Science of Energy II

OPRE 6389 Lecture Notes by Metin Çakanyıldırım

Compiled at 18:47 on Friday 13th February, 2015

1 Fuel-based Energy Forms

1.1 Chemical Energy
When molecules and atoms chemically react with each other, chemical bonds (such as ionic or covalent
bonds) between the atoms of a molecule can be broken, reorganized and re-established. For example,
hydrogen gas molecule is made of two hydrogen atoms bonded together with a covalent bond and it
weighs only 2 grams per mole 1 . Chemists depict this covalent bond (sharing of two electrons by two
hydrogen atoms) as H:H, where the dots represent the electrons. When the hydrogen molecule is burned
(hydrogen combustion) with oxygen gas, the bonds between two hydrogen atoms are broken as well as
those between oxygen atoms to make up bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In layman’s terms,
burning hydrogen results in water:

1
H2 + O2 −→ H2 O + 286, 000 joules.
2
This combustion reaction also releases 286,000 joules of energy per mole of hydrogen gas burned.
We can also write a combustion reaction for gasoline without referring to exact chemical formulas:

1 gallon gasoline + oxygen −→ carbon dioxide + water + 132, 000, 000 joules.

Energy content of 1 gallon of gasoline is 132 mega joules (Hofstrand 2007).

Example Suppose that 1 gallon of gasoline costs $4. How many moles of hydrogen needs to be burned
to obtain the energy in 1 gallon of gasoline? To avoid an energy price arbitrage, what should the cost of
hydrogen gas be?
ANSWER To obtain 132 mega joules, approximately 460 (=132,000,000/286,000) moles of hydrogen gas
must be burned. The weight of 462 moles of hydrogen is 920 grams, whose cost must be $4 to avoid an
arbitrage. Or the price of hydrogen must be approximately $4.34 per kilogram. Note that the cost of hydro-
gen produced from water by using electrolysis and wind energy can range from $3.74 to 5.86 per kilogram
(Saur and Ainscough 2011). ⋄

Unfortunately, hydrogen gas often does not naturally occur. Methane gas CH4 naturally occurs and
constitutes a significant portion of natural gas that is extracted in gas fields. Methane can also be burned
to obtain energy:
CH4 + 2O2 −→ CO2 + 2H2 O + 890, 000 joule.
This combustion reaction yields carbondioxide gas, a greenhouse gas, in addition to water, so it is not as
clean as hydrogen combustion reaction. Weight of 1 mole of methane is 16 grams (12 for one carbon atom
and 4 for four hydrogen atoms).
Example Suppose that hydrogen gas is sold at $4 per kilogram, what should be the price of methane
gas so that the price of energy whether obtained from hydrogen or methane is the same.
ANSWER From the previous exercise $4 buys 500=1000/2 moles of hydrogen and 500 × 286, 000 joules. To
1 Recall from Science of Energy I that 1 mole of a substance has 6.02 ×1023 atoms or molecules.

1
obtain this amount of energy from methane combustion, 160 ≈ 500 × 286, 000/890, 000 methane molecules
are necessary. The weight of 160 methane molecules is 2,560 grams, so the cost of 2.56 kilogram of methane
should be $4, or the price of methane should be $1.56 per kilogram. Hydrogen gas is 8 times lighter than
methane gas and yields about 1/3 of the energy. Hydrogen is a more efficient fuel in terms of energy pro-
vided per weight. ⋄

The unit of transaction for methane, when sold as natural gas, is energy content. Suppose that gasoline
is priced at $4 per gallon and methane is sold at $4 per million BTU. 1 million (mega) BTU is 1/ 0.00095
×106 joules or approximately 1,052 mega joules. A single dollar buys 33 mega joules in terms of gasoline
and 263 mega joules in terms of methane at the prices above. Energy bought as natural gas is much cheaper
than energy bought as gasoline.
Human body also performs combustion reactions to obtain energy. For example, it burns sugar (such
as glucose C6 H12 O6 ):
C6 H12 O6 + 6O2 −→ 6CO2 + 6H2 O + 2, 800, 000 joule.
One mole of glucose has 6 carbons weighing 6(12), 12 hydrogens weighing 12(1) and 6 oxygen weighing
6(16), so 1 glucose molecule has weight of 180 grams.
Example How many grams of sugar needs to be eaten to get 1,000 kilocalories?
ANSWER 180 grams of glucose yields 2,800,000 joules or 666,652 (=2,800,000 × 0.23809) calories or 666.652
kilocalories. Then 1 gram of glucose gives 3.7 (=666.652/180) kilocalories. Dieticians typically shorten this
and say 1 gram of carbohydrates provide 4 calories but they should say 4 kilocalories. 270 (=1000/3.7)
grams of sugar approximately gives 1,000 kilocalories. ⋄

Example Is methane or glucose a more efficient fuel in terms of energy provided per weight? Explain.
ANSWER 16 grams of methane yields 890,000 joule or methane yields 55,625 (=890,000/16) joules per gram.
180 grams of glucose yields 2,800,000 joules or glucose yields 15,555 (=2,800,000/180) joules per gram. Al-
though glucose is a larger molecule and gives more energy per molecule, it is less efficient than methane
on a weight basis. Note that glucose has 6 oxygen atoms, that is 96/180 oxygen by weight. These oxygens
in glucose cannot be burned with the oxygen in the environment to release energy and they decrease the
efficiency of the glucose as a fuel. ⋄

1.2 Nuclear Energy

Similar to the bonds of a molecule containing chemical energy, nucleus of an atom contains nuclear energy.
To obtain this nuclear energy, we should break, reorganize or unite nuclei. So nuclear reactions happen
at a much smaller scale than chemical reactions but they involve rearrangement of fundamental particles
(protons and neutrons). Hydrogen is a simple element with only 1 proton in its nucleus and no proton. It
is customary to write the number of protons as subscript and the total number of protons and neutrons as
superscript. For example H11 is the regular hydrogen atom with 1 proton and no neutron. Sometimes, hy-
drogen atoms can be found with a neutron in their nucleus, this variety denoted by H12 is called deuterium.
Very rarely, there can be two neutrons in the nucleus giving rise to tritium H13 .
To understand the source of nuclear energy, we can compute the mass of a nucleus in two ways. The
direct method is to compute the mass of a nucleus experimentally. This experimental mass can be compared
against a theoretical mass based on the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus:
Theoretical mass = Number of protons × Mass of a proton + Number of neutrons × Mass of a neutron.
Interestingly, there is a mass deficit in each nucleus:
Mass deficit = Theoretical mass − Experimental mass ≥ 0.

2
A mass equivalent to the mass deficit disappears when protons and nucleons are pulled together in a
nucleus. This mass turns into nuclear energy at the rate of the square of speed of light. This energy is
analogous to the energy required to compress a coil spring. A nucleus can be thought as a source of stored
(nuclear) energy, as a compressed spring is a source of mechanical (kinetic) energy.
Nuclear energy is a separate form of energy. It is far stronger to be explained by gravitational pull
of protons or nucleons. It causes attraction among positively charged protons as opposed to repulsion
predicted by electrical energy. Moreover, nuclear energy is active only in the nucleus, it does not reach
outside the nucleus to pull electrons, so it is short-ranged.
Presence of more or fewer neutrons in the nucleus does not affect the chemical properties of an element.
Chemical properties such as bonding and ionization are driven by the electrons rotating in an orbit around
the nucleus. The number of neutrons affect the physical properties, most clearly the weight of the nu-
cleus. Two types of the same element with different number of neutrons are called isotopes. For example,
hydrogen, deuterium and tritium are all isotopes.
Some isotopes of an atom are stable some are not. Stability is a consequence of a balance between
nuclear and electric forces in a nucleus. In the case of instability, some particles can be pushed away from
the nucleus to achieve stability. If the emitted (pushed away) particle is a Helium He24 atom, an alpha decay
is said to occur. Alpha decay is a form of nuclear radiation, as are beta decay and gamma decay. Beta decay
involves emitting of an electron (minimal mass, negative electric charge) while gamma decay has emitting
of a photon (minimal mass, no charge, high energy).
Some unstable large isotopes split into smaller atoms rather than emitting much smaller particles. To
help with this split, an unstable isotope can be hit with some particles. To split the nucleus, the particle
needs to reach the nucleus so it should not be positively charged. This is why a neutron is a good choice
to hit the nucleus with. An isotope with even number of protons and even number of neutrons are more
stable than an isotope with odd number of protons and neutrons. There are some pairing-caused stability
theories as to why this might be the case. According to Das and Ferbel (2004), empirically 156 isotopes
with even number of protons and nucleons are stable whereas the corresponding number for isotopes with
odd number of protons and nucleons is only 5. For example, Uranium has unstable isotope U92 235 and stable
238
isotope U92 , which is common in the nature.
The unstable (radioactive) isotope U92 235 can be bombarded with slow-moving neutrons to have a fission

(split) reaction:
56 + Kr36 + 3n0 + 2.07 × 10 joules,
235
U92 + n10 =⇒ U92 236
=⇒ Ba144 89 1 13

236 is Uranium isotope with 144 neutrons, Ba144 is Barium isotope with 88 neutrons, Kr 89 is Krypton
where U92 56 36
isotope with 53 neutrons and n10 is a neutron. Barium-144 isotope goes through a series of beta decays
and an alpha decay to turn into Lanthanum, Cerium-144, Praseodymium, Neodymium and eventually to
Cerium-140:

Ba144 144 0 144 0 144 0 144 0 140 4 0

56 =⇒ La57 + e−1 =⇒ Ce58 + 2e−1 =⇒ Pr59 + 3e−1 =⇒ Nd60 + 4e−1 =⇒ Ce58 + He2 + 4e−1 .

140 and Helium-4 He4 of this decay chain are both stable. On the other hand,
Final products Cerium-140 Ce58 2
Krypton-89 isotope goes through beta decays to turn into Rubidium, Strontium and eventually Yttrium:
89 89
Kr36 =⇒ Rb37 + e0−1 =⇒ St89 0 89 0
38 + 2e−1 =⇒ Y39 + 3−1 .

The final product Yttrium-89 Y3989 is stable.

The energy released by the fission reaction above of a single Uranium atom is 215 MeV (Mega electron
volts), which is 215 ×106 × 1.6 × 10−19 = 344 × 10−13 joules. 1 mole of Uranium or 235 gram Uranium has
6.02 ×1023 atoms and releases 2.07 ×1013 joules. 1 gram of U92235 can release 1011 (≈ 2.07 × 1013 /235) joules.

Example In comparison with glucose, how efficient fuel source is Uranium?

ANSWER 180 gram of glucose gives 2,800,000 joules, that is 15,555 joules per gram. 235 gram of Uranium

3
gives 2.07 × 1013 joules, that is 8.8 ×1010 joules per gram. Uranium is more efficient by a factor of 5,100,000
(=0.51 × 107 = 8.8 × 1010 /15, 555). Uranium is more efficient than glucose by 5.1 million times and more
efficient than methane by 1.43 (≈ 5.1 × 15, 555/55, 625) million times. ⋄

Example 1011 joules is about 1 mega watt day and provided by the fission of 1 gram of U92
235 . To operate
235
a 1,200 mega watt nuclear reactor throughout a year, how much U92 is necessary?
ANSWER 1,200 mega watt reactor yields 1,200 mega watt year of energy, that is 365 × 1200 mega watt day
of energy. This much of energy requires 438,000 (=365 × 1200) grams of U92 235 . That is, 438 kilograms or
235
0.438 tons of U92 .

Example A 1,200 mega watt reactor requires enriched uranium fuel rods that are 6% U92 235 and 94%
238 .
U92 To operate the reactor throughout the year, how many tons of enriched uranium are necessary?
ANSWER From above, the reactor requires 0.438 tons of U92235 , which is only 6% of the enriched fuel. All of

the enriched fuel is 7.3 (=0.438/0.06) tons.

For a nuclear reactor, the burn up out rate is amount of energy obtained from 1 unit of mass of enriched
fuel. Typically, energy is measured in terms of mega watt days and mass is measured in kilogram, so the
units of burn up rate is mega watt day / kilogram.
Example What is the burn up rate of a nuclear reactor that generates 1200 mega watt day by burning
20 (=7300/365) kilograms of enriched fuel?
ANSWER Burn up rate is 60 mega watt day per kilogram. This number is more like an upper bound on the
burn up rate, the actual burn up rate in practice can be lower say 40-50 mega watt day per kilogram.

The fission reaction above resulted in the release of 3 neutrons, only 2 neutrons can be released in a
slightly different version:
235
U92 + n10 =⇒ U92
236
=⇒ Ba144 90 1
56 + Kr36 + 2n0 + energy,

where one of the neutrons remains in Krypton to give it a mass of 90. Krypton-90 isotope can further go
through a series of beta decays to turn into Rubidium, Strontium, Yttrium, and eventually to Zirconium:
Kr3690 =⇒ Rb90 + e0 90 0 90 0 90 0
37 −1 =⇒ St38 + 2e−1 =⇒ Y39 + 3e−1 =⇒ Zr40 + 4e−1 . The final product Zirconium-90
Zr4090 is stable. The number of neutrons released by a fission reaction can be 2 or 3, so it can be taken

as a random variable. Neutrons generated by reactions can be thought as generations, where the initial
neutron starts the first generation which may have 2 or 3 neutron offsprings. Each of these neutrons start
the second generation and so on. The number of neutrons in the nth generation will be at least 2n and most
3n . It is possible to study the expected number of neutrons in a generation, variance of this number and
the probability that a given number of U92 235 is depleted in some number of generations; these issues are

studied under the umbrella of Branching Processes in Probability.

Stars such as sun generate energy from fusion (union) of nuclei. The following fusion reaction is possi-
ble on the sun:

4H11 =⇒ He24 + nuclear particles + gamma ray + 0.24 × 1013 joules,

where He24 is the regular Helium gas. The energy created by sun is emitted to the space (including earth)
in terms of sunlight and gamma rays, both of which are electromagnetic waves that constitute the source
of solar energy.

4
2 Exercises
1. On Thanksgiving day, average turkey consumed by Americans weigh about 15 pounds and requires
20 minutes of cooking per pound. A typical gas oven burns about 11,000 btus per hour. Suppose
that 50 million turkeys are cooked on Thanksgiving either at gas ovens or at electric ovens whose
electricity is generated at gas fired power plants. What is the btu demand for cooking turkeys on
Thanksgiving day? Suppose that 1 cubic feet of gas has 1000 btus and that U.S. annual production
is about 20,000 billion cuibicfeet of gas. Is the gas demanded on Thanksgiving to cook turkeys a
significant portion of annual U.S. gas production? If your answer is yes, you can use swing spreads
to buy gas in advance to sell it during Thanksgiving.
ANSWER Each turkey is cooked for 300 minutes or 5 hours by consuming 55,000 btus. 50 million
turkeys require 2750 billion btus. Turkeys require 2.75 billion cubic feet of gas. 2.75 billion is about 1
thousandth of 20,000 billion, so it is not a significant portion of annual production. Said differently,
Cameron’s gas liquefaction plant has daily capacity of 1.7 billion cubic feet 2 , so the plant by itself can
cover the Thanksgiving demand in less than 2 days of operation. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving does
not increase the demand significantly to have an effect on prices.

References
Das, A. and T. Ferbel. 2004. Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics. Second edition by World Scien-
tific Publishing. ISBN 981-238-744-7.
Hofstrand, D. 2007. Energy Measurements and Conversions. Agricultural Marketing Resource Center,
Iowa State University.
http://kbsgk12project.kbs.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FUEL CONVERSION WORK SHEET.pdf .
Saur, G. and C. Ainscough. 2011. U.§. Geographic Analysis of the Cost of Hydrogen from Electrolysis.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Technical Report NREL/TP-5600-52640.
http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/pdfs/52640.pdf

2 http://www.cameronlng.com/expansion-update.html