Природные ресурсы мира = World Natural Resource. Учебно-методическое пособие

2.ENERGY RESOURCES

The concept of energy resources

Energy sources

Classification of energy sources (renewable and nonrenewable)

Crude oil

Natural gas

Coal

Radioactive metals

Nuclear energy

Energy has far-reaching impact in everyday life, technology and development. Energy sources are used as fuels. All energy resources can be divided by type into fossil fuel, nuclear fuel and renewable resources. In the past 15 years unprecedented changes in the consumption of energy resources took place. High growth in the renewable energies market, high growth rates in developing countries have changed the priorities in the energy sector. The growth of unconventional resources for all forms of energy resources and improvements in technology for all types of energy resources is expected to contribute to falling prices and the increased decoupling of economic growth and greenhouse gas emission.

Primary and secondary sources of energy are the two main sources of energy.

Primary energy is the energy extracted directly from the environment. There are 3 groups of primary energy:

•Nonrenewable energy (referred to fossil fuels): natural gas, coal, crude oil, nuclear fuel.

•Renewable energy: hydropower, biomass, solar/wind/ geothermal/ocean energy, etc..

•Waste: energy (electricity and/or heat) generated from the primary treatment of waste.

Projected energy use in the world shows that petroleum, coal, and natural gas will still be the dominant energy sources (Fig. 1)

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Crude oil

Oil is a naturally occurring flammable liquid and consists of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, which define its physical and chemical properties, like heating value, color, and viscosity. The composition of hydrocarbons ranges from as much as 97 % by weight in the lighter oils to as little as 50 % in the heavier oils. The proportion (%) of chemical elements varies over and is:

Carbon 83–87%; Hydrogen 10–14%; Nitrogen 0.1–2%, Oxygen 0.1– 1.5%, Sulfur 0.5–6%, Metals <0.1% [8]

Geological conditions for the formation of oil deposits:

•Rocks of different ages (Cambrian-Pliocene, the oldest oil deposits are found in the North America).

•Major world oil and gas reserves - plateau deposits (96% and 99% respectively).

•Most of the oil and gas deposits and production are in - the East European, West Siberian, North American, Arabian, African plateaus.

•The inland depressions and marginal continental lands:

The Persian Gulf - North Africa; the Gulf of Mexico - the Caribbean Sea (including the coastal areas of Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Venezuela and Trinidad); the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea; Western Siberia; Northern Alaska; the North Sea (mainly the Norwegian and British sectors); Sakhalin island with adjacent shelf sections.

Classification of oil deposits by reserves:

•small - up to 10 million tons of oil;

•medium - 10 - 100 million tons of oil;

•large - 100-1000 million tons of oil

•The largest (giant) - 1 - 5 billion tons of oil;

•Unique (super-giant) - > 5 billion tons of oil.

Reserves and centers of oil production. Identified oil reserves in the world are about 140 billion tons; annual production is about 3.5 billion tons.

The main consumers of oil are developed countries. Export production is represented by a small group of developing and transitional countries.

The United States's share in the world oil consumption is 25.4%, and 9.9% in the world production.

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Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (not producing oil) - consume 11% of the world production. China produces 4.8% of the world's oil, and consumes 7.4%.

The leading oil producers in the world are Saudi Arabia - about 25% of the world's reserves (identified reserves of more than 35 billion tonnes). Iraq - 11% (identified reserves of 16 billion tons of oil), Russia - 5.5% (identified reserves - about 8 billion tons), the United States - 2.2% (identified reserves - about 4 billion tons). [18]

Oil is refined and separated into a large number of commodity products, from gasoline and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to make plastics and pharmaceuticals. Figure 2.4 shows a part of a typical refinery processing crude oil

to produce various fuels. 84 % by volume of the hydrocarbons present in petroleum is converted into energy-rich fuels, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating, and other fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gases. The remaining oil is converted to pharmaceuticals, solvents,

fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics. [9]

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring mixture, consists mainly of methane. Natural gas provides 23 % of all energy consumed in the world. Natural gas is becoming increasingly popular as an alternative transportation fuel. Theoretical flame temperature of natural gas is 1960 °C.

The world natural gas reserves are distributed unevenly:

•Most of them are found in the territory of the former USSR and Middle East countries.

•Over 2/3 of all exploratory gas wells are in the US and Canada (1/7 of all potentially gas-bearing areas).

Availability of gas reserves by region:

•Russia (23.7% of the world's total reserves),

•Iran (15.8%),

•Qatar (13.5%).

Structure of consumption

The highest consumption in the world:

•electric power and household sectors - 77%,

•industry (chemistry, metallurgy, etc.) -10%,

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• motor fuel 2%,

•injected into the bed and used flame ignition - 11%. In perspective:

•the share of the electric power industry and the domestic sector will remain at the level of 77-78%

•gas use for industrial purposes will increase up to 11-12%,

•for the motor fuel up to 3%.

Over the past 20 years, the world natural gas market has been growing by about 6% per year.

Coal

Сoals are sedimentary rocks containing combustible and incombustible matters. Coal has various composition and energy content depending on the source and type. Table 4 shows some typical properties of various coals.

Table 4

Typical properties of various coals [13]

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Because of high carbon content, coal generate more CO2 per unit of released

energy than any other fossil fuel. The density of coal from less than 1 to ~ 1.7 g / cm3.

Formation of coals. Conditions of formation: peat bogs, anaerobic conditions, since the Devonian period (about 416 million years ago), accumulation of decaying plant materials goes faster than its decomposition. The source material is peat buried by other deposits. Peat experiences compression, loses water and gases, is transformed into coal. The transformation of peat into fossil coal is called carbonification, coalification. This process takes place over millions of years resulting in the accumulation of carbon and reduction of the three main carbon-forming elements - oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen.

The main factors of coalification:

•temperature

•pressure

•time

Coal mining:

The coal mining method selection depends on the depth of layer location:

Up to 100-meter depth - open-pit mining. Deeper layers - shaft mining.

Coalbeds:

Coal thickness: from 10 cm up to 240 m (Victoria in Australia). The layers of 120 m are found in China;

60 m - in the USA (Wyoming) and Germany;

30 m in the USA (Wyoming), Canada (British Columbia) and other areas.

The layers of 90-240 cm in thickness are the most common (large areas and significant reserves).

World coal reserves (Y)

Total geological reserves in the world - 14-16 trillion tons, Explored - more than 5 trillion tons.

Identified - 1.8 trillion tons.

•The coal security in countries exceeds these values many times: 192 years.

Allocation of identified reserves in energy markets:

•Euro-Asian - 36%

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•Asia-Pacific - 30%,

•North American - 26%;

•African - 6;

•South and Central American - 2;

•Middle East - 0.2;

⅔ coal reserves are located in economically developed countries and countries of the former USSR.

Nuclear energy

Nuclear energy is produced by nuclear reactions to generate electricity through the fission of nuclear fuel, such as uranium. Nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts, which often produce free neutrons and photons in the form of gamma rays and releasing large amounts of energy. The generated heat is used to produce steam, which is used in a turbine to produce electricity.The products of nuclear fission are radioactive and remain so for a significant amount of time, giving rise to a nuclear waste problem. More than 400 nuclear power plants operating in 25 countries supply almost 17 % of the world’s electricity. [6]

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is generated from the use of natural resources and is naturally replenished.

The renewable energy sources are:

•Solar energy

•Wind

•Hydroelectric

•Biomass

•Geothermal heat

•Ocean

The generation of power from renewables is growing steadily under the conditions of climate change, fuel price growth, ecological problems etc.. Generation of renewable energy provides 18-20 % of total electricity generation in the world. Renewable power generators are spread across many countries. The Wind and solar power provide a

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significant share of electricity in some areas. Renewable biofuels have contributed to a decline in oil consumption in many countries.

Questions:

Describe the types of energy resources.

What is the difference between primary and secondary sources of energy?

What are the major non-renewable energy sources?

What is the proportion (%) of crude oil chemical elements?

Describe geological conditions for the formation of oil deposits.

Provide the values of gas reserve availability by region.

What are the typical properties of various coals?

What are the conditions of coal formation

What is coalification? What are the main factors of coalification?

Describe the process of nuclear energy generation.

What are the renewable energy sources?

Practical session

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CHAPTER III

LAND AND SOIL RESOURCES

The Land Fund

The Availability of Land Resources

Land Degradation

Soil Resources

Soil Conservation Practices

The total area of the earth's surface is about 51 billion hectares; the total land area is 14.9 billion hectares, and only 13.4 billion hectares are of human use, which is 26% of the Earth's surface area. Land resources include all those land features and processes, which can be used to meet certain human needs. The land is defined as a physical environment, which consists of relief, soil, hydrology, climate, and vegetation.

Soil develops dynamically as a result of pedogenic processes during and after weathering of rocks (which consists of minerals and organic constituents with certain chemical, physical, mineralogical and biological properties).

Chemical and physical disintegration and decomposition of rocks under different temperature, pressure and moisture condition results in the formation C horizon or regolith over which soil formation takes place. Afterwards, both weathering and soil formation processes proceed further leading to the development of soil.

The land is a productive economic factor in agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, etc.

The main characteristics of land resources are the land area and its quality (soil fertility).

The land fund

The land fund represents the totality of all lands within a given territory and is made up of lands of different economic use.

The following land fund types are pointed out:

•State land funds - territories within a country;

•World land funds - the world's entire land surface (Greenland and Antarctica are excluded).

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The land fund is made up of:

•Lands used in agriculture (arable and pasture land);

•Lands covered by forests vegetation, inland water bodies,

•Populated lands covered by infrastructure, roads, etc;

•Unsuitable lands: deserts, high mountains, etc.

As a base of agricultural production, the land influences the economic activity in agriculture directly and indirectly, as the main asset of the labor and as an essential element of capital. [23]

The land fund is suitable for the possibility of intensive use, but also the need for the involvement of its rationality in agriculture production. Land use system is closely related to both natural components positioning, especially terrain, as well as the existence of planning work and land improvement.

According to the data of the FAO (Fond and Agriculture Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945 to collect and analyze information on nutrition, food and agricultural issues) in the early 1990ies:

-Arable fields (providing up to 90% of food) constituted only 10-11% of the land resources.

-Pastures (both natural and reclaimed) occupy almost twice as much as the area of arable fields but provide only 10% of the world's agricultural output

-0, 8% of the total perennial plantations (gardens, vineyards, tea and coffee plantations).

-In total, about 37% of world land resources accrue to agricultural land.

-The lands occupied by forests also make up over 31.7%, which are considered as a biological resource, although they play a secondary role in the contribution to food resources.

-Other lands (from 31.2%) are the lands of different economic purposes and productivity: lands occupied by inland water bodies, population, infrastructure and industrial enterprises, as well as unsuitable lands (deserts and arid territories, highlands, and saline lands). The latter group of lands is divided into:

-Relatively productive, non-arable lands (tundra and forest tundra, pastures in semi-deserts, dry steppes and savannahs with gravel, saline soils, as well as forests, mostly mountainous and with permafrost and waterlogged lands can be potentially involved in agriculture)

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