APES Chapter 15, 18, and 19 Test

• Combustion reaction of a fossil fuel


  Requires oxygen and releases carbon dioxide, water, and energy
• Fossil fuels


  Have a high net energy ratio, which is a measure of the useable amount of high quality energy available from a given quantity of a resource
• Other chemicals besides carbon react with oxygen, leading to the production of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides
• Life History of Oil

  1. Organic matter accumulates on seafloor

  2. Seafloor sediments "cook" under heat and pressure

  3. Collects in limestone or sandstone layer with a cap of impermeable rock

  4. Well is drilled into the rock containing oil

  5. 35-50% of the oil is recovered

  6. Crude oil is transported to a refinery

  7. Components of the oil are removed based on their boiling points (oil contains many different hydrocarbons)
• Natural Gas


  • Made of a majority of methane gas
  • Lies above most reservoirs of crude oil
  • Often transported as liquefied natural gas (LNG)
• ANWR


  • Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska protects 19 million acres in Northern Alaska
  • Estimates vary with a mean estimate of 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil
• Coal


  • Formed from sedimentary rocks containing the remnants of land plants
  • Rocks experienced intense heat and pressure which convert the rock into mostly Carbon
• Bituminous coal


  Most abundant and has high heat content
• Sub-bituminous coal


  From Wyoming has become popular in the US due to its availability and low sulfur content
• 3 Things About Air Pollution


  • Air pollution is the largest environmental threat to human health
  • It can cause a range of health issues from irritation to cancer (depending on the type)
  • It's also the driving force of climate change
• Human impacts have caused a lot of air pollution, i.e. the dust bowl
• Electric cars are better than gas cars which release more CO2 that gets trapped in the atmosphere causing it to heat up, which causes climate change
• Burning forests contributes to air pollution
• There are different kinds of air pollution
• Surface Mining


  • Ex: strip mining
  • Overburden of soil and rock is dumped into the previously cut area
  • Can leave erodible spoil banks or highwalls
  • Ex: Mountaintop removal - Blowing off the top of mountains, Overburden is dumped into valley (valley fills), leading to high levels of water pollution
  • Ex: Open pit mining - Used for some uranium deposits, Many metals needed for electric vehicles are open pit mined: lithium, cobalt, copper
• Subsurface Mining


  • Meaning under the surface
  • Used frequently for coal, can be used for uranium
  • Disturbs less land
  • Problems: Cave ins, explosions, lung disease, costs
• History of Nuclear Energy


  1. Development began in US in 1950s

  2. Atomic Energy Commission promoted nuclear power as a cheap energy source

  3. High government subsidies aided construction of first nuclear plants

  4. Price-Anderson Act limited liability for the US nuclear industry
• How Nuclear Fission Works


  A neutron is directed at a radioactive Uranium-235 atom to start a chain reaction
• Fuel Assembly


  • Uranium is formed into pellets and then packed into rods
  • Thousands of these rods are packed into the reactor core
  • Control rods are used to stop or start the reaction
• Spent fuel storage


  • Concrete pools lined with steel
  • Dry cask storage
• Decommissioning


  • After several decades, nuclear power plants are no longer useable and must be decommissioned
  • 2 options: Immediate dismantling, Safe enclosure/entombment
• Pros of Nuclear Power


  • Can create a large supply of commercial fuel
  • Less land degradation than other fuel sources–especially coal
  • Reduce CO2 emissions significantly
  • Low risk of accident with good oversight and proper safety features
• Cons of Nuclear Power


  • Power plants are expensive to build and maintain
  • Both low-level and high level radioactive waste must be contained
  • Power plants must be decommissioned (shutdown) after several decades
  • The more nuclear material produced, the greater the potential for it to get into the wrong hands
• Fukushima Daiichi (2011)


  1. Magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the region and triggered a tsunami

  2. Backup diesel generators and emergency cooling systems were knocked out

  3. Four of six reactors suffered meltdowns

  4. Hydrogen gas caused fires and explosions

  5. Evacuation of 160,000 people in 30-km radius

  6. Many areas still unsafe for return

  7. Failures: Worst-case scenarios were not developed well enough, Protective seawalls not sufficient in the case of large tsunamis, Emergency cooling system and backup generators not designed well enough

  8. As of 2016, only 3 nuclear power plants in Japan have been restarted (less than 15%)

  9. Chance for future thyroid cancers
• Industrial Smog


  • Results from burning of coal and oil or from smelting (refining metals)
  • Pollutants include CO, SO2, H2SO4, ammonium sulfate, and soot
  • Sulfur-rich particles give the smog its gray color
• Photochemical Smog


  • Must have reactions to be bad
  • Pollutants in air react with each other
• Ozone Thinning


  Ozone thinning is the observed loss of ozone. It occurs when chlorine and bromine atoms come in contact with the ozone and destroy the molecules
• Ozone-depleting chemicals


  • hydrobromofluorocarbons, methyl bromide, hydrogen chloride, methyl chloroform, and carbon tetrachloride
• For human health, ozone depletion can cause eye cataracts, skin cancers, sunburns, and the suppression of the immune system. For wildlife it can also cause cataracts, specifically in the eyes, and it can reduce population sizes of aquatic species that are sensitive to UV radiation. For food and forests it can reduce yields for some crops, reduce seafood supplies due to shrinking phytoplankton supplies, and it can lead to decreased forest productivity for UV-sensitive trees. And finally for the climate, ozone depletion can increase acid deposition, it can increase smog, and the CFCs can act as greenhouse gasses.
• Montreal and Copenhagen Protocols


  The Montreal protocol was a treaty made by 36 nations whose goal was to cut emissions of CFCs, but not other ozone-depleting chemicals, by about 35% between 1989 and 2000. After that came the Copenhagen amendment in 1992, which accelerated the phase-out of key ozone-depleting chemicals
• Glacial and interglacial periods


  Alternating cycles of freezing and thawing due to prolonged periods of global cooling and warming
• We're in an interglacial period of fairly stable climate
• Between 1906 and 2012, the average global surface temp rose by about 0.8 degrees C, and over land, the average rise was 1.4 degrees C
• Between 2000 and 2009 was the warmest decade since 1881, and 2012 was the warmest year on record
• Glaciers are melting at an increased rate
• Floating arctic sea ice is shrinking – has the smallest area ever recorded in 2012
• During the 20th century, the world's average sea level rose by 19 cm
• Greenhouse Effect


  It occurs when some of the solar energy absorbed by the earth radiates into the atmosphere as infrared radiation, also known as heat,at various wavelengths
• Key greenhouse gases


  • water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrous oxide (N2O)
• Atmospheric lifetime and warming potential of greenhouse gases


  • Water vapor only stays in the atmosphere for about 1-3 weeks, where as CO2 can stay in the atmosphere for 100 years, and N2O can stay up there for 114 years
  • H2O also has a way lower warming potential like CO2 whose warming potential is 1, but unlike N2O whose warming potential is 300