Non renewable energy

Nuclear energy
Uranium and plutonium are nuclear
•
fuels – fission reactions
• Nuclear fuels do not produce harmful
greenhouse gases
• Nuclear power is very efficient
• Produces radioactive waste which is
dangerous and has to be sealed in
containers and buried for thousands of
years.
• Nuclear cores can melt down releasing
harmful radiation e.g. Fukushima
Daiichi plant in 2011
• Safety is expensive
• Furthermore non-stop nuclear power
comes a low-cost to users
reactor
• A nuclear reactor is a device used to
initiate and control a fission nuclear
chain reaction or nuclear fusion
reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at
nuclear power plants for electricity
generation and in nuclear marine
propulsion. Heat from nuclear fission is
passed to a working fluid (water or gas),
which in turn runs through steam
turbines. These either drive a ship's
propellers or turn electrical generators'
shafts. Nuclear generated steam in
principle can be used for industrial
process heat or for district heating.
Oil and gas
• Crude oil and natural gas are formed from phytoplankton and zooplankton
• Microorganisms sink to the bottom of the ocean when they die forming layers of
organic rich sediment
• High primary production, stagnant, stratified water column, lack of sea floor
decomposers, low oxygen (anoxic) = good conditions for forming oil and gas source
rocks
Organic rich sediments are buried by layers and layers of sediment
• Increased and sustained heat and pressure ‘cooks’ the organic matter in the source rock
into petroleum
• Temperature and burial depth determine which hydrocarbons are produced
Oil and gas
• Crude oil is refined by fractional distillation into kerosene, petrol, diesel etc. before it is
used as a fuel.
• Relatively inexpensive to extract.
• Reliable and dependable source of energy and income for local community e.g. in
Aberdeen, Scotland.
• Natural gas can be converted into liquid form (liquefied petroleum gas)
• When oil and gas are burnt they release gas into the atmosphere. carbon dioxide
• Oil spills are environmental disasters
Oil sands
• Oil sands, tar sands, crude
bitumen, or bituminous sands,
are a type of unconventional
petroleum deposit. Oil sands are
either loose sands or partially
consolidated sandstone
containing a naturally occurring
mixture of sand, clay, and water,
soaked with bitumen, a dense and
extremely viscous form of
petroleum.
Shale Oil
• Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil
production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale
oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The
resultant shale oil is used as fuel oil or upgraded to meet refinery
feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing sulfur
and nitrogen impurities
Liquified petroleum gas
• Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid
petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which
contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon
gases, specifically propane, butane and isobutane.
It can sometimes contain some propylene, butylene,
and isobutene.

• LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances,

cooking equipment, and vehicles. It is increasingly
used as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant,
replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to reduce
damage to the ozone layer. When specifically used
as a vehicle fuel, it is often referred to as autogas or
even just as gas.