Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
electricity and that use is still falling, while gas is used for
% and use is still rising.
The environmental movement should be happy, but
large parts of it are not. One reason for happiness is the
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. A modern gas-
fired generation system emits about one-third of the
CO
per kilowatt-hour as does the average coal plant.
Another reason is the reduction in atmospheric pollution
that affects health among other things. As mentioned
in the introduction to this edition, the US National
Academy of Sciences in their
report Hidden Costs of
Energy [
] estimate that these pollution effects cost the
nation about
billion per year.
The reason for the unhappiness of the environmental-
ists is fracking, the process that is used to extract the gas.
The claim is that so much gas is lost to the atmosphere
that the greenhouse bene
$
ed, and that the pro-
cess itself can contaminate drinking water. Studies by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and by Texas
A and M University show that both of these claims are
greatly exaggerated (more about these studies later). This
is an example of Richter
t is nulli
No matter how
good a solution is, some will demand we wait for a better
one,
'
s Second Law:
“
or in other words, if the world is not run on wind
and sunshine, it is not the correct world.
US reserves of shale gas have been increasing rapidly.
Reserves in the rest of the world will probably follow as
exploration leads to exploitation.
A possible even larger source has yet to be tapped at all.
Trapped in the permafrost of the far north and in the
ocean is gas in the form of methane hydrate. At low
temperature and high pressure, natural gas mixed with
”
