Fossil Fuels

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This Just In:

Now the numbers begin to get interesting, Bad Mileage: 98 tons of plants per gallon

Check out the Slashdot Thread on the topic.

Alaska, Prudhoe Bay

Environmental Effects:

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What is the giant light on the north shore of Alaska?!
Is that where they moved Area 51 to in the early '90s?
No, It's the Prudhoe Bay Oil Fields.
stats:
Discovered in 1968
average of 400 spills annually
Though the footprint of oil development
in Prudhoe Bay is estimated as 12,000 acres,
it extends over more than 640,000 acres.

Volcanic

Volcanic versus Human Influence.

Some numbers yanked from:

Worldwide Human activity produces 20,000 Million Tons of Carbon Dioxide per year.
Worldwide Volcanos produce 200 Million Tons of CO2 per year, less than 1%.
Mt St. Helens produces 500 to 1000 Tons of CO2/Day, and 50-250 Tons of Sulfur Dioxide/Day.
Mt. Etna in Italy produces 5000-25,000 Tons of SO2/Day.
Kilauea in Hawaii produces 2000 Tons of SO2/Day.
Worldwide Volcanos produce 15 Million Tons of SO2/Year.
Workdwide Humans produce 200 Million Tons of SO2/Year.
All Washington State Industry produces 120 Tons of Noxious Gas/Day (Hydrogen Sulfide, Hydrogen Chloride).
Centralia, Wa Coal power plant produced 200 Tons of SO2/Day before adding $250 million worth
of pollution control, now it produces 27 Tons/Day. It still produces 20,000 Tons of CO2/Day.


Coil, Oil, and Natural Gasses are produced through a process not unlike that which creates Diamonds. So perhaps we should consider gassoline as prescious a resource as diamonds, which would dramatically change the "price" of oil.


Methane(CH4) is the shortest chain with just one carbon and four hydrogen atoms, followed by ethane(C2H6), propane(C3H8), and butane(C4H10) which are all gasses which boil at -107, -67, -43 and -18 degrees C. Chains in the C5, C6 and C7 range are very light and clear liquids called naphthas. Chains from C7 to C11 are used for gasoline, followed by kerosene from C12 to C15. Diesel, Heating Oils, and lubricating oils are in the C16 to C19 range. Chains above C20 form solids like paraffin wax, tar, and asphaltic bitumen, which is used to make asphalt roads.

Gasoline is composed of C7H16, C8H18, C9H20, C10H22, and C11H24 chains. One barrels of oil is equal to 42 US gallons. 1 Gallon contains 132x10^6 joules of energy, equivalent to 125,000 BTU, 36,650 watt-hours, 31,000 food calories, or about 110 McDonalds hamburgers. The electrical equivalent of 1 Gallon of gas would take the average electric car 120 miles (.25 kWh/mile) and an effecient EV more than 210 miles (.16 kWh/mile).

Transportation accounts for 65% of U.S. oil consumption. The U.S. consumes 26% of worldwide oil while producing only 9%.

Coal - Sedimentary rock composed of the compacted, lithified and altered remains of plants. Coal is a solid, combustible mixture of organic compounds, hydrocarbons, with 30 % to 98 % carbon by weight, mixed with various amounts of water and small amounts of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. It is formed in several stages as the remains of plants are subjected to heat and pressure over millions of years.

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