Electricity from fossil fuels

In the United States, methane is a major energy source used in many homes for cooking and heating of water and indoor air and water. It is commonly known that some power plants and industries use natural gas as a source of energy for generation of electricity and process heat and that this methane is a fossil fuel obtained from gas wells and transmitted throughout the country by gas pipelines. Most people also know that methane bubbles up from polluted swamps where sedimented plant matter is undergoing decomposition. Because of odors from swamps, and the odor due to natural gas additives, methane is incorrectly considered malodorous. 

In some European cities, waste heat from fossil fuel electric power plants is used for district heating with an overall energy efficiency of 85%. These plants were not originally constructed as cogenerating units. Waste heat from industrial process plants can also be used. Geothermal sources are used to provide heat for district heating systems in Iceland and Boise, Idaho. 

Let us take the PE mentioned in the goal as an example. PE is produced from ethylene, as we saw in Chapter 11. The ethylene, on the other hand, comes from a refinery or chemical plant, and the ultimate source of ethylene is, therefore, crude oil or another fossil fuel. Electrical energy is required for the process. There are emissions at the various stages. The final PE is then... 

Today, the average American generates 21 tons of C02 a year (some of the "green" cities in California and elsewhere reduced this to 9-13 tons/per capita), whereas the global per capita average is only 4 tons a year. The generation of each kilowatt-hour of electricity from fossil fuels releases from 270 to 1,050 g (0.27-1.05 kg) of C02 into the atmosphere, in addition to other... 

In another paper, the authors advocated a plasma-assisted decomposition of methane into hydrogen and carbon.13 It was estimated that 1-1.9 kWh of electrical energy is consumed per normal cubic meter of hydrogen produced. The authors stated that plasma production of hydrogen is free of C02 emissions. However, since most of the electric energy supply in the world comes from fossil fuels, electricity-driven hydrogen production processes such as plasma and electrochemical processes, are C02 producers. 

Give an advantage and disadvantage of an electric car that must be recharged by electricity from a fossil-fuel electric power plant. 

Data for the reference system—coal-fired electricity—are adapted from Loi et al. s study [46], the Ecoinvent database for rest of world (RoW) [47], technical reports of PECCI [42], and GIZ-GDE/MOIT s report [48], in combination with calculation results following the guidelines of the AustraHan National Greenhouse Accounts and the National Pollutant Inventory Emission estimation technique manual for Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation [49,50]. Fig. 14.3 illustrates different processes of generating coal-fired electricity. 

Although individual household PV modules are more expensive per kilowatt than large centralized PV power plants, individual units become cost competitive when distribution costs are eliminated. From 1995 to 2009, solar module costs per installed watt declined at 5 to 6 percent annually, a trend projected to continue, particularly in regions with ample sunlight, expensive fossil fuel electricity, and government incentives. 

The U.S. Clean Air Act (CAA) was first enacted by Congress in 1963 [77 Stat. 392 42 U.S.C. 7401]. The statute was intended for air pollution in general, and from its beginning attempted to address general pollution and its components as emitted from point sources—steel mills, factories, foundries, and fossil-fueled electric power plants, among others—and mobile sources, particularly autos and commercial vehicles. Several years later, the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1966 [PL 90—148 81 Stat. 485] codified the distinctions in source emissions adding to overall air pollution, stationary versus mobile. 

The LCA process takes into account all of the energy, raw materials, water, and fossil fuels required in the production of Ingeo pellets. The first step is the harvesting of the corn in the fields where the corn is grown, harvested, dried, and transported to the com wet mill. The process requires fertilizers, electricity, fossil fuels, natural gas, and other materials. The second step is the production of starches and dextrose sugars with the use of fossil fuels, electricity, steam, water, and other materials. The third step is the fermentation to lactic acid with the use of electricity, fossil fuels, water, steam, and other materials. The fourth step is the production of lactide from lactic acid with the use of fossil fuels, electricity, steam, water, and other materials. The last step is the polymerization of polylactide and conversion into PLA pellets with the use of electricity, fossil fuels, water, and other materials. 

The costs of utilities are directly influenced by the cost of fuel. Specific difficulties emerge when estimating the cost of fuel, which directly inpact the price of utilities such as electricity, steam, and thermal fluids. Figure 8.1 shows the general trends for fossil fuel costs from 1991 to 2006. The costs presented represent average values and are not site specific. These costs do not reflect the wide variability of cost and availability of various fuels throughout the United States. 

If possible comparisons are focused on energy systems, nuclear power safety is also estimated to be superior to all electricity generation methods except for natural gas (30). Figure 3 is a plot of that comparison in terms of estimated total deaths to workers and the pubHc and includes deaths associated with secondary processes in the entire fuel cycle. The poorer safety record of the alternatives to nuclear power can be attributed to fataUties in transportation, where comparatively enormous amounts of fossil fuel transport are involved. Continuous or daily refueling of fossil fuel plants is required as compared to refueling a nuclear plant from a few tmckloads only once over a period of one to two years. This disadvantage appHes to solar and wind as well because of the necessary assumption that their backup power in periods of no or Httie wind or sun is from fossil-fuel generation. Now death or serious injury has resulted from radiation exposure from commercial nuclear power plants in the United States (31). 

Table 1. Estimated Emissions from Fossil-Fueled Steam-Electric Generating Units at U.S. Electric Utilities, 10 t ...

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