Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fiber products:
Products derived from the fibers of herbaceous and woody plant
materials. Examples include pulp, composition board products, and wood
chips for export.
Fine materials:
Wood residues not suitable for chipping, such as planer shavings
and sawdust.
Fire management:
All activities related to the management of wildland fires.
Fire regime:
The characteristic frequency, intensity, and spatial distribution of natu-
ral fires within a given eco-region or habitat.
Fischer-Tropsch fuels:
Liquid hydrocarbon fuels produced by a process that
combines carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The process is used to convert
coal, natural gas, and low-value refinery products into a high-value diesel
substitute.
Fish passage project:
Providing a safe passage for fish around a barrier in the
upstream or downstream direction.
Fixing:
Nearshore and offshore devices may be either bottom-mounted or float-
ing, the former being fixed to the seabed by a static member and the latter
moored to hold on station.
Flare:
A tall stack equipped with burners used as a safety device at wellheads, refin-
ing facilities, gas processing plants, and chemical plants. Flares are used for
the combustion and disposal of combustible gases. The gases are piped to a
remote, usually elevated, location and burned in an open flame in the open
air using a specially designed burner tip, auxiliary fuel, and steam or air.
Combustible gases are flared most often due to emergency relief, overpres-
sure, process upsets, startups, shutdowns, and other operational safety rea-
sons. Natural gas that is not economical for sale is also flared. Often natural
gas is flared as a result of the unavailability of a method for transporting
such gas to markets.
Flash steam:
Steam produced when the pressure on a geothermal liquid is reduced;
also called
flashing.
.
Flat plate pumped:
A medium-temperature solar thermal collector that typically
consists of a metal frame, glazing, absorbers (usually metal), and insulation
and that uses a pump liquid as the heat-transfer medium; predominant use
is in water heating applications.
Flexible-fuel vehicle:
A vehicle with a single fuel tank designed to run on varying
blends of unleaded gasoline with either ethanol or methanol.
Floodplain:
Flat or nearly flat land that may be submerged by floodwaters; a plain
built up or in the process of being built up by steam deposition.
Flora:
All the plants found in a particular place.
Flow battery:
An electrochemical energy storage device that utilizes tanks of
rechargeable electrolyte to refresh the energy-producing reaction. Because
its capacity is limited only by the size of its electrolyte tanks, it is useful
for large-scale backup systems to supplement other forms of generation that
may be intermittent in nature.
Fluidized-bed combustion:
A method of burning particular fuel, such as coal, in
which the amount of air required for combustion far exceeds that found in
conventional burners. The fuel particles are continually fed into a bed of
