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Natural gas, oil, and other fuels
How exactly do your given energy sources work?
Natural gas, in it's unprocessed form, is a mixture of naturally occurring flammable gases. The mix varies from source to source, but its main ingredients include methane, butane and propane. Like coal and oil, it's found deep underground from the result of decaying plants and animals. Over time, the intense pressure and heat from the Earth causes the material's carbon atoms to break down forming thermogenic natural gas. This amazing gas is extracted from the ground through fracking and horizontal drilling. It can then be burned to heat water, cook, power vehicles, and power electricity generators.
Liquid Energy
Petroleum, once called rock oil, is the version of oil that comes from the ground. We convert and refine this oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, fertilizer, plastics, and asphalt.
Oil shale must be mined using either underground or surface-mining methods. Following excavation, the oil shale undergoes retorting. This is when the mined rock is exposed to extreme heat without the presence of oxygen. Between 650 and 700 degrees Fahrenheit, the fossil fuel trapped within begins to liquefy and separate from the rock. The oil-like substance that comes out can be further refined into a synthetic crude oil.
Synthetic fuel is any fuel produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass through chemical conversions. These conversions create substances that are chemically the same as crude oil or processed fuels, but were synthesized through artificial means.
Liquid Energy
Petroleum, once called rock oil, is the version of oil that comes from the ground. We convert and refine this oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, fertilizer, plastics, and asphalt.
Oil shale must be mined using either underground or surface-mining methods. Following excavation, the oil shale undergoes retorting. This is when the mined rock is exposed to extreme heat without the presence of oxygen. Between 650 and 700 degrees Fahrenheit, the fossil fuel trapped within begins to liquefy and separate from the rock. The oil-like substance that comes out can be further refined into a synthetic crude oil.
Synthetic fuel is any fuel produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass through chemical conversions. These conversions create substances that are chemically the same as crude oil or processed fuels, but were synthesized through artificial means.
What are the advantages to those energy sources?
Natural Gas
- Reliable and becoming more available
- Cleaner to produce and cleaner to burn effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Less expensive then other fossil fuels
- U.S supply is plentiful decreasing our reliance on other nations
- Has lots of uses
- Easy to extract
- Generates lots of power
- Can be transported easily and over great distances
- Stable energy source
- More flexible, making it more profitable
- Increased productivity
- Reduced oil and gas prices
- Can be used as vehicle fuel
- Less pollution than coal due to the elimination of impurities
- Large supply throughout many nations
What are the disadvantages to those energy sources?
Natural Gas
- Non renewable energy source
- Still produces some greenhouse gas emissions
- Flammable and toxic
- Installation of pipelines can be very expensive
- Hard to detect an underground leak
- Lots of harmful greenhouse gasses emitted
- Non renewable energy source
- Very toxic in almost all forms
- Can trigger acid rain
- Spilled very often
- It's a commodity that can be exploited for political purposes
- Uses a lot of natural resources
- Can affect drinking water
- May cause earthquakes
- Low energy yield compared to other energies
- Requires the use of coal
- Increased land disturbance, water pollution, and water use
- Higher carbon dioxide emissions
Were there ever any major historical disasters/catastrophes related to your energy sources? When? What happened?
In 1937, a natural gas explosion killed nearly 300 people at a school in Texas. The Consolidated School of New London, Texas, sat in the middle of a large oil and natural gas field. The school was newly built in the 1930s and bought natural gas from Union Gas to supply its energy needs. One day, a huge and powerful explosion blew the roof off of the building and leveled the school. The blast, which came without warning because natural gas had no smell back then, was felt by people 40 miles away and killed most victims instantly. The exact cause of the spark that ignited the gas was never found, although it is now known that the gas could have been ignited by static electricity. As a result, a new state law mandating the usage of malodorants in natural gas was put into place after the incident.
Sources
- Muller, Richard A.. Energy for Future Presidents: the Science behind the Headlines. W.W. Norton, 2013.
- Cunningham, Matt. “What Is Natural Gas?” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 27 Jan. 2020, science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/natural-gas.htm.
- https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/oil-shale1.htm
- https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/biofuels/synfuel.htm
- https://www.cgcohio.com/news/advantages-disadvantages-natural-gas
- https://vittana.org/12-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-petroleum
- https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-shale-oil-and-how-is-it-produced-3306195
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/natural-gas-explosion-kills-schoolchildren-in-texas