The Carbon Cycle EQ2 Flashcards
(28 cards)
How is solar energy used?
-Solar water heaters = use solar energy to heat water
-Solar cookers = convert sunlight to heat energy
-Photovoltaic cells (PV) = convert energy to electrical energy
What are the benefits and negatives of solar energy?
Benefits:
-Renewable
-Reduce farmers costs if used in greenhouses
Negatives:
-Releases CO2
-High initial investment
-Requires large amounts of land
-UK sun is unreliable
What are biofuels?
-Primary biofuels: wood chips, fuel wood, pellets
-Secondary biofuels: from plants e.g. bioalcohol or biodiseal
What are the benefits and negatives of biofuels?
Benefits:
-Renewable if managed carefully
-Become self sufficient as you aren’t reliant on other countries
-Reduces burning of fossil fuels
Negatives:
-Requires large amounts of land
-Stress on natural environment
-Uses pesticides and fertilisers
What is wind power?
When wind energy is converted to mechanical energy and a generator converts it to electrical energy
What are the benefits and negatives of wind power?
Benefits:
-Doesn’t take up much space
-Becoming cheaper than nuclear
-Pollution free
Negatives:
-Wind is unpredictable
-Kills birds and bats
-Requires lots of turbines to produce significant amounts of energy
What is renewable energy?
Forms of energy that can be naturally replenished on a human timescale
What is recyclable energy?
Forms of energy and waste that can be reused to produce more electricity
What does carbon neutral mean?
A process or activity resulting in no net release of carbon into the atmosphere
What are the benefits and negatives of nuclear power?
Benefits:
-Low carbon dioxide emissions
-Less toxic waste released to environment
-Generates large amounts of energy from small amounts of fuel
Negatives:
-High radioactive waste
-Uranium is a finite resource
-Environmental issues and health problems
What is an unconventional fossil fuel?
-Non standard source of oil and gas
-Difficult and expensive to extract
-Extraction increases as normal, conventional sources become depleted
What is hydraulic fracturing?
Injecting water, chemicals and sand at a high pressure into rocks until the rock cracks and natural gas flows up the well
What are the benefits and negatives of hydraulic fracturing?
Benefits:
-Can produce up to 360 million meters cubed of gas
-Could make the USA self sufficient in gas production by 2030
Negatives:
-Contaminates groundwater
-Airborne pollutants e.g. methane, sulphur dioxide
-Industrial explosions
-Animal deaths
What is Brazilian deepwater oil?
Huge oil reserves (50-80 billion barrels) found 200km of Brazil’s shore
What are the benefits and negatives of Brazilian deepwater oil?
Benefits:
-Diversify the energy mix
-Provide energy security
-Economic growth
-Creates jobs
Negatives:
-Very high costs
-Oil spills pollute waters
-Contains toxic and flammable gases
-Risky as it’s so far from help
What are the facts about oil?
-Middle East holds around 48% of the world’s oil reserves
-Venezuela has around 300 billion barrels
-Mainly transported via pipelines
-Demand is highest in North America, Europe and East Asia
What are the facts about natural gas?
-Russia has the largest amount of reverses (24% of global reserves)
-Transported through pipelines for shorter distances, converted to liquefied natural gas when travelling far
-Europe is highly dependant on Russia for gas imports
What are the facts about coal?
-China has the most coal reserves (13%)
-Transported by bulk carriers over sea or using railways
-China is the largest consumer and uses around 50% of global reserves
-Europe and North America are trying to move away from coal
What are the different types of energy pathways?
-Pipelines (coal and gas)
-Bulk carrier ships (coal and uranium)
-Tankerships (oil and LNG)
-Over sea
-Underground energy cables
What are the human problems of energy pathways?
-Technical problems e.g. pipeline leaks
-Supplies may run out
-Supplies may be diverted for greater profit
What are the physical problems of energy pathways?
-Vast distances to travel
-Difficult terrain e.g. tundra in Alaska
-Hurricane seasons in deep waters e.g. Gulf of Mexico
What are the political problems of energy pathways?
-May block pathways
-Socio economic issues
-Armed conflicts
-E.g. Somalian pirates, Iraq wars, Russia and Ukraine conflict
What are tar sands?
A mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen which have to be mined before ignited with steam
What is oil shale?
Oil-bearing rocks that are permeable enough to allow oil to be pumped out directly by fracking
