ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Natural Resources -2
Lecture – 3

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Introduction to Energy Resources
• Energy – capacity to do the work
• Immediately useful ones – coal etc
• Processing – diesel, petrol etc.
• Crude oil is processed to various products such as wax,
kerosene, petrol, diesel etc

• Electrical Energy
– Fossil fuel burning
– Hydel power projects
– Nuclear energy

• All energy use contribute to atmosphere heating

• Many forms of energy release CO2
• 2 billion people around the world have no access to electricity
• The existing users are increasing their demand day by day

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 Challenges
• Fossil fuels with current rate of consumption can last
for next 50 years or so
• Major part of electrical energy is lost during
transportation and at the consumer level
• World’s demand for electrical energy doubled over last
22 years
• No energy technology is risk free as they contribute to
environment degradation one way or the other

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 Types of Energy

ef: https://www.icl-group.com/blog/the-shift-from-fossil-fuels-towards-renewable-energy-securing-our-
childrens-futures/

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 Burning of Fossil Fuels
• Emission of pollutants
– CO2, oxides of sulfur, nitrogen and CO
– Pollutants cause respiratory problems
– Damage forests and cause acid rain
– Greenhouse effect
• Melting ice caps
• Rise in sea levels
• Submerging coastal belts
• Drought and Floods
• Warming of seas can lead to death of coral (sensitive organism)

• Impact of the use of oil

• Drilling, processing, transportation and utilization all can cause pollution
• Leakages to air and water
• Accidental fires
• Oil slicks

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Oil usage in Transportation Sector
• Oil produced vehicles emit CO2, SO2, N2O,
CO and particulate matter in cities with
heavy traffic density
• Leaded petrol
– Neurological damage
• Unleaded petrol
– Emit Benzene, Butadiene (carcinogenic)
• Higher dependence on oil – political
tensions
• 65% of the world reserves of oil are in the
middle east
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Coal usage effects on Environment
• Single largest contributor to greenhouse gases
• Most important cause of Global Warming
• Many power plants are not fitted with the equipment to
filter the suspended particulate matter
• Burning of coal – Acid rain – Destroys forest vegetation-
damages architectural heritage sites
• Pollution of water by acid rain can affect health
• Transportation of fly ash and its dumping is a big issue
• Benefits must be calculated in the backdrop of damage
and losses due to pollution and waste production

Fly ash

Coal

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 Coal usage effects on Environment

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6LvH_4Q3g

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 Greenhouse effect

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 Renewable Energy

Ref: https://www.greenesa.com/news/renewable-energy-sources-
types

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 Hydroelectricity

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8HmRLCgDAI

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 Tidal and wave power
• All the continents: 2-3 million MW of energy
• Several countries are working to develop technology to harness oceans kinetic
energy to electrical energy
• This technology an bring major ecological changes in the sensitive ecosystems of
coastal regions
• Can destroy the nesting places of water birds and interfere with fisheries
• Can block flow of polluted water into sea at the mouth of a river
• Navigation hazards by offshore energy devices
• Affect larvae of fish
• High capital costs and intermittent energy resource
• Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
– Warm upper layer and cold down layer
• High-tech installation, may prove valuable
– Department of Ocean Development has a plant in Tamilnadu in India producing 1mW.

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 Wave Energy

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 Tidal Energy

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 Solar Energy
• Solar heating for homes
• Solar water heating
• About 80% homes in Israel have solar water
heaters
• Solar Cookers:
• Other solar powered devices
– Photovoltaic energy – Production of electricity from Sun
light using PV cells (not by heating but radiation only)
• PV cells works cleanly and silently

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 Solar Energy –PV cells
• Extensive research work is underway to decrease the costs , increase
efficiency and extending cell life time
• PV cells are commonly used in watches and calculators
• They provide power to satellites, electric lights, small electrical
appliances., water pumping, highway lighting, weather stations
• PV cells are
– Environmentally benign
– No release of toxic materials
– No radioactive substances
– No possible catastrophic accidents

• Silicon to be mined for manufacture

• Need batteries to store the energy when the radiation intensity is low
• Other technologies based on Solar Energy
– Solar thermal electric power
• High temperature and desert conditions are required
• Sun light is used to convert water into steam

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 PV cell: Principle

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PROhNDen3nk

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 Wind Power
• Earliest energy source for transportation by sailing ships
• 2000 years ago, windmills were developed in China for grinding grain and irrigation
• Denmark and California have large wind turbines facilities which sell electricity to the
grid
• India – 3rd largest producer of wind energy
• Average wind speed is the indicative of economic feasibility
• Wind speed increases with height
• Important steps
– Design
– Siting
– Installation
– Operation and maintenance of power-producing wind mills (turbines)
• Little impact on Environment as there are no
emissions, radiation and solid waste
• Principal problem
– Bird kills
– Noise
– Effect on TV reception, aesthetic objections
• 1% of the total area only usage for the turbine
bases, rest can be used for grazing and agriculture
• Not to be used as sole resource and wind flow is
intermittent

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 Wind Power

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYHfMCw-FI&t=182s

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 Biomass Energy
• Indirect form of solar energy
• Biofuels, ethanol, methanol etc are examples
• Algae to biofuels is a recent trend
• Organic municipal waste also is biomass
• In USA, 31% of organic waste is recovered from municipal solid waste via
recycling and composting programs
• Biomass produces lot of pollutants like fossil fuels
• Biogas energy
– Produced from plant materials, animal waste, garbage, waste from households
– Mixture of methane, CO2, H2S, H2O
– Methane burns easily
– 1 ton of food waste can give 85 m3 of biogas
– Residue can be used as agriculture fertilizer
– India : cow-dung to biogas – kitchen smoke reduction
– Fibrous waste from sugar industry is the world’s largest potential source of biomass energy
– Ethanol produced in sugar industry is a good automobile fuel
– China has 20 million households using biogas
– India : 2.18 million families - 1996

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 Biomass Energy

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ztd8uoU9Q

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 Nuclear Energy
• 1938 – Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman demonstrated nuclear fission
• Conversion of mass into energy
• Nuclear power industry – started in late 1950s
• First large scale nuclear power plant in the world – 1957- Pennsylvaniam USA
• 1kg Uranium – 300 tons of Coal
• Reaction , Energy, water, steam, turbine, electricity
• Uranium rods need to be changed in the reactor periodically
• Disposal of Nuclear waste is big problem
• Very hot water can damage aquatic eco-systems
• For environmental reasons, Sweden decided to become Nuclear free country by 2010
• An accident can have devastating effect
– Destroy area, death, cancer, genetic deformities
– Land, water and vegetation are destroyed for long period of time
– Generations can be effected

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 Nuclear Energy

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMXxXoHtM-o

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 Geothermal Energy
• Energy stored in the earth
• Cheap hydropower
• Hot magma warms underground pools of water known as
geothermal reservoirs
• Wells are drilled deep below the surface of earth to trap
into these reservoirs
• Direct use of thermal energy
• It is being harnessed for space heating, industrial use and
electricity production
• (Iceland, Japan and New Zealand)
• Water from geothermal reservoirs
– Corrosive
– Polluting
– Must be treated before disposal

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 Energy Conservation
Energy conservation in
home

Ref: https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2020/03/how-to-save-
energy-at-home

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 Energy Conservation
Energy conservation in
home

Ref: https://ecohungry.com/energy-efficiency-in-transportation/

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Energy Conservation – India’s case
• Shift to Alternative Energy Use
– Can reduce the dependence on imported oil
– Judicious use would bring sustainable life styles
• Reduction of Electricity losses (30%-45%)
• Installation of small hydrogeneration units
– No displacement of people, no destruction
– Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh
• Enhancing fuel wood plantations through JFM
• Use of Chulhas
• Use of biogas
• Planned transportation and efficient roads
• Solar energy for irrigation purpose
• Increasing the energy efficiency of industry

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 Land resources
• The roots of trees and grasses bind the soil
• Land becomes waste with overgrazing and forest depletion
• Intensive irrigation can lead to water-logged and salinised soil
• Land is a renewable resource if used carefully
• Land can become non-renewable with toxic industrial waste
and nuclear waste
• Soil erosion
• Ecologically sensitive areas – western Ghats

• Role of an Individual
• What will we leave to our children?
• Short term and long term
• Is my material gain someone else’s loss?
• Critical Flash Point
• Economic development effecting us more negatively than the
benefit it provides

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