Midterm 2 Study Guide Notes

Module 3: Midstream (Transportation and Prices)

• Transportation:
o Truck
o Rail
o Pipeline
o Tankers
o LNG vessels
• Midstream:
o Major intermediate step in petroleum industry
o Processing, storage, transport, and sale of raw hydrocarbons
o Pricing of hydrocarbons related to how it is moved
• Quantities of hydrocarbons produced: 2019
o Includes crude oil, shale oil, oil sands, condensates (lease gas condensate and gas
plant condensate)
o NGL: natural gas liquids, ethane, LPG, naphtha separated from production of
natural gas
o Excluded liquid fuels from sources such as biomass and derivatives of coal and
natural gas
o Excludes gas flared or recycled
o Included natural gas produced from gas to liquid transformation

Natural gas: 1850 bbl/sec, 293 m3/sec per day

Fossil fuel (Mtoe/year): 11 times the height of bell tower
• Moving oil in the US:
o 70% pipelines, 23% tankers and barges
o 4% trucks
o 3% rail
• Pipelines:
o Steps: staging, trenching, stringing the pipe, welding, burial and remediation
o Advantages: removed from elements, difficult to damage
o Disadvantages: leaks problematic, groundwater contamination, difficult to find
leaks
o Oil pipelines in US:
§ 55,000 miles crude trunkà move 1500 MMbbl/year 2019, 95,000 miles
refined
o Natural gas in US:
§ 305,000 miles main lines
 § 2,000,000 miles distribution
§ Move 23 Tcf in 2019
o Total cumulative pipelines in US: 2.5 million miles
o PADD:
§ Petroleum administration for defense districts
§ Established in WWII for rationing gasoline
§ Used for data collection zoning and finer granularity of data
§ Help manage where fuels is coming from and where it is going
§ 115 MMbbl/month and 4 MMbbl/day
o Surface pipeline:
§ Issues: permafrost, cannot all be burying
• Security: gun shots, holes blown in pipelines, earthquakes,
engineered for handle cross faults
§ Example: Alyeska pipeline (Prudhoe Bay to Valdez terminal)
§ Langeled pipeline meets 20% of UK needs, from Norway to UK
§ Nord Stream 1: Russia to Germany
§ Keystone pipeline:
• 2015: delayed by Obama
• 2017: started by Trump
• 2021: Biden revokes permit
§ Siberia pipeline: from Russia to China, 4000 km long
o Pipeline structure and process:
§ Oil production and processing plant:
• Produced liquids= oil+ water+ gas
• Must be separated
• Complication procedures, chemistry
• Pumping stations periodically along pipeline
• Pressures: 700 psi to 1400 psi
• Located every 40 to 60 miles depending on terrain
o Pipelines security:
§ Hacking of pipeline systems
o Gas pipeline network:
§ Gathering lines obtain gas from wells
§ Transmission pipelines: move to market, other transport, and storage
facilities
§ Distribution: deliver to user
o Gas pipeline, processing plants:
§ Natural gas from wells is different from what is finally used (almost pure
CH4 = dry NG (pure gas))
§ Before transmission, wet NG (contains oil, condensate, water, NGL, H2S,
and CO2), must be cleaned
§ NGL is worth a lot
 § Natural gas liquids (NGL): includes ethane, butane, isobutane, pentane
(natural gasoline), and pentane
§ Compressors used: need to boost pressure periodically to keep fluids
moving
o How safe are pipelines:
§ Safest way!
§ 2.6 million miles of pipelines in the US
§ Only 14 fatalities per year and 60 injuries/year due to pipelines
§ Move 16 Gbbl liquids per year (more than consumption since oil are
moved as crude first and then refined)
§ Spills account for 1 gallon per million-barrel miles
§ Issues:
• Corrosion of pipelines, construction can hit pipelines, natural
disaster (earthquakes, hurricanes)
• Crude oil tankers:
o Largest man-made structures ever
o Move 2 Gtoe per year
o Types of tankers

o None of them are over 400 m long anymore

o Constructed with double hull and completely independent tanks to lessen fluids
released during spills
o Used mainly for moving oil
o Older tankers can be used to stored oil during times of excess oil production or
decreased demand
o Tankers recycled in 30 years timeline
o Scraping done in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to recycle metal part or metal
new parts
o Very toxic chemicals from vessel and poorly paid people work
o Dangerous jobs
o Problem:
o Oil spills examples:
o Exxon Valdez considered worst spills so far
o Covered 1300 miles of coastline and difficult to contain
o Captain was drunk
o Barges: (23% of US crude oil movement)
o River barges: 10,000 to 30,000 bbl
§ Often ties together (100,000 bbl like unit train)
o Articulated tug barges (open sea):
§ Up to 200,000 bbl (not like a tanker)
§ Consist of tank vessel and large, powerful tug that is positioned in
notch in stern of barge
• Tug enables rigid connection system between tug and
barge
• Movement in one axis in the critical area of fore and aft
pitch
o Liquified natural gas:
o Difficult to move, often pipelines are needed
o Gas stranded at continental scale or often flared
o Stored as compressed natural gas
o Liquified: higher density and easier to handle
o 1 atm liquifies at -162 °C
o Energy density makes it more economic to transport
o Attempts are being made to enable ships to operate using LNG instead of
bunker oil
o LNG trade flows:
o Largest importers: Japan, China, South Korea
o Largest exporters: Qatar, Australia, Malaysia
o Total global LNG exporters: 431 Gm3
o Total global LNG liquefication capacity 2019: 393 MTPA
o Expected to double by 2040
o LNG environmental concerns:
o Methane better to burn oil or coal, lower CI
o Transition fuel by some
o Methane leaks, requires 10% gas to provide energy to liquify
o Regasification usually heated by sea water
o Cold energy on regasification:
§ Use to assist liquification of O2 and N2
 § Processing of other natural gases
§ Cooling exhaust of gas turbines near 100% efficiency
o Tanker choke points:
o Pirates
o Accidents
• Railway transport:
o More expensive
o Used if pipeline not available
o Huge increase since 2008
o Used to move large amount of ethanol
o LNG moved by rail
o LNG often sent to isolated communities that do not have easy access to electrical
grids
o Safety:
§ Unit train are usually 80 to 100 cars, 1 mile long
§ Derailment issues, release to surface and ground waters
§ Plainview derailment: 45,000 gallons crude released
§ Lac-Magantic: July 6, 2013
• Runway train carrying Bakken oil, derailmentà explosion
• 47 killed and at least 1 $G lost in damages
• Total amount of oil shipped:
o Total shipments (pipeline, barge, ships, train, truck): 4 MMbbl/day
o Increase due to Bakken, Canada
o Decline due to opening of pipelines
o Ways to respond quickly to market changes
• Trucks:
o Helps with moving smaller volumes from wells to initial processing
o Safety:
§ Human death and property destruction measures
• Truck>Train>Pipeline>Boat
§ Amount of oil spilled per billion-ton miles
• Truck>Pipeline>Train>Boat
§ Storage of crude oil locations in US 2018:
• Total stored: 1.1 Gbbl (2018)
• Strategic petroleum reserves: 59%
• Tank farms: 32%
• Refinery: 9%
• Alaskan in transit: 0%
Floating storage:
• Floating storage:
o Tankers cannot unload
o Can cost 90 k$ to 100 k% per day
o Find older tankers to store
 o Chinese economy during covid
o Emergency storage of oil
• Strategic Petroleum reserve:
o Stockpile of oil owned by US government
o US required to have 90-day supply, capacity of 797 MMbbl
o Provides backup if commercial supply disrupted
o Stored in underground salt caverns
§ Caverns made from salt domes
§ 1 km deep, 60 m diameter, 600 m high
§ Capacity 6 MMbbl, 37 MMbbl
§ Cost: 4 G$
o Advantages:
§ More than 10 times cheaper than tanks
§ Secure with no leaks
§ Oil constantly overturns due to convection
o Disadvantages:
§ May have limited geological lifetime (Salt deforms)
• Storage of gas:
o Cannot turn on or off production very easily
o Gas must be stored
o Complicated by seasonal variation sin consumption
o Consumption can more than double during cold seasons
o HDD: heating degree days: T<65°F
o Underground gas storage:
§ Depleted fields
§ Salt formations
§ Depleted aquifers
o Total US storage capacity: 9.2 Tcf in 410 fields
o Base or cushion gas
o US working gas capacity (4.8 Tcf)
o Safety concerns:
§ Leaking
§ Collapse, water intrusion
§ Rupture in steel casing, corrosion
§ Microbial corrosion in contact with groundwater
o Storage sites:
§ Issues with deciding who owns space, how landowners put price on
storage
o Crude oil marketed:
§ Oil quality considered
• Referenceà benchmark
• Brent (sweet light crude from North Sea)
• West Texas intermediate: sweet light crude (API)
 • Both Brent and West Texas intermediate are most famous
§ How is price determined:
• Supply, demand, political situation, natural disasters
• Historical influences on market examples:
o 1973 Oil Embargo
o 1979 Iran Revolution
o Efficiency gains
o Global economic expansion
o Asian crisis OPEC disagreements
o Great Recession
o Hydraulic fracturing
o COVID
• Daily pricing influences:
o Hydraulic fracturing, US-China Trade war, Corona virus, US
election, global demand threat in Iran and Venezuela
• Spot prices: current price in marketplace for immediate delivery
• Future prices: agree upon price for future delivery on given date
o Allows companies to plan more stably up to 3 years
o Forwards price: buyer and seller exchange asset for cast at
predetermined future date at quoted price
o Party to party: more speculative
o Contango: future price > spot price
o Backwardation: futures price < spot price
• Organization of Petroleum exporting countries:
o Global oil production by region:

o Global oil consumption by region:

Imbalances between producing and consuming regions, Middle east predominates

 o OPEC background:
§ Seven sisters oil company:
• Esso, Shell, BP, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, Texaco
• Controls 80% of global reserved prior to 1973
• Cartel organized by US state department
§ Organization of oil exporting countries (OPEC):
• Created in 1960: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela
• Starting point towards national sovereignty
• Anger at seven sisters dropping prices
§ New seven sisters:
• OPEC still countries bulk of reserves
• Russia important
• National oil companies: independently control countries reserves
• Old seven sisters now control less than 7% of reserves
• Pricing of natural gas:
o Not easy to transport
o Need pipelines most of time
o Continental markets
o Market supply side factors:
§ Natural gas production levels
§ Natural gas in storage
§ Volume of natural gas imports and exports
o Major demand side factors:
§ Variations in winter and summer weather
§ Level of economic growth
§ Availability and prices of other fuels
o Natural gas market in US:
§ Henry hub: majority of sales occur here in LA
§ Composition is not entirely pure CH4
§ Sold based on energy density (1 scfà 1028 Btu)
§ 1 therm=100,000 Btu
§ Volume measured but then converted to energy content
§ Feb 5, 2021: 25 dollar per million Btu (spike)

Module 4: Downstream (Refining and Marketing)

• Range of hydrocarbons:
o crude oil: asphaltene
o Natural gas: Methane
o General formula for hydrocarbons (N carbons, (2n+2) hydrogens
o Basic compounds:
§ Straight chains: alkane or paraffins (CnH2n+2)
§ Isomers: need at least 4 C
• Isobutane, n-pentane, isopentane, neo-pentane
 • Exact same composition but properties can be different
• Differ in terms of bonding and organization, may have same
ordering of atoms but different in 3D
§ Naphthene (cycloalkanes): structure with single ring (cycloalkanes)
§ Aromatics: flat ring-shaped structures (benzene)
§ Asphaltic: heavy molecules 400-1000 g/mol
• Oil composition:
o Elemental composition ranges:
§ Carbon (83-85%)
§ Hydrogen (10-14%)
§ Nitrogen (0.1-2%)
§ Oxygen (0.05-1.5%)
§ Sulfur (0.05-6%)
o Composition by weight of molecular families:
§ Alkanes: 30%
§ Naphthene: 49%
§ Aromatics: 15%
§ Asphaltic: 6%
o Boiling point: as number of carbons increases, boiling generally increases
• Refining:
o Distillation unit
§ Heavier, high boiling point at bottom
§ Lighter: low boiling point at top
o Coker: upgraded bottoms in high value fluids and coke
o Cracking: break C-C bonds from lighter hydrocarbons
o Alkylation: covert high octane (C7, C8) for gasoline
o Naphtha: C5-C6
o Reformer: convert naphtha to high octane
o LPG: liquified petroleum gas (propane and butane)
• Production:
o 1 barrel of crude: 45 gallons of product
§ Product: gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, other products
§ Refinery outputs:
• Gasoline (43%), kerosene (8%), distillate fuel oil (39%), refinery
needs (3%), other
• Refineries in US:
o Larger US refinery: Port Arthur, TX: 607,00 bbl/day
o Largest in world: Jamnagar: 1,240,000 bbl/day
• Consumption of products in US:
o Motor gasoline> distillate fuel>ethanol (hydrocarbon gas liquids)>jet fuel
• Energy requirement efficiency for refining:
o Gasoline (88%), diesel (90%), LPG (94%), Residual oil (94%), Naphtha (94%)
o Efficiency: amount of useable energy at end of refining
• Greenhouse gas emissions:
o Total US emissions 2013: 6670 MMT CO2eq
o Combustion (68%), Catalytic cracking/reforming (27%), Flares (3%), Sulfur
recovery units (1%)
• Petroleum coke:
o High C rich residual
o 80-95% C, 3-4.5% H by weight
o Sponge coke (fuel grade)à desirable with energy content (35 MJ/kg)
(bituminous/anthracite coal)
o Crystalline needle coke (calcined)à steel production or carbon anodes
o Measures of energy densities:
§ Energy/mol
§ Energy/mass
• Key for transport
§ Energy/volume
• Key for transport
§ Not possible to beat diesel or gasoline in terms of energy density
• Internal combustion engine:
o Gasoline engine: typical mix air-fuel (14.7:1)
§ Efficiency: max 25% to 35%
o Diesel engine: typical mix air fuel: 14.5:1
§ Efficiency 45% but can reach 54%
• Gasoline:
o 143 billion gallons of finished gasoline 2018 in US
§ 9.3 MMbbl/day
o Finished gasoline: ethanol or ethyl alcohol or EtOH (10% of total volume)
o Reaction C2H5OH
o Low heat value for combustion: 26.7 MJ/kg
o High heat value for combustion: 29/7 MJ/kg
o Ethanol advantage:
§ Octane enhancer (oxygenator), engine knock
• Octane:
o Octane: measure of compression the fuel can experience before igniting
o Engine knock: fuel ignites by compression separate from spark
o Can damage engines
o Need to add oxygenator to prevent damage
o Pure iso-octane assigned octane rating =100
o Pure heptane assigned octane rating =0, unstable to preignition
o Typical straight-run gasoline from refinery=70 (70% iso-octane and 30% heptane
by volume)
• Ethanol:
o Steps: fermentation (microbiological conversion of sugars)
o Glucoseà ethanolà distillationà zeolite catalysts
 o Glucose comes from starches and cellulose in plant material
o Ethanol uses:
§ Brazil and US

CI numbers include both direct emissions plus land use and other indirect
effects
• Brazil: world leading producer of sugarcane
o Advanced industrial agriculture tech
o Large amount of arable land
o Tropical climate
o Ratooning
o Sugarcane: quite bulky and sugars do not preserve well so sugarcane is typically
moved no more than 40 km to mill
o Planting, fertilizer, chemicalsà harvest/transportà dryingà mash (thermal and
electrical inputs)à fermentationà distiller grains
o Corn stover: trash that remains after harvest t make ethanol
§ Risk of soil degradation if organic material is not returned to field
o 13 billion bussels of corn produced in US
o 27% ethanol + 10% DDGS, 33% livestock feed, 11% human consumption (high
fructose corn syrup, starch, beverages, cereals)
o 1 tonne of corn à 378 I of EtOH and 309 kg DDGS (Dry Distiller Grains with
Solubleà high protein feed that is primarily fed to cattle)
• US Ethanol used as Oxygenate:
o Gasoline needs high octane fuel oxygenates prevent engine knock
o Options include:
§ Tetraethyl lead: banned 1996
§ MTBE Methyl tert-butyl ether
• Soluble in water, groundwater
• Does not readily biodegrade
• Tastes bad in very small concentrations in water
• Mostly banned in US for gasoline (used in Asia)
• Alternatives to corn for ethanol.
o Starch and sugar-based feedstocks:
§ Millet/sorghum:
• High starch
• Grow on marginal land,
• Lower inputs necessary
• GHG reduction (>70%)
 § Cellulosic feedstocks: nonfood based
• High yield + biological carbon sequestration
• Marginal land usage
• EROI up to 30+
§ Switchgrass:
• Marginal land usage
• EROI up to 20
• Biodiesel:
o Regular petroleum diesel (C9-C25 hydrocarbons)
o Biodiesel: fatty acid esters
§ Advantages:
• Works in existing diesel engines
• Solvent properties
• Almost no Sulphur
• Better lubricating properties
• Higher cetane: measure of ignition and combustion quality (50 to
60)
o Ignites more quickly
o High cetane number the less time it takes
o Derives from hydrocarbon n-hexadecane
o High ease of ignition and assigned value of 100
o Depends on density, viscosity, surface tension, time for
fuel to vaporize and mix with air, molecular structure
§ Feedstocks:
• Virgin oils, waste food oils, sewage sludge, second generation
biofuels
• Canola, sunflower, hemp, palm, soya bean
o Food vs. fuel:
§ Price of food, expensive due to increase in biofuels
§ Food prices going up because of energy costs, drought, more varied diets
in many countries with rising wealth
o Direct conversion of CO2 (hydrocarbon):
o Current economy: takeà makeà dispose
§ Crude oil (distillationà aviation fuel (combustion)à CO2+H2Oà
CO2 emission (CO2 capture and storage)
o Circular economy (direct air capture)
§ Hydrogenation, combustion, CO2 capture
• Petroleum pricing:
o Sale of gasoline and diesel
§ Cost of gasoline derived from:
• Crude oil cost
• Refining costs and profits
• Refining costs and profits
 • Distribution and marketing costs and profits
• Taxes
§ Gas stations make profits of 2% or less (2-4 cents per gallons sold)
§ 1 gasoline gallon equivalent= 114,000 Btu by defining
§ 1 diesel gallon equivalent= 1.136 GGE
o Mileage standards: corporate Average Fuel Economy Café
§ Average fuel economy during Obama era: 37.4 mpg
§ Proposed trump rule: 29.5 mpg

Module 5: Coal and Electricity

• Pre-industrial time period:
o Wood, coal, peat, and charcoal use for heat
o Mainly biomass use
o Charcoal preferred: cleaner burning, hot
§ Yield is 15-20% of original wood
o Softwood have more resins and so more energy content

o Extensive deforestation
• Charcoal:
o Rich people used it for heating, cooking
o smelting important reason for deforestation
o coppiced wood: cut trees at low level: grow back
• sources of energy:
o estimates proportion of energy sources
o proportions of energy mix since 1800
• pre-industrial prime mover energy sources:
o human, animals, wind, water (motive movers)
o waterwheels, windmills, human labor, steam engineers, water turbines, steam
turbines, horses, cattle, people
• Changes in energy mix:
• Global primary energy demands past and future:
o Fossil fuels hit peak in 2030 and then decline
o Renewables increase by 14% in 2030
• Growth in use of coal:
o Prior to late 1700s
o Jet (gemstone)
o China (early mining), Fushun mine, Marco Polo
o Make cokeà iron production
o Mining for surface exposure
o Used in place of wood for heating industry
• Growth of coal in UK
o Wood running out, surface exposures exhauster, deeper mines led to water
flooding
o Waterà pumping is expensive and complicated
• Industrial revolution:
o First steam engine:
§ Boiler steam pushes piston upà boiler valve closes, water valve opensà
water cools pistonà steam condensesà pressure dropsà air pressure
pushes piston back
§ Yields 3750 watts, 5 hp
§ Heavy inefficiency, placed near mines
§ Long application, less complicated
§ Deficiencies:
• Cylinder cools and must be reheated, energy lost
• Only proves pull on condensation stroke
§ Improvements:
• Separate condenser and steam jacket
• Better cylinders for improved machining
• Sun and planet gear, converted reciprocating to circular motion
• Double acting engine
o Much more efficient, less coal, cheaper
 o Large and immobile
o Power limited by low pressures
§ Watt engine:
• Much more efficient
• Took royalty of 1/3 of value of coal saved over Newcomen engine
• Watt First system with condenser in 1776 cycled by:
o Drawing steam into cylinder beneath pistonà piston
moves upà piston travel steam valve closes, and
condenser valve opensà pressurized steam, in cylinder is
drawn into cold considerà water
o Atmospheric pressure pushes cylinder back down
o Bottom of piston travel steam valve opens and condenser
valve shuts, pressurized steam moves into piston cylinder
that is hot
o Constructed 496 engines, 11,200 total hp and fraction of
120,000 hp from water wheels and 24,000 from
Newcomen engines
• Growth of steam power:
o After 1800: metal machining improves
o Better cylinders and stronger boilersà higher pressures
§ High pressures allowed for increased power within smaller engine
§ Allowed for transportation
o Made much smaller for same power
o Smallerà cheaper, did not need as much water, and could run faster
o 1850: Corliss engine: improved efficiency and powerà more controlled and
faster speeds
§ Textile manufacturing and steel rolling
o Steam did allow for movement of power but wind and water still important
o Largest steam engines were limited and cannot compete with internal
combustion engines (poor mass, power ratios)
• Societal implications of steam power
o Steel rails, railways, freed from rivers
o Move more freight by water
o Centralization of industry
• Use of coal:
o Population in UK 1907: 40,000,000
o Over 1 million employed in coal industry in UK
o 250 million tonnes produced in UK in 1900
• Problems with steam engines:
o Not much Powerful, efficient, power dense, clean
o Improvements continued over time period from 100 kW to 3 MW
o Efficiency improved by 2.5 to 25%
 o Turbines and combustion engines became less practical with development of
electricidal motorsà inefficient because less efficient, piston moves back and
forth, and power provided only when being pushed by steam, so momentum is
lost
§ Rotary motion needed, requires lot of extra machinery and friction to
turn the reciprocating motion into rotary motion
• Steam turbines:
o Powered by steam, gas, water
o Generation of electrical power
o Coal (38.5%) globally in 2018 for electrical power
o Largest power turbine: 700 MW, 1.9 GW Arabelle systems (nuclear)
o Operation:
§ Higher pressures and temperatures
§ Steam enthalpy larger, more energy generated
§ Higher pressure and tempà higher efficiency
§ Supercritical H20: 374 °C, 218 atm (3200 psi)
§ Efficiency: actual work output/ net fuel energy input
• Cogeneration to improve efficiency
o Combined heat and power (CHP)
o Generate electrical
o Use remaining heat for heating, chilling
o Reduces energy inputs by 35%
o Losses for 100 GJ of fuel energyà 10 GJ
• Gas turbines:
o Compressor
o Combustion system: T>2000 F
o Turbines run compressor
o High Tà higher efficiency
o Attempts to 2600 F, material issues and cooling problems
• Improving efficiency for CCP
o Exhaust fluids still hot
o Don’t waste heat energy in exhaust
o Gas turbine exhaust makes steam to run steam engine
o Both generate power, efficiency approaching 60%
o Bottoming cycle:
§ Use residual heat
§ District heating, greenhouses
§ Cogeneration reach 95%
• Coal fired power generation:
o Fuel preparation
o Crushed coal
o Pulverized coal, burns hot like gas
• Efficiencies in power generation:
 o Heat rate: amount of heat produced by fuel per amount of electricity produced
o US total: 756 MMst
o Exports from US: 116 MMst
o Powder river basin 16 mines: 43%
§ Lower Sulphur content
§ Costly to transport
• Average cost of coal: 2017: $32
• Average cost of shipping: $20
o Most of coal exports are metallurgical coal: 60%
o 40% for thermal or steam coal for power generation
• Moving coal:
o Trains (70%), trucks, water, other
o Conveyor systems, coal slurry pipelines
o Coal barge on Ohio river and coal ship in Great lakes
• Stranded resources
o Carbon bubble and unburnable carbon
o Limit of CO2 in atmosphere to remain at 2 °C
o Valuations of companies depend on this resource that may never be recovered
o Bubble arises because combined proven oil, gas, and coal reserves on books of
fossil fuels companies will produce far more than this amount of CO2 when
consumed
• Diversion on electrical power
o Most coal used for electrical generation
• Electrical grid:
o Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction
o Relationship between magnetism and electricity
o Current produced from motion of conducting loop through magnetic field
o In generator, wire coils rotate through magnetic fields produced by permanent
or electromagnets
o Cannot fully understand how coal is used without understanding what mainly
used forà electrical generation
o 38.5% produced by thermal coal fired power plants
• DC vs. AC:
o direct current, alternating current
o frequency:
§ NA: 60 Hz=frequency
§ Europe: 50 Hz=frequency
o AC: can easily step up to higher voltage
§ Lower resistive losses
§ Not effective for long transmission
§ Higher losses: 250 km for AC
§ Break even $$ 600 km
§ Interconnects easier for DC
 § Fewer wires required
§ Semiconductor transformers allow boosting to HVDC
o DC: high losses, limited transmission, need many powers plants
• Electrical grid components:
o Generation, transmission, distribution
• Distribution of energy sources for generation:
o Coal, gas, nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass
o US coal consumption decreased since 2008 (natural gas increasing)
o 75% of US decrease of CO2 in last decade
• Electricity and economy:
o Electricity usage appears to be good indicator of real time indicator of economic
activity
• Footprint of bitcoin:
o Annual usage equal to 204 TWh, power use of Thailand
o Releases 114 Mt CO2 (emission of Czech Republic)
o 1 bitcoin transaction: 2,800,000 VISA transactions
o US data center consumption is greater than all of UK
o Information and communications in US> 2% CO2 emissions
o Will require 20.9% projected electricity demand by 2030
• Formation of coal:
o Most coal formed from conversion of woody materials by heat and pressure
o Starts in water saturated bogs, anoxic conditions
o Volatiles (Water, methane), carbon richer
o Rank= measure of quality of coal (carbon content)
o Coal in sedimentary basins
o Most coal formed during carboniferous period
o Surface mining: produces 100 Mmst per year thermal coal
o Underground mining: produces 14.5 MMst/year
o Global coal reserves:
§ World recoverable reserves:
• 1.1 trillion short tons, 1 trillion tce
• USA global reserve: 22%
• Russia: 15%
• Australia, China, India
§ Comparing coal reserves to other sources of energy:
• 47.4% reserves
• 79.8% resources
• 16.9 billion tonnes energy produced
• Global coal consumption (2018): 3772 Mtoe
• Global decline in coal consumption, except for Asia Pacific
countries
• China consumes 50.5% of global total, India 12%, USA 8.4% (top 3)
• Japan shut down nuclear plants, coal may increase
 • India consumption grew by 8.7% in 2018
§ Global coal movements:
• Australia (250 Mtoe), Indonesia (220 Mtoe), Russia (136 Mtoe),
USA (66 Mtoe)
o Global coal usage for electricity generation:
§ 60% electricity
§ Steel 20%
§ Cement 4%
o Coal responsible for 45% of global emissions
o Carbon capture technology:
§ Cab trap and store carbon emissions
• Power plant emissions injected into absorber
• Solvent collects CO2
• Heat is used to separate solve from CO2
• CO2 stores beneath North Sea