envi sci aqa - energy

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sav

Cards (160)

What are some of the key energy developments which have reduced human labour?
- animal power
- wind power
- water power
- smelting metals
- fossil fuels (primary)
- electricity (secondary)
What are some examples of energy being important for development?
- mechanized agriculture and fishing making it more productive
- allows extraction and processing of valuable materials
- used for many modes of transport
- has improved living standards e.g. heating
What are the causes of change in energy per capita consumption?
- population growth
- increased affluence
- changes in environmental awareness e.g. food choices
What are the factors that create differences in energy per capita consumption?
affluence
- higher income enables people to buy more, consume more and use more energy
- more affluent countries also use significantly more energy on e.g. housing construction
relative cost of energy
- in countries where there are large resources energy is cheap causing people being less energy efficient
industries
- what industries are present in the country can vary e.g. primary industries have high energy use where as quaternary have low energy use
climate
- colder climates require more energy for heating etc
What are the main uses of energy?
- agriculture and fisheries e.g. fuel for machinery, manufacture of chemicals like fertilisers and transport
- other industries e.g. heat for baking, energy for chemical reactions and heat for melting/moulding materials
- domestic uses e.g. heating and lighting
- transport e.g. shipping and cars
What are all the features of energy resources?
- renewable/non-renewable
- abundance
- locational constraints
- intermittency
- predictability
- energy density
- ease of storage
- ease of transportation
- environmental impacts
- technological development
What is a renewable and non-renewable energy resource?
renewable
- resource that naturally re-from relatively quickly so using them does not necessarily reduce future availability
non-renewable
- recourse either not being formed or re-forms slowly so that the current use will reduce future availability
What is abundance?
- amount of resource that exists
What are local constraints?
- resources that depend on regional or local factors including climate and topography
- e.g. solar energy requires lots of sun
What is intermittency?
- how available the energy resource is at all times
- e.g. wind energy only available when wind is present
What is predictability?
- how easy it is to predict how much energy the resource will be able to produce
- e.g. hard to predict wind energy as wind speeds are always changing
What is energy density?
- amount of energy in a given mass of energy resource
Why are high energy density resources more useful?
- easier to store and transfer
- easier to reach higher temps
What is ease of storage?
- how easy the energy resource can be stored
- as energy demand and supple levels vary it is important to be able to store energy efficiently
What is ease of transportation?
- how easily the energy can be transported
What are environmental impacts?
- how much environmental damage an energy resource creates
- caused by the manufacture of equipment, the extraction process and there usage
What is it difficult for new technologies to compete with well-established ones?
- usually expensive as the development costs are still being paid for as no economies to scale
What is technological development?
- how difficult/expensive the technology used to produce the energy
- new technology has little economies to scale making it difficult to be financially viable during its early development
What does the future for energy resources look like?
- fossil fuels will become phased out
- non-renewable resources will become more expensive as they are used up
- greater concerns about environmental damage
- failure to invest in the develop of future renewable energy resources may result in shortages for future generations
- new technologies being developed to harness new forms of energy
- future energy supplies from energy resources will have to increase to compensate for increased population and increased affluence
What are all the energy supplies?
- coal
- oil
- gas
- nuclear
- solar
- hydroelectric
- wind
- wave
- biofuels
- geothermal
- tidal
What are all the fossil fuels?
- coal
- oil
- gas
What are all the renewable energy supplies?
- solar
- hydroelectric
- wind
- wave
- biofuels
- geothermal
- tidal
What are the features of fossil fuels?
- chemical energy so can be easily stored
- high energy density
- non-renewable resource
- large abundance
- high environmental impacts
What are the environmental impacts of fossil fuel combustion?
- atmosphere pollution in the form of carbon dioxide (GGC), sulfur dioxide (acid rain) and oxides of nitrogen
- particulate pollution
- ash disposal
Why are some fossil fuel resources not useable at a large-scale?
- not economically viable
- may cause unacceptable pollution
- involve habitat damage in ecologically sensitive areas
- if near urban areas may cause dangerous tremors during extraction process
What are the main uses of coal?
- electricity generation
- iron and steel manufacture
How is coal extracted?
open cast mining
- mechanised
- effective for coal near the surface not deep deposits
deep mining
- labour intensive
What are the environmental impacts of open cast mining?
- huge habitat loss
- scars the land causing visual pollution
- particulate pollution
- noise pollution
- spoil heaps
- turbid/acidic drainage water
- methane stored in rocks can be released when coal is removed from the surface
What are the environmental impacts of deep mining?
- habitat loss from spoil heaps
- spoil heap impacts (drainage)
- subsidence
What are the new technologies for extracting coal?
- coal gasification
- coal liquefaction
What is coal gasification?
- coal that is too deep to be mined can be burnt underground under controlled conditions to produce a mixture of gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane which can then be burnt to produce energy
What is coal liquefaction?
- coal is converted into liquid hydrocarbons which can be used as liquid fuels in vehicles
- the coal is turned into liquid hydrocarbons by either using solvents or using gasification to and chemical changes to convert gaseous hydrocarbons into liquid versions
What are the main uses of oil?
- liquid fuel e.g. petrol and diesel
- heating
How is oil formed?
- formed by dead tropical marine plankton over millions of years in anaerobic conditions with high temps and pressure
How is oil extracted?
- oil reserves form when liquid oil flows through permeable rocks and collects in pores between porous rocks
- can then be extracted by primary recovery when a pipe is drilled down and oil reserve is forced to the surface by natural pressure above the gas or pressure from water below
What are the environmental impacts of oil extraction?
- oil pollution e.g. oil spills
- habitat damage and fragmentation caused by oil pipeline construction
- subsidence
What are all the new technologies for extracting oil? 
- secondary/tertiary recovery
- directional drilling
- fracking
- tar sands and oil shales
What is secondary recovery
- involves pumping water or natural gas down to maintain the pressure and flow of oil
- recovered CO2 can be pumper down to increase oil recover and also store CO2 underground
What is tertiary recovery?
- also known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)
- involves 3techniques to reduce oil viscosity
examples?
- steam pumped down to heat up oil
- controlled underground combustions to heat up oil
- use of detergents or solvents to reduce surface tension of oil allowing the oil move more easily
What is directional drilling?
- can drill in all directions which had many pros
- many reserves can be reached from a single platform making it more efficient and increasing total recovery rates
- can drill underneath locations where drilling rigs cant e.g. urban areas