ENERGY RESOURCES

                ENERGY RESOURCES

Energy is the ablity to do work. The economic development of a country is indicated by the per capita energy consumption. One cannot pick up energy but can use it do work.

         GROWING ENERGY NEEDS

In the period early to industrial revolution ,the commen source of energy were human/animals muscle power,wind energy,wood and vegetable oil.all these source did not cause any pollution and were consider eco friendly.there was excessive use of fossils fuels (like coal ,oil and natural gas) as asource of energy,which resulted in pollution during and after industrial revolution. The fossil fuels presently are providing 95% of commercial energy. Supply of fossil fuel may end in coming years. Countries like USA ,Switzerland,Norway show high GNP(GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT). Thereby  representing high energy use when compared with countries like india and china.

In highly developed countries like USA per capita consumption of energy has touched a new hight of 250000 Kcal. In india being a developing nation,a man uses 10,000 Kcal  energy on average.

                  TYPES OF ENERGY RESOURCES

1.      Renewable resources: such resources are being continuously consumed by man but renewed by nature.such resources are in-exhaustible. They are also called as non-conventional resource of energy e.g solar energy,wind energy ,tidal energy ,wood ,bio mass energy,bio fuels,geo thermal energy etc.

2.      Non renewable resource. They are not renewable for use and are not replenished by the nature if exhausted e.g fossil fuels loike coal,petroleum, nuclear fuel like uranium and thorium.

    RENEWABLE RESOURCES OF ENERGY

SOLAR ENERGY

The solar radiation falling on the surface of earth is equal to 170 trillion kilowatts- eight days sun shine is equal to the total energy available on the earth..we get the sufficient sunshine for 250-300 useful days in a year.solar energy is the biggest source of energy  which will never end. A simple and commen mode of enegy utilisation is solar themal conversion.solaar therma pumps have been developed and being tested under actual field conditions aportable soler dryer is also under extensive field testing. Efforts are in hand for development of solar refregiration,air conditioning. Solar photovoltaic panel ,cookers,heaters and battery driven cars are being made cost effective and technically better adapted.

WIND ENERGY

Wind energy can be used for water pumping and power generation. Wind power is converted into mechanical and electrical energy.water pumping wind mills have been installed .wind speed is very high in costal areas and thes areas have wind turbine which help in electricity generation.

TIDAL ENERGY

The feasibilityof generating tidal energy is being studied in runn of kutch in gujrat and sundarbans in west Bengal.the world only major tidal power station is in france.

HYDROPOWER

the water flowing in the river is collected  with the help of dams.the potential energy of stored water converted in to kinetic energy of water by allowing it to fall through the pies from the top of the dam to its bottem.this flowing water rotates the turbines as a consequence of which, the amature coil of the generator rotates  so the electricity is generated.

Problems associated with generation of hydroelectricity are:

1.      Building up of slit in dams

2.      Problem of planning and construction of hydroelectricity energy site.

3.      Dam block fish migration.

4.      Dams disrupt river flow and flood usable land.

OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY (OTE)

The energy available due to difference in temperature of water at surface of ocean and at deeper level is called ocean thermal energy. For efficient operation of oean therml energy conversion, a difference of 20^oc or more is more needed between the surface water and deeper water. The high pressure vapours of liquid like ammonia are formed at warm surface water . they are used to turn the turbine  of generator ,finally to produce electricity. Cooler lower water is used to condence the vapour again into liquid.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

The energy used from hot rocks present inside the earth is called geothermal energy. In places like manikaran,kullu and sohna,hot water comes out from soil. Hot water coming out with pressure can be used to turbines of a generator to produce electricity.

BIOMASS ENERGY :

Organic matter like wood ,cattel dung,sewage,agriculture wastes produced by plants is called biomass.

    Biomass energy is of following types :

(i)                 Energy  plantation . during photosynthesis in plants ,simple raw materials like carbon dioxide and water are converted into organic food in the presence of solar energy. Thus solar energy is converted in to biomass energy .some fast growing plants are used to produce energy either by burning directly or by converting them into fuels by fermentation.

(ii)               Petrol plants. Some plants like Euphorbias  have been identified as source of liquid hydrocarbons,a substitute for liquid fuel. This oily material can be used in diesel engines  or can be used to form  gasoline.

(iii)              Agricultural and urban waste biomass. Energy by burning of agricultural and urban waste biomass can be used for various purposes.

(iv)               BIOGAS. Biogas is an important solution to present energy crisis,especially in rural areas. The gas produced by action of  bacteria on  biomass is called biomass.

Composition

 Biogas comprises a mixture of methane,carbondioxide,hydrogen sulphide and ammonia.these gases are produced during anaerobic digestion of organic wastes from plants and animals.

  DISADVANTAGE OF BURNING DUNG CAKES OF ANIMAL DUNG. Animal dung is the form of dried cakes is also burned in many parts of country for domestic purpose. As you know, animal dung contains vital nutrients which should be returned to the  soil.as dung cakes burn inefficiently and produce a lot of smoke,their utilisation as fuel leads to considerable wastage of useful elements as well as to air pollution. It is , therefore , unwise to burn dung cakes, directly. Insted ,animal dung should be converted into biogas  which is a clean fuel,and produce more heat,the residue which is in nutrients can be used as manure .

 BIOGAS PLANT. Animal and plant wastes are easily degraded by anaerobic micro-organisms in presence of water .in the presence of water . in this process ,gases ,such as methane,carbondioxide,hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide are produced.this mixture of gases is called biogas. It contains about 65% methane which is an excellent fuel. A slurry of animal dung and water is put into the plant. The biogas produced is drawn through pipes and supplied to the consumers. In order to get a continuous supply of bio gas , the plant need to be regularly fed with waste biomass. Human excreta can also be added  to this. At some places domestic sewage is digested in large biogas plant.

(c)Two commen types of biogas plant used are:

(i) fixed dome type biogas plant.

(ii) floating gas holder type biogas plant.

(d)  advantages of bio gas plants

1. biogas can be  burnt in gas stove to provide heat.

2. biogas can be used for street lights and driving engines.

3. it helpls in controlling water pollution.

4. biogas burn with smokeless flame and it has high calorific value.

5. the slurry left  in the plant after the gas withdrawn ,is rich in nitrogenous and phosphorous compounds and form good manure.

BIOFUELS

Alcohols like ethanol and methanol can be formed due to fermentation of biomass.sugarcane can be used for production of ethanol.

Methanol  like ethanol is clean non polluting fuel and can be obtained from woody plants.it burns at lower temperature than gasoline and diesel.

Gasohol  is a mixture and gasoline and is being used for running cars etc. In many countries.

HYDROGEN

Large quantity of energy is released ,when it burns in air . hydrogen can be produced by two methods :

(i)                 By thermal dissociation

(ii)               Photolysis or electrolysis of water.

Advantages of hydrogen as fuel

(i)                 It is non polluting

(ii)               It can be easily produced.

(iii)             Due to high calorific value,it can be used as an excellent fuel.

Disadvantages

(i)                 Highly inflammable and explosive in nature.

(ii)               Hydrogen is difficult to store and transport.

NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE OF ENERGY

COAL

About 6000 billion tonnes of coal lies under the earth. By now over 200 billion tonnes has been used .

Major coal field  in india are :

Raniganj, Jharia,East bokaro and west bokaro,Panch konkam( tawa valley),Singrauli,talchar,chanda. The major states known for coal reserve and bihar , Orrisa,West Bengal,M.P,A.P and Maharashtra. India has about 5% of total coal deposite of the world.

Three types of coal are :

(i)                 Anthracite (hard coal)

(ii)               Bituminous (soft coal)

(iii)             Lignite (brown coal)

 Coal is a major source of  power and industrial fuel of great importance . the estimated  coal reserve of India are 123,000 million metric tonnes. Nearly 75% of coal is consumed by Indian railways,industries and thermal electric plants.

PETROLEUM

 Worlds crude oil reserve are expected to remain up to only 40 years. OPEC ( organisation of petroleum exporting countries ) with 13 countries have 67% of petroleum reserve.saudi arabia has 25% of oil reserve.

    Curde  oil is purified and refined by fractional distillation. Several product like petron,diesel, kerosene, lubricating oil, plastic obtained  during this process.

Advantages of petroleum

(i)                 Cleaner fuel as compared to coal.

(ii)               It is easier to transport.

 LIQUEFIED PRTROLEUM GAS (LPG)

Petroleum gas is converted into liquid under pressure to form LPG. It is used as house hold gas in kitchen.

 NATURAL GAS 

 Natural gas is composed of mainly of methane with small quantity of propane and ethane. In india natural gas is a natural gift. It can be both used as energy source and also an industrial raw material in petrochemical industry.this gas is also used for fertilizer plants. It burns without smoke .in India there are four nuclear power station with installed capacity of 2005 MW.

COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS(CNG)

To run vehicles, now a days CNG is being used .it has greatly reduced the vehicular pollution in delhi.

SYNTHETIC NATURAL GAS (SNG)

SNG is constituted by combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Now low quality coal is converted in to synthetic gas.

 NUCLEAR ENERGY

A small amount of radioactive material can  produce enormous amount of energy. Nuclear reactors are required to produce atomic energy.

Uses of nuclear energy

(i)                 For production of electricity.

(ii)               As fuel of marine vessels.

(iii)             For heat generation in chemical processing plants.

(iv)              In running of space crafts.

Nuclear energy can be produced by two methods

(i)                 Nuclear fission

(ii)               Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fission: its a type of nuclear change in which nucleus of certian isotopes with large mass numbers are split into lighter nuclei on bombardment by neutrons and large number of energy is released through several chain reactions.

Nuclear fusion.  In this two isotopes of light eement are forced together as very high temperature about 1 billion ⁰C till the fusion. It leads to the formation of hevier nucleus and releases plenty of energy.