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Ownership costs
equipment, labor, safety, environmental costs, and taxes.
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External costs
processing the resource, transporting the resource
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Benefits (direct and indirect)
Direct: money, jobs
Indirect: land can be reclaimed and sold for profit
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Surface mining
If the resource is less than 200 feet away from the surface, the topsoil is removed (and saved), explosives are used to break up rocks and to remove the resource. Reclamation follows
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Benefits and Costs of surface mining
benefits: easy, cheap, and efficient
costs: temporarily tears up the land, byproducts produce an acid that can accumulate in rivers and lakes
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Subsurface Mining
digging a shaft down to the resource, using machine to tear off and remove the resource
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Benefits and cost of subsurface mining
Benefits: can get to resources far underground
costs: more expensive, more time consuming, and more dangerous
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Reclamation
Returning the rock layer (overburden) and the topsoil to a surface mine, fertilizing and planting it
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Benefits and costs of reclamation
Benefits: returns land to good condition
Costs: expensive and time consuming
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Primary sources
the original sources that are used to make electricity and heat (FOSSIL FUELS)
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Secondary sources
the heat and electricity that we use for energy
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Cogeneration
production of two useful forms of energy, such as high-temperature heat or steam and electricity, from the same fuel source
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Fossil fuels
energy conversion is from chemical to electrical, heat or mechanical. 30 % efficiency
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Benefits and costs of fossil fuels
Benefits: easy to use, currently available
Costs: A nonrenewable resource, produces pollutants that contribute to acid rain and the greenhouse effect
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Coal
formed from ancient peat bogs (swamps) that were under pressure as they were covered. 300-400 million years ago
Contributes to green house effect
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order of types of coal
- Lignite (soft, used for electricity)
- Bituminous
- Subbituminous (harder and both used for electricity)
- Anthracite (hardest and used for heating)
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Supplies the most commercial energy in the world today
Oil
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Crude oil
thick liquid containing hydrocarbons that we extract from underground deposits and separate into products such as gasoline, heating oil, and asphalt
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Refining crude oil
Based on boiling points, components are removed at various layers in a giant distillation column
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Who is the world's largest oil user?
USA
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oil shale
a solid combustible mixture of hydrocarbons called kerogen
could supplement conventional oil but has high sulfur content and processing produces toxic sludge
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Natural gas
consists mostly of methane. Often found above reservoirs of crude oil.
clean burning but releases greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane
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