UNIT-5

ALTERNATIVE FUELS/ POWER PLANTS

5.1 Use of Natural Gas.

Fossil Fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas. Supply 90% of U.S. energy requirements.
All form from the remains of once living organisms. Different types of fossil fuels are due to
differences in source and/or geological process producing the fuels.
Demand for fossil fuels spurred by the industrial evolution of the 19 th century where machines
replaced animals and manufactured products replaced homemade items.
Oil shale, tar sand, and methane hydrate are other fossil fuels that have historically not been
utilized to any great extent, but that potentially may provide a huge resource of energy.
5.1.1 Petroleum and Natural Gas
Petroleum or crude oil provides approximately 50% of U.S. energy y needs. It is not a single
composition, but rather a range of substances, all of which are hydrocarbons. These are
usually long, complex chains (polymers) of C, H, and N.
Natural gas is made of shout hydrocarbon chains, including methane (CH 4), ethane (C2H6),
and propane (C3H8). It provides approximately 25% of U.S. energy needs. Combined,
petroleum and natural gas meet almost 3/4 of our country's energy needs.
Petroleum and natural gas are made in the same way. Need a number of things to happen. If
one doesnt, then an economic deposit will not occur.
1) Microscopic marine organisms die and their remains fall to the sea floor.
2)
Organic material must be buried quickly by more sediment.
3)
Buried organic material must decay under oxygen-poor (reducing) conditions.
Otherwise, under oxygen-rich (oxidizing) conditions, you wind up with H2O and CO2
(seltzer!).
4)
Under increasing pressure and temperature you breakdown (crack) complex organic
molecules into simpler ones. Need just the right temperature and the right amount of time.
This is known as the oil window and it is between 50 and 100 degrees Celsius for 10-20
million years. To low a temperature or too short a time and the organics do not break down.
Wind up with tar. Too high or too short a time and organics are broken down completely to
methane that may escape to the surface.
5) Need a reservoir rock of high porosity and permeability to store the oil and gas that has
been made by natural processes.
6) Need a low permeability trap rock to keep oil and gas in place and to stop them from
escaping to the surface. There are a variety of types of traps, including fold, fault, lithologic,
and salt dome. Oil and gas are less dense than water and will migrate upward until stopped by
an impermeable rock trap. Oil companies spend millions of dollars and employ thousands of
geologists looking for traps.
A pure petroleum product suitable for human use is produced only by refining the crude oil in
a cracking tower. Get various products at various levels of the tower.

Crude Oil and Natural Gas Supplies and Demand

Oil: U.S. has 30 billion barrels of proven reserves. One barrel equals 42 gallons. World has
approximately 1,000 billion barrels. U.S. has less than 5% of world's total.
Gas: U.S. has approximately 200 trillion feet of proven reserves. World has approximately
3,200 trillion cubic feet. U.S. has approximately 6% of world's total.
Consumption:
U.S. consumes approximately 5 billion barrels of crude oil per year and
approximately 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year. World consumption rates are
approximately 20 billion barrels of oil per year and 60 trillion cubic feet of gas per year. U.S.
consumes approximately 25% of the world's petroleum and 35% of the world's natural gas.
This requires us to import both.
Estimated total resources are 2-3 times proven reservoirs. Still will begin to run out by the end
of the middle to the end of this century. The exact time depends on market demands. Will
rising oil and gas prices increase reserves (some of the expensive resource moves into the
economic reserve category) or will new technologies replace fossil fuels. Regardless, the days
of cheap oil and gas may be over soon.
If the U.S. had to rely solely on domestic sources, we have about 6 years of oil and 10 years
of gas. New discoveries may only extend that for a few years.
Extending Oil and Gas Supplies.
Only 20-40% of the initial oil reservoir gets pumped out (primary recovery). Rest is left in
the ground unless other ways are utilized to remove more of the oil. This costs money.
Water may be pumped in to push residual oil towards the production well. This is known as
secondary recovery. May increase percentage recovered to 50-60%. Still leaves a lot of oil
behind. To increase percentage recovered still further, tertiary recovery methods can be used.
These include:
1) Hydrofracturing: Increase rock permeability by opening up fractures with high-pressure
water.
2) Explosive fracturing: Increase rock permeability by shattering rock with explosives.
3) Gas pressurization: Force oil towards the production well by injecting high-pressure
gas.
4) Hydrothermal techniques: Use hot water or steam to reduce viscosity of the oil, making
it easier to flow towards the well and to pump.
5) Chemical additives: Can decrease oil viscosity and surface tension, making it easier for
the oil to flow and be pumped.
May increase total recovery to 75+% of initial reservoir. All of this enhanced recovery
(secondary and tertiary combined) is very expensive and is done only if the price of oil is high
enough, usually above $25-30/barrel. However, can dramatically increase world reserves by
about 2 times, giving another 50 years of reserves, depending upon demand. Still only puts
off the inevitable.
It is very expensive to drill for oil and gas. On land, individual wells may cost more than one
million dollars each. Off shore they may cost tens of millions of dollars each. Usually only 1
in 10 wells drilled produces any appreciable oil or gas. There may be little easy oil left
regardless of price.

It can also extend supplies by conservation measures, including insulating homes and driving
high-mileage cars. This has caused us rate of increase of consumption to level off. However,
beginning to increase again as third world develops. Conservation may be difficult for many
underdeveloped countries because of lack of funds for expensive technologies. Do we have
the right to deny other countries because of our previous wasteful habits?
Environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling, exploitation, transport, and use are often very
high. New oil often now found in very sensitive areas. Should we destroy these areas for the
oil and gas they contain. Can reduce environmental impacts, but at a price. Once introduced
into the environment, it may take tens or hundreds of years for habitats to recover from large
oil spills. Combustion of oil and gas produces CO2 potentially leading to greater global
warming.

5.1.2 Coal
Presently meets about 20% of U.S. energy needs. Prior to the utilization of petroleum and
natural gas, coal was a very important source of energy. Fell into disfavor during the 20 th
century. Now may become again our most important fossil fuel.
Original organics are land plants, typically found in swamps and tropical environments. Need
to bury their decaying remains under reducing conditions. Initially peat forms at the surface.
This can be used as a very low-grade source of energy. As pressure, temperature, and time
increase, peat converts to lignite or brown coal, then bituminous or soft coal, and then
finally anthracite or hard coal. At each grade, the amount of carbon and the energy content
in the material increases while the amounts of H, O, N, and P decrease. If cooked too much
you get pure carbon in the form of graphite. It has no energy value at all.
Determining the abundance of coal is easier to estimate than for oil or gas since coal occurs in
well-defined layers.
Worldwide proven reserves are approximately 700 billion tons out of a total resource of
nearly 10 trillion tons. U.S. proven reserves are approximately 200 billion tons out of a total
resource of 2 trillion tons. U.S. has the world's single biggest supply of coal and we have
consumed less than 5% of our reserves. We have hundreds of years of domestic supplies.
Problems With Coal
1) Coal is a solid and this limits its use as an energy source. Can't be used in cars, planes and
other transportation applications.
However, coal can be converted to a natural gas-like product through a process called
gasification. This process has been known since the 1830s. Unfortunately the process
produces a gas with only 25-30% of the original energy content of the coal. Also the process
is expensive.
Coal can also be converted to a petroleum-like liquid through a process called liquefaction.
Germans did it in WWII. South Africa does it today. However, requires large volumes of
water and is more expensive than simply buying and refining natural crude oil.
2) There are many environmental problems associated with the mining and utilization of
coal.

a) Coal typically contains high sulfur. Results in acid mine drainage and acid
rain.
b) Coal burning leaves and ash residue that contains 5-20% by volume of toxic
materials. Where do we store this toxic residue?
c)
Coal mining, particular strip mining (the cheapest and preferred way)
destroys habitats and vegetation. Land reclamation is possible, but expensive.
d) Underground mining is hazardous to miner's health. Explosions of methane
gas can occur, radon concentrations are high, and black lung disease can be fatal.
It is the most hazardous job around.
e) The combustion of coal produces large amounts of CO2.
Non-traditional Fossil Fuels
1) Oil shale. This is a misnomer. Name actually refers to kerogen (a waxy
hydrocarbon) in any sedimentary rock. Need to crush rock and cook rock, extract kerogen,
and then refine it into a petroleum-like liquid. It is estimated that the world has reserves
equivalent to 2-5 trillion barrels of crude oil. This is much more than actual worldwide oil
reserves. Since approximately two-thirds of the world's reserves are in the U.S., why don't we
use oil shale and become energy independent?
Problems with oil shale:
a) Dispersed in rock. Therefore, need to mine very large volumes.
b) Large environmental impacts of surface mining.
c) Refining process requires large volumes of water, approximately 3 barrels of water/
barrel of oil produced.
d) Refining process increases the volume of rock.
2) Tar sands: Sediments containing a semi-solid tar deposit. The origin of these deposits is
uncertain. Perhaps they are immature oil deposits or perhaps they are the residues left over
after lighter oils and gases have migrated elsewhere. Refining and problems are similar to
those for oil shale.
Canada presently utilizing Athabasca tar sands in Alberta (near Calgary). These may
allow Canada to become largely energy self-sufficient. U.S. has limited reserves.
3) Gas hydrates: Crystalline solids of methane and water ice. Found in deep marine
sediments and arctic areas. May be the worlds largest source of methane and may contain
more energy than all other fossil fuels combined! However, there are technical and legal
problems with exploiting these deposits. Many of them are located in international waters.
Who owns them and who regulates their recovery. There also is the potential for catastrophic
ocean-floor collapse if the deposits are removed improperly. Methane also is a very strong
greenhouse gas. Global warming would increase dramatically if the trapped methane escaped
into the atmosphere
Regardless of which of these alternative fuels are used in the future (if any) they all produce
CO2 when burned. The world is presently trying to reduce the emissions of CO 2. The
expanded use of any fossil fuel will only tend to increase emissions.

Fuel Cells
Fuel cells are an alternative to conventional energy plants or sources since they can offer
a clean and environmentally friendly way of producing energy, for almost every kind of
application. A fuel cell (Figure 1) is an electrochemical transducer that converts chemical
energy to electrical energy from a fuel, without direct combustion. They comprise anode
and cathode electrodes, electrolytes in liquid and/or solid form and catalysts. The fuel cell
principle of operation lies in the extraction of electrons as a result of the chemical
reaction of separating a fuel, using a catalyst, in the anode half-cell. A catalyst is a
substance, which speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction, however it remains
unchanged at the end of the reaction. This allows the release of either positively or
negatively charged ions that go to the cathode half-cell through the solid electrolyte,
which also forms a physical barrier between the two half-cells. Catholyte and anolyte are
the liquid electrolytes in the cathode and anode compartments, respectively that are
necessary for electrolysis. Electrolysis defines the passage of electric current through a
molten chemical or an aqueous solution. Hence, the anolyte is necessary for the transfer
of electrons from the catalyst to the electrode and the catholyte is necessary for taking up
incoming electrons from the electrode. In several fuel cells, where there is sufficient
oxygen supply to the cathode, electrons recombine with cations and oxygen to form
water.

Fig. 5. Fuel cell

5.2 LPG and Hydrogen in Automobiles as fuels

5.2.1 LPG in Automobiles as fuels

LPG fuel requires a special fuel system.
There are actually two types of LPG that have been used for
automotive engine fuel, propane, and butane.
The propane is more widely used.
it can be used in any climate where temperature is below 0oc, since it
is liquid below that temperature.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a mixture of light hydrocarbons,
mainly propane/propane and butane/butanes.
It is easier to distribute and store than compressed natural gas,
liquefied at a pressure of 4-5 bar
LPG is used in view of conventional fuels because of their
hydrocarbon rating and higher octane rating.
The LPG is disc shaped engine and differ in the numbers of valves
and their arrangements are shown in fig.5.1
5.2.2 Hydrogen in Automobiles as fuels