pollution of air, water, and land by the

industrial activity– Permanent loss of natural species of plants and

animals by changes in land and water usage– Global climate change by emissions of greenhouse

gases


• During recurring episodes after World War II, high levels of air pollution in areas surrounding industrial facilities caused many cases of acute human sickness and exacerbation of chronic illnesses

• After recurring episodes, even many urban regions without heavy industrial facilities began to experience photochemical smog

• Industrial and municipal wastes overloaded rivers, lakes, and estuaries, threatening human health and the ecological integrity of these natural systems

• Solid wastes from mining, industrial, and municipal activities despoiled the purity of surface and subsurface water supplies



Industrial liquid wastes pouring from pipe into flowing river


• Governments undertook to limit the rate of emission of air and water pollutants by requiring technological improvements

• By the 20th century’s end, air and water pollution level were decreasing in the most advanced industrialized nations, but how about the developing nations?

• Cumulative effects of industrial waste disposal became evident


• Environmental degradation resulting from industrialized agriculture with features of the predominance of monocultured crops and intensified applications of pesticides, herbicides, and inorganic fertilizers

• Forests for pulp and lumber production are less diverse, the tree crop being optimized by use herbicides and pesticides

• Factory production of poultry and pork have created severe local animal waste control problems

• Tropical forest destruction for agricultural or silvicultural uses destroys ecosystems of great complexity and diversity


• The most sobering environmental changes are global ones– Stratospheric ozone depletion in polar regions as a

consequence of the industrial production of chlorofluorocarbons

– Infrared-absorbing molecules including CO2, nitrous oxide and methane, disturbing the earth’s thermal radiation equilibrium with the sun and outer space

Overview of Energy and the EnvironmentNASA projections of stratospheric ozone

concentrations if chlorofluorocarbons had not been banned


• Government control of pollutants is to keep the concentration of pollutants in the environment below a level that will assure no harmful effects in humans or ecological systems– Limiting the mass rate of pollutant emissions form a particular source– For multiple sources, the additive effects require greater reduction per

source

• The ultimate example of cumulative effects is the gradual increase in the global annual average atmospheric CO2 concentration since the residence time of carbon dioxide is of the order of a century

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world total

primary energy supply by fuel (Mtoe)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2009 of crude oil

production by region (Mt)

Global Energy Use and SupplyProducers, net exporters and net importers of

crude oil

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2009 of natural gas production by region (billion cubic metres)


natural gas

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2009 of hard coal

production by region (Mt)


coal

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of nuclear

production by region(TWh)

Global Energy Use and SupplyProducers of nuclear electricity

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of hydro production

by region(TWh)

Global Energy Use and SupplyProducers of hydro electricity

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world refinery

production by product (Mt)

Global Energy Use and SupplyProducers, net exporters and net importers of oil

products

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world refinery

throughput by region (Mt)

Global Energy Use and SupplyRefinery capacity, net exporters and net

importers of oil

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world electricity

generation by fuel (TWh)

Global Energy Use and SupplyElectricity production from fossil fuels

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world electricity

generationby region (TWh)


electricity

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world total final

consumption by region (Mtoe)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of total final coal

consumption by sector (Mtoe)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of total final oil

consumptionby sector (Mtoe)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of total final gas

consumption by sector (Mtoe)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of total final electricity consumption by sector (Mtoe)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world CO2

emissions by fuel (Mt of CO2)

Global Energy Use and SupplyEvolution from 1971 to 2008 of world CO2

emissions by region (Mt of CO2)

Documents

Energy and the Environment