EESC 2211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: British Thermal Unit, Mountaintop Removal Mining, Carbon Cycle
2 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Work required to produce one watt of power for one second (kg*m squared)/s squared. How much coal to run a desktop computer and monitor for 4 hours a day. 120 pounds of coal for a desktop. Electrical production is mostly coa (leading)l, natural gas, and nuclear. Lots of inefficiencies in the system: rejected, unused energy. Coal warms water, creates steam, turns turbine to create energy. Regional: acid rain, water pollution (aquifer, watersheds), waste ponds that leak, mountain top removal rerouting streams. Local: soil pollution, soil degradation (erosion and compaction), health risks (particulate matter from working in the industry), habitat destruction. U. s. is leader of coal production, but not by as much as before. But, don"t have the largest coal fields in the u. s. We mine there because of proximity to the population. Higher socio-economic regions don"t want drilling in their backyards. Deposit is easier to recover than other regions. Majority of production is coming from the west: more economically viable.
