Fossil fuels: burning power plants

The basic requirements of a reactor are 1) fissionable material in a geometry that inhibits the escape of neutrons, 2) a high likelihood that neutron capture causes fission, 3) control of the neutron production to prevent a runaway reaction, and 4) removal of the heat generated in operation and after shutdown. The inability to completely turnoff the heat evolution when the chain reaction stops is a safety problem that distinguishes a nuclear reactor from a fossil-fuel burning power plant. 

An economic externality exists whenever the wellbeing of some individual is affected by the economic activities of others without particular attention to the welfare of that individual. For example, smog-related illnesses such as bronchitis and exacerbated cases of childhood asthma have been blamed, to some extent, on the emissions of nitrogen oxides from automobiles and large fossil-fuel-burning power plants. These illnesses have high treatment costs that are not... 

Nuclear flssion Nuclear fission, the splitting of an atomic nucleus, doesn t occur in nature. Humans first harnessed the tremendous power of fission during the Manhattan Project, an intense, hush-hush effort by the United States that led to the development of the first atomic bomb in 1945. Fission has since been used for more-benign purposes in nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants use a highly regulated process of fission to produce energy much more efficiently than is done in traditional, fossil fuel-burning power plants. 

Stationary combustion includes fossil fuel burning power plants, while waste disposal includes municipal waste combustion. 

In many ways, the design of a nuclear power plant and that of a fossil fuel burning power plant are very similar. In both cases heat from a reaction is used to generate steam. The steam is then used to drive turbines that produce electricity. In a typical fossil fuel power plant, the chemical combustion of coal, oil, or gas generates the heat, whereas in a nuclear power plant, a nuclear fission reaction generates the heat. Because of the hazardous radioactive fuels and fission products present at nuclear power plants, a dense concrete structure is usually built to enclose... 

Nuclear power plants and fossil-fuel burning power plants are similar heat from a reaction—nuclear fission or chemical combustion of coal—is used to generate steam. The steam then drives turbines that produce electricity, as shown in the nuclear power plant illustrated in Figure 24.20. The other major components of a nuclear power plant are also illustrated in Figure 24.20. 

Acid Rain - A term used to describe precipitation that has become acidic (low pH) due to the emission of sulfur oxides from fossil fuel burning power plants. 

Alabama in Mobile, has designed various cations that will attract potentially harmful ions such as mercury, cadmium, uranium, and americium (the latter two are commonly found in nuclear waste materials) and leach them out of contaminated solutions. Davis has also developed cations that will remove HiS (which produces SO2 when the gas is burned) and CO2 (which does not burn) from natural gas. Potentially, these ionic solutions might also be used to remove CO2 from the exhaust gases of fossil-fuel-burning power plants to lessen the greenhouse effect. ... 

FIGURE 9-8 Fossil-fuel-burning power plants burn oil, coal, or natural gas to create steam. The steam turns a turbine on a generator to create... 

Consequently, nitrogen monoxide is emitted in the exhaust of cars and fossil-fuel-burning power plants. Once in the air, nitrogen monoxide reacts with oxygen to produce nitrogen dioxide (NO2) ... 

Explain how a fossil-fuel-burning power plant works. How many watts are produced ... 

Replace fossil fuel burning power plants with SMRs because both of them have the same... 

The control of carbon dioxide emission from burning fossil fuels in power plants or other industries has been suggested as being possible with different methods, of which sequestration (i.e., collecting CO2 and injecting it to the depth of the seas) has been much talked about recently. Besides of the obvious cost and technical difficulties, this would only store, not dispose of, CO2 (although natural processes in the seas eventually can form carbonates, albeit only over very long periods of time). 

Industrial burning of fossil fuels in power plants and factories is the largest source of human-created atmospheric carbon. Emissions from automobiles—from simply driving cars—are another major, but much smaller, source. The burning of rain forests in areas around the equator is another major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (This burning is mostly done to clear land for agriculture.) Altogether, these carbon sources are cause for present and future concerns. 

If we try to assess the relative economy of a heat pump versus burning fossil fuel directly, we must bear in mind that, if the electrical energy to run the heat pump comes from fossil fuel, the power plant is subject to the Carnot limitation. The overall efficiency of a modern steam power plant is about 35 percent. Thus, just to break even on fossil fuel consumption, the heat pump coefficient of performance must be at least 1/0.35 = 2.9. 

On average, every person in the world is responsible for just over a ton of CO2 emissions each year. Most of this is due to the burning of fossil fuels in power plants and vehicles. According to some estimates, to prevent dangerous climate change while allowing for some increase in population, that number must be reduced to about 0.3 tons per person per year. 

Acid rain has been reduced with the introduction of technologies that remove the sulfur from the smokestack gases of coal-burning power plants. However, sulfur is present in other fossil fuels, and is introduced into the atmosphere by the exhausts from cars, trucks, and buses. Acid rain is still part of the overall problem of air pollution. 

Rain with a pH less than 5.6 is known as acid rain. Acid rain is caused by burning fossil fuels (especially coal) and by fertilizers used in intensive agriculture. These activities emit sulfur and nitrogen in gas compounds that are converted to sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. These in turn create sulfuric acid and nitric acid in rain. Acid rain may also be created from gases emitted by volcanoes and other natural sources. Acid rain harms fish and trees and triggers the release of metal ions from minerals into water that can harm people. The problem of acid rain in the United States has been addressed in recent decades by the use of scrubbers in coal burning power plants and catalytic converters in vehicles. 

The environmental effects of pollutants and wastes have traditionally been confronted with actions at the immediate vicinity level. A typical example involves the emissions resulting from fossil fuel burning in industrial and power plants, where taller stacks were built in the past to disperse pollutants in the air (mainly sulfur oxides) in a more efficient way. However, it is now recognized that these oxides can have important effects even in regions far away from the emission source due to environmental transport phenomena. Consequently, increasing the height of the stacks did not solve the problem. 

Another important combustion reaction occurs when coal is burned to produce energy. Coal is called a fossil fuel because it contains the remains of plants that lived long ago. It is composed primarily of the element carbon. Coal-burning power plants generate electric power in many parts of the United States. The primary reaction that occurs in these plants is between carbon and oxygen. 

Humanity s major sources of energy are derived from fossil fuels, principally oil, gas, coal, and wood. The major combustion by-products of fossil fuel burning include sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitric oxide (NO2), and partially oxidized hydrocarbons. The process of burning fossil fuels in thermal power plants, factories, homes, and motor vehicles emits enormous amounts of the aforementioned pollutants. The most important environmental concerns resulting from fossil fuel use are global climate change, acid rain, surface ozone, and partic-ulate-Zaerosol-bound toxins. 

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