A little bit of engineering (Несколько текстов для зачёта), страница 6

Natural gas is transported, usually by pipelines, to customers who burn it for fuel or, in some cases, make petrochemicals from chemicals extracted, or “stripped,” from it. Natural gas can be liquefied at very low temperatures and transported in special ships. This method is much more costly than transporting oil by tanker. Oil and natural gas compete in a number of markets, especially in generating heat for homes, offices, factories, and industrial processes.

C

Pollution Problems

In its early days, the oil industry generated considerable environmental pollution. Through the years, however, under the dual influences of improved technology and more stringent regulations, it has become much cleaner. The effluents from refineries have decreased greatly and, although well blowouts still occur, new technology has tended to make them relatively rare. The policing of the oceans, on the other hand, is much more difficult. Oceangoing ships are still a major source of oil spills. In 1990 the Congress of the United States passed legislation requiring tankers to be double hulled by the end of the decade.

Another source of pollution connected with the oil industry is the sulfur in crude oil. Regulations of national and local governments restrict the amount of sulfur dioxide that can be discharged by factories and utilities burning fuel oil. Because removing sulfur is expensive, however, regulations still allow some sulfur dioxide to be discharged into the air.

Many scientists believe that another potential environmental problem from refining and burning large amounts of oil and other fossil fuels (such as coal and natural gas) occurs when carbon dioxide (a by-product of the burning of fossil fuels), methane (which exists in natural gas and is also a by-product of refining petroleum), and other by-product gases accumulate in the atmosphere. These gases are known as greenhouse gases, because they trap some of the energy from the Sun that penetrates Earth’s atmosphere. This energy, trapped in the form of heat, maintains Earth at a temperature that is hospitable to life. Certain amounts of greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere. However, the immense quantities of petroleum, coal, and other fossil fuels burned during the world’s rapid industrialization over the last 200 years are a contributing source of higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. During that time period, these levels have increased by about 28 percent. This increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, coupled with the continuing loss of the world’s forests (which absorb carbon dioxide), has led many scientists to predict a rise in global temperature. This increase in global temperature might disrupt weather patterns, disrupt ocean currents, lead to more violent storms, and create other environmental problems. In 1992 representatives of over 150 countries convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and agreed on the need to reduce the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases. In 1997 world delegations again convened, this time in Kyōto, Japan. During the Kyōto meeting, representatives of 160 nations signed an agreement known as the Kyōto Protocol, which would require 38 industrialized nations to limit emissions of greenhouse gases to levels that are an average of 5 percent below the emission levels of 1990. In order to reduce their fossil fuel emissions to achieve these levels, the industrialized nations would have to shift their energy mix toward energy sources that do not produce as much carbon dioxide, such as natural gas, or to alternative energy sources, such as hydroelectric energy, solar energy, wind energy, or nuclear energy. While the governments of some industrialized nations have ratified the Kyōto Protocol, others have not, including that of the United States.

D

Reserves

Oil shale, heavy oil deposits, and tar sands are the most prevalent forms of petroleum found in the world. Reserves of these sources are many times more abundant than the world’s total known reserves of crude oil. Because of the high cost of converting shale oil and tar sands into usable petroleum products, however, only a small percentage of the available material is processed commercially. An industry to make oil products from tar sands has been started in Canada, and Venezuela is looking at the prospects of developing the vast reserves of tar sands in its Orinoco River basin. Nevertheless, the quantity of oil products produced from these two raw materials is small compared with the total production of conventional crude oil. Until world petroleum prices increase, the quantity of oil produced from oil shale and tar sands will likely remain small relative to the production of conventional crude oil.

IV

COAL

Coal is a general term for a wide variety of solid materials that are high in carbon content. Most coal is burned by electric utility companies to produce steam to turn their generators. Some coal is used in factories to provide heat for buildings and industrial processes. A special, high-quality coal is turned into metallurgical coke for use in making steel.

A

Reserves

The world’s coal reserves are vast. The amount of coal (as measured by energy content) that is technically and economically recoverable under present conditions is five times as large as the reserves of crude oil. Just four regions contain three-fourths of the world’s recoverable coal reserves: the United States, 24 percent; the countries of the former Soviet Union, 24 percent; China, 11 percent; and Western Europe, 10 percent.

B

Current Trends

In industrialized countries, the greater convenience and lower costs of oil and gas in the earlier 20th century virtually forced coal out of the market for heating homes and offices and driving locomotives. Oil and gas also ate heavily into the industrial market for coal. Only an expanding utility market enabled coal output in the United States, for example, to remain relatively constant between 1948 and 1973. Even in the utility market, as oil and gas captured a greater share, coal’s contribution to the total energy picture dropped dramatically—in the United States, for instance, from about one-half to less than one-fifth. The dramatic jumps in oil prices after 1973, however, gave coal a major cost advantage for utilities and large industrial customers, and coal began to recapture some of its lost markets. In contrast to the industrialized countries, developing countries that have large coal reserves (such as China and India) continue to use coal for industrial and heating purposes.

The average price of coal has remained virtually unchanged since the early 1980s and is forecast to decline in the early part of the 21st century. However, in industrialized countries the need to comply with stricter environmental regulations has made burning coal more costly.

C

Pollution Problems

Despite coal’s relative cheapness and huge reserves, the growth in the use of coal since 1973 has been much less than expected, because coal is associated with many more environmental problems than is oil. Underground mining can result in black lung disease for miners, the sinking of the land over mines, and the drainage of acid into water tables. Surface mining requires careful reclamation, or the unrestored land will remain scarred and unproductive. In addition, the burning of coal causes emission of sulfur dioxide particles, nitrogen oxide, and other impurities. Acid rain—rainfall and other forms of precipitation with a relatively high acidity that is damaging lakes and some forests in many regions—is believed to be caused in part by such emissions (see Air Pollution). The U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970 (revised in 1970 and 1990) provides the federal legal basis for controlling air pollution. This legislation has significantly reduced emissions of sulfur oxides—known as acid gases. For example, the Clean Air Act requires facilities such as coal-burning power plants to burn low-sulfur coal. In the 1990s concern over the possible warming of the planet as a result of the greenhouse effect caused many governments to consider policies to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning coal, oil, and natural gas. During the world’s rapid industrialization through the 19th and 20th centuries, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased approximately 28 percent from pre-industrial levels.

Solving these problems is costly, and who should pay is a matter of controversy. As a result, coal consumption may continue to grow more slowly than would otherwise be expected. The vast coal reserves, the improved technologies to reduce pollution, and the further development of coal gasification (see Gases, Fuel) still indicate, however, that the market for coal will increase in coming years.

V

SYNTHETIC FUELS

Synthetic fuels do not occur in nature but are made from natural materials. Gasohol, for example, is a mixture of gasoline and alcohol made from sugars produced by living plants. Although making various types of fuel from coal is possible, the large-scale production of fuel from coal will likely be limited by high costs and pollution problems, some of which are not yet known. The manufacture of alcohol fuels in large quantities will likely be restricted to regions, such as parts of Brazil, where a combination of low-cost labor and land, plus a long growing season, make it economical. Thus, synthetic fuels are unlikely to make an important contribution to the world’s energy supply anytime soon.

VI

NUCLEAR ENERGY

Nuclear energy is generated by the splitting, or fissioning, of atoms of uranium or heavier elements. The fission process releases heat, which is used to produce steam to drive a turbine to generate electricity. The operation of a nuclear reactor and the related electricity-generating equipment is only one part of an interconnected set of activities. The production of a reliable supply of electricity from nuclear fission requires mining, milling, and transporting uranium; enriching uranium (increasing the percentage of the uranium isotope U-235) and packing it in appropriate form; building and maintaining the reactor and associated generating equipment; and treating and disposing of spent fuel. These activities require extremely sophisticated and interactive industrial processes and many specialized skills.

A

Development

Britain took an early lead in developing nuclear power. By the mid-1950s, several nuclear reactors were producing electricity in that country. The first nuclear reactor to be connected to an electricity distribution network in the United States began operation in 1957 at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Six years later, the first order was placed for a commercial nuclear power plant to be built without a direct subsidy from the federal government. This order marked the beginning of an attempt to convert rapidly the world’s electricity-generating systems from reliance on fossil fuels to reliance on nuclear energy. By 1970, 90 nuclear power plants were operating in 15 countries. In 1980, 253 nuclear power plants were operating in 22 countries. However, the attempt to move from fossil fuels to nuclear energy faltered because of rapidly increasing costs, regulatory delays, declining demand for electricity, and a heightened concern for safety.

B

Safety Problems

Questions about the safety and economy of nuclear power created perhaps the most emotional battle fought over energy. As the battle heated during the late 1970s, nuclear advocates argued that no realistic alternative existed to increased reliance on nuclear power. They recognized that some problems remain but maintained that solutions would be found. Nuclear opponents, on the other hand, emphasized a number of unanswered questions about the environment: What are the effects of low-level radiation over long periods? What is the likelihood of a major accident at a nuclear power plant? What would be the consequences of such an accident? How can nuclear power’s waste products, which will remain dangerous for centuries, be permanently isolated from the environment? These safety questions helped cause changes in specifications for and delays in the construction of nuclear power plants, further driving up costs. They also helped create a second controversy: Is electricity from nuclear power plants less costly, equally costly, or more costly than electricity from coal-fired plants? Despite rapidly escalating oil and gas prices in the late 1970s and early 1980s, these political and economic problems caused an effective moratorium in the United States on new orders for nuclear power plants. This moratorium took effect even before the 1979 near meltdown (melting of the nuclear fuel rods) at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the 1986 partial meltdown at the Chernobyl’ plant north of Kyiv in Ukraine (see Chernobyl’ Accident). The latter accident caused some fatalities and cases of radiation sickness, and it released a cloud of radioactivity that traveled widely across the northern hemisphere.

C

Current Status

In 1998 a total of 437 nuclear plants operated worldwide. Another 35 reactors were under construction. Eighteen countries generate at least 20 percent of their electricity from nuclear power. The largest nuclear power industries are located in the United States (107 reactors), France (59), Japan (54), Britain (35), Russia (29), and Germany (20). In the United States, no new reactors have been ordered for more than 20 years. Public opposition, high construction costs, strict building and operating regulations, and high costs for waste disposal make nuclear power plants much more expensive to build and operate than plants that burn fossil fuels.