Natural Gas:
Natural Gas Burn off
Synthetic Natural Gas
Reserves
Advantages of Natural Gas
Disadvantages of Natural Gas
- Mixture of gases
- Mostly methan
- Found above conventional crude oil deposits
- Propane and butane can be removed and pressurized to make Liquefied Petroleum Gas or LPG
- Natural Gas can be pressurized and cooled to create Liquefied Natural Gas to be transported
Natural Gas Burn off
- When oil deposits are too remote for a pipeline to collect natural gas, then the gas is simply burned off on site as a waste product of oil production
Synthetic Natural Gas
- SNG is created from coal by a process called coal gasitification
- Creating synthetic fuels has a low net energy as it requires the use of approximately 50% more coal than simply burning the coal
Reserves
- Russia possesses over 25% of world reserves
- The middle east contains a large amount
- The United States has less than 4% of the world's reserves, but uses almost 1/4 of the world's natural gas production
Advantages of Natural Gas
- Large reserves remain
- Less air pollutants are emitted than when burning other fossil fuels
- High net energy compared to other fossil fuels,
Disadvantages of Natural Gas
- Low net energy when converted to LNG
- Releases carbon dioxide when burned
- Difficult and costly to transport
- Pipeline infrastructure is underdeveloped
Coal:
Types of Coal
Peat
Lignite
Subbituminous
Bituminous
Anthracite
Types of Coal
- Four categories of coal that vary in carbon, moisture, and sulfur content
- The older the coal, the higher the carbon content
- The higher the carbon content, the more energy when burned
- The higher the carbon content, the less air pollution from sulfur impurities
Peat
- Peat is a precursor to coal
- Composed of partially decayed plant material
- Formed in wetland bogs
- Surface mined by cutting into oblong peat bricks
- When dried peat can be burned for cooking and heating fuel
- Used by some Scotch whiskey distilleries
- Used on industrial scale in Ireland and Finland
Lignite
- Low carbon content
- High moisture content
- 25-30% carbon
- Lowest quality
- Crumbly texture
- Gulf coast and Northern Plains
Subbituminous
- Higher carbon content than lignite
- Lower moisture than lignite
- 35-45% carbon
- Slightly harder than lignite
- Slightly higher quality as a fuel source
- Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, and Alaska
Bituminous
- Most common in US
- High carbon content
- Low moisture content
- 35-86% carbon
- Harder and shinier
- Most common throughout US
Anthracite
- High carbon content
- Very low moisture
- 86.97% carbon
- Least "polluting"
- Most valuable
- Highest quality
- Very hard and shiny
- Pennsylvania
Shale Oil and Tar Sands
Advantages of Shale Oil
Disadvantages of Shale Oil
- Deposits of rock that contain kerogen
- Kerogen is a solid mixture of hydrocarbons
- Over 70% of the world's shale oil in the US
Advantages of Shale Oil
- Large domestic reserves
- Existing oil infrastructure can be used
- Easy to transport as a solid as shale oil
Disadvantages of Shale Oil
- Low net energy because of energy and water required to separate oil from rock
- Very high disturbance of land similar to coal mining
Oil
Advantages of Using Oil
Disadvantages of Using Oil
- A fossil fuels produced when heat and pressure act on decayed organic matter over millions of years
Advantages of Using Oil
- High net energy
- Although supply is declining, there is still an sample supply for the immediate future
- Oil infrastructure already in place
- Domestically available
- Little land disruption in mining process
Disadvantages of Using Oil
- US is dependent on oil imports
- Potential for oil spills
- Net energy is decreasing as more energy must be invested in oil production
Charcoal:
Advantages of Using Charcoal:
Disadvantages of Using Charcoal:
- A biomass fuel that is created by partially burning wood to remove moisture and increase the energy content per unit of mass when compared to the wood alone
Advantages of Using Charcoal:
- Relatively inexpensive
- Higher energy content/unit of mass than wood or dung
- Easy to transport
- Widely available
- Less smoke than wood or dung
- Renewable if managed appropriately
Disadvantages of Using Charcoal:
- Deforestation
- Charcoal production is hazardous to workers
- Using charcoal produces smoke that is unhealthy to breathe