2/2/22, 4:41 AM OneNote

Energy
Saturday, January 8, 2022 6:36 PM

Energy is the capacity of a system to do work

Can be transferred from one form to other

Kinetice and potential energy

• Energy possessed by an object due to virtue of its motion, ½ mv2
• Energy by virtue of position or configuration is called PE

Energy sources
• Non renewable
• Sources that will run out and cannot be produced ;on a scale comparable to its consumption, most
non renewable are fossil fuels

Coal
• 300 million years ago, enormous ferms and other prehistoric plants were common on swamp-like
earth
• When those plants died, fell to ground, they were covered with silt, clay , and water and they
slowly decomposed
• As decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen, much of the hydrogen content eroded
away, leaving material rich in carbon, the material was compressed over the years by sand and
dirt, leaving the form of carbon known as coal
• Many types of coal
• Higher the content of carbon, the more brilliantly and clearly it burns
• Lowest carbon content to highest: peat, lignite, bituminous coal, anthracite coal
• If the coal is heated and compressed even more the result is graphite, which is pure carbon
• Peat is used in furnaces while bituminous is used for electricity generation

Petroleum or crude oil

• Many uses from electricity generation to manufacture of medicines, and other commercial items
• Much like coal, petroleum is formed from remains of biodegradable organic material
• When animals that lived in sea millions of years ago died underwater there remains were
gradually covered by layers of very fine dirt known as silt on ocean floor
• As years passed pressure from layers compressed it into oil

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Natural gas
• Almost always found in petroleum deposits
• When petroleum is drilled, natural gas is also recovered
• Wells with only natural gas also exists
• When natural gas is processed by condensation or absorption, other fuels are also extracted
• Western hemisphere, europe and africa contain largest natural gas deposits
• Gas is usually transported by pipelines
• Compared to coal and petroleum, gas is clean burning because it only contains traces of sulphur
and nitrogen

Renewable energy sources

• Energy that is collected from sources which are naturally replenished on a human timescales such
as sunlight, wind, rain, waves, rain, tides, and geothermal heat

Wind power
• Airflow can be used to run wind turbines
• Range from 600 kW to 5MW of rated power
• Although turbines with rated power of 1.5-3 MW are most common for commercial use
• Power available from wind is a function of cube of the wind speed
• Offshore and high altitude sites are preferred due to high wind speed
• Long term technical potential of wind energy is believed to be 40% of current electricity demand

Hydropower
• Energy in water can be harnessed and used
• Since water is 800 times denser than air, even a slow flowing stream can generate a lot of
electricity
• Many forms of hydel energy:
• Hydroelectric energy is the term usually used for large scale hydroelectric dams
• Micro hydro systems are hydroelectric power systems that typically produce up to 100 kW of
power
• Run-of –the –river hydroelectricity systems derive KE from rivers and oceans without creation of
large reservoirs
• Tidal power is a form of hydropower that converts energy of tides into useful form of energy,
though its not widely used

Solar energy
• Energy from sun in form of solar radiation
• Solar powered electricity generation uses either photovoltaics or heat engines ( concentrated
solar power)
• Other applications: space heating and cooling through solar architecture, day lighting, solar hot
water, solar cooking, industrial purposes
• Solar technologies broadly categorised as either active or passive
• Active techs include use of photovoltaic panels and solar themal radiation collectors
• Passive include orienting a building to the sunm selecting material with favorable thermal mass or
light dispersing properties, and designinig spaces that naturally circulate air

Biomass and biofuels

• Biomass is biological material derived from living or recently living organisms
• Number of options available to make use of biomass
• Biofuel or biogas

Geothermal energy
• Hot water and steam from underground can be used to drive turbines
• Several types of rocks contain radioactive substances such as uranium
• Radioactive decay of these substances release energy and heat the rock
• In volcanic regions, this heat can be used to boil water which reaches to surface as hot water and
steam
• In some places, rocks are hot but no steams comes to surface, in these case, deep wells can be
drilled down to hot rocks and cold water pumped down
• The energy from hot water and steam can be used to drive turbines

Importance of renewable energy

• Long way to go to replace fossil fuel
• Positive environmental impacts, fossil fuel when burn produce harmful greenhouse gases
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• Renewable energy can improve our energy security by reducing the need of importing foreign oil

Alternative energy
• Any source that does not belong to traditional energy sources (fossil fuel)
• Oxford dictionary: energy derived from sources that do not use up natural resources or harm
environment

Energy conservation
• Any beahvior that results in less use of energy
• Energy efficiency is not energy conservation: energy efficiency is using less energy to provide the
same service", energy conservation is reducing or going without a service to save energy ( turning
off a light)
• Energy conservation:
• Install compact fluorescent lights, replacing incandescent bulb
• Use max daylight
• Get energy audit done: a process that helps you to identify area where it is loosing energy
• Use energy efficient appliances
• Drive less, walk more and carpooling
• Switch off appliances when not in use
• Plant shady landscaping to protect home from intense heat and chilly winds
• Education and awareness
• Alternative power
• Reduced demand
• Research and development

Biofuels
• Bioenergy is derived from biofuels
• Biofuels are fuels directly produced from organic material – biomass- including plant and animal
waste
• Bioenergy covers approximately 10 % of world energy demand, mostly traditional unprocessed
material like fuelwood, animal dung, charcoal
• More advanced and efficient techs now allow for extraction of biofuels from wood, crops and
waste material
• Biofuels can be solid, liquid or gaseous
• Primary biofuels are unprocessed fuels mainly used for heating, cooking, electricity production etc
such as wood, organic material
• Secondary biofuels result from processing the biomass and include liquid biofuels such as ethanol
and biodiesel that can be used in vehicles and industrial processes
• Bioenergy is mainly used in homes (80%), industry (18%) while liquid biofuels for transport count
for about 2%

Biomass feedstock
• Grains and starch crops – sugar cane, corn, wheat, sugar beets, sweet potatoes
• Agricultural residues: corn stover, wheat straw, rice straw, orchard prunings
• Foos waste: waste product, food processing waste
• Forestry material: logging residues, forest thinnings
• Animal byproducts: tallow, fish oil, manure
• Energy crops: switchgrass, hybrid poplar, willow, algae
• Urban and suburban waste: municipal solid wastes (MSW), wastewater treatment buildings, urban
wood wastes, waste cooking oil

Generation of biofuel
• First generation: derived from food crops like sugar cane , soyabeansm sugar beat m corn, animal
fat etc
• Second generation: only derived from lignocellulosic crops, which are mainly hard, woody crops
• Third generation: algae fuel, according to US department of energy, algae oil an yield up to 30
times more energy per acre than land crops like soyabeans
• Algae can be used to produce bioethanol, bio methanol etc
• Fourth generation: crops that are genetically engineered to consume more co2 from atmosphere
than they will produce during combustion

Types of biofuels

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• Bioethanol: type of alcohol that can be produces from any feedstock containing significant
amount of sugar
• Sugar can be fermented directly to alcohol while starch first needs to be converted to sugar
• This ethanol can be blended with petrol or burned nearly in pure form in slightly modified spark-
ignition engines
• Approx two thirds of the enrgy provided by petrol
• When mixed with petrol, ethanol improves combustion performance and lowers emissions of
carbon monoxide and SO2
• Biodiesel: produced mainly in EU, by combining vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol
• Can be blended with traditional diesel or burned in its pure form in compression ignition engines
• Energy content less than diesel ( about 88 to 95%)
• Can be derived from wide range of oils, including rapeseed, soyabean, palm, coconut or jatropha
oils
• Produced through the process of esterification
• Biogas: refers to a mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in
absence of oxygen
• Can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant
material, sewage, green waste or food waste
• Is a renewable energy source and produces very little CO2 and other gases
• Can be produced by anaerobic digestion with anaerobic organisms, which digest material inside a
closed system, or fermentation of biodegradable material
• Clean and efficient fuel
• It is a mixture of methane, CO2, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulfur dioxide
• Chief constituent is methane
• Can be used for any heating purpose, cooking, gas engine

Biogas production
• Biomass material is processed before being fed into plant
• Plant cosists of a mixer, a digestor, and a gas storage tank
• Digestor also called fermentation tank is the crucial component as it provides the anaerobic
conditions in which bacteria generate biogas
• The substrates have to be constantly heated and stirred to ensure homogeneity and consistent
discharge of gas
• Gas holder is an airproof steel container that cuts off air to digesters and collects the gas
generated
• Gas collected is compressed and purified to store for further use

Advantages of biofuels
• Renewable resources
• Reduce greenhouse gases, biofuels reduces uptp 65%
• Easy adoption and economical: adaptable to current engines
• Economic security
• Reduce dependency on foreign oil

Disadvantages of biofuels
• High use of fertilizers: biofuels are produced from crops that use high fertilizers, harmful effects
on environment, may cause water pollution
• Shortage of food: biofuels extracted from crops with high sugar content which are also food crops
usually, rise of food prices
• Industrial pollution: large scale industries meant for churning out biofuels are known to emit large
amount of emissions and cause small scale air and ware pollution
• High water use: to irrigate biofuels crops
• Future rise in price
• More energy is required to produce biofuels than they generate
• High transition cost from gasoline to biofuels: from gas-only cars to ethanol or biodiesel
• Soil degradation and deforestation

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