Alternative sources of energy

Alternative sources of energy

Made by:- Rohan ,saraswati ,Shiv shakti ,Sahil and saluja

Class:- X C

Assignment of English

Alternative energy is any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel. These alternatives are intended to address concerns about such fossil fuels.

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HistoryHistorians of economies have examined the key transitions to alternative energies and regard the transitions as pivotal in bringing about significant economic change. Prior to the shift to an alternative energy, supplies of the dominant energy type became erratic, accompanied by rapid increases in energy prices.

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Coal as an alternative to wood"Europeans had lived in the midst of vast forests throughout the earlier medieval centuries. After 1250 they became so skilled at deforestation that by 1500 AD they were running short of wood for heating and cooking... By 1500 Europe was on the edge of a fuel and nutritional disaster, from which it was saved in the sixteenth century only by the burning of soft coal and the cultivation of potatoes and maize. "

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Petroleum as an alternative to whale oil

Whale oil was the dominant form of lubrication and fuel for lamps in the early 19th century, but the depletion of the whale stocks by mid century caused whale oil prices to skyrocket setting the stage for the adoption of petroleum which was first commercialized in Pennsylvania in 1859.

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Alcohol as an alternative to fossil fuels

In 1917, Alexander GrahamBell advocated ethanol from corn, wheat and other foods as an alternative to coal and oil, stating that the world was in measurable distance of depleting these fuels. For Bell, the problem requiring an alternative was lack of renewability of orthodox energy sources. Since the 1970s, Brazil has had an ethanolfuel program which has allowed the country to become the world's second largest producer of ethanol and the world's largest exporter.

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Coal gasification as an alternative to petroleum

In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter's administration advocated coal gasification as an alternative to expensive imported oil. The program, including the Synthetic Fuels Corporation was scrapped when petroleum prices plummeted in the 1980s. The carbon footprint and environmental impact of coal gasification are both very high.

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Common types of alternative energy

Solar energy

Wind energy

Geothermal energy

Biofuel and Ethanol

Nuclear binding energy and Hydrogen

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Solar energy

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity, solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis.

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Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electrical power, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.

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Geothermal energyGeothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. The geothermal energy of the Earth's crust originates from the original formation of the planet (20%) and from radioactive decay of minerals (80%).

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Biofuel and EthanolA biofuel is a fuel that contains energy from geologically recent carbon fixation. These fuels are produced from living organisms.Ethanol also called ethyl alcohol , pure alcohol, beverage alcohol is avolatile, flammable, colorless liquid with the structural formula CH3CH2OH.

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Nuclear binding energyNuclear binding energy is the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom into its component parts. The component parts are neutrons and protons, which are collectively called nucleons. The binding energy of nuclei is always a positive number, since all nuclei require net energy to separate them into individual protons and neutrons.

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HydrogenHydrogen is a chemical element with chemical symbol H and atomic number 1. With an atomic weight of 1.00794 u, hydrogen is the lightest element on the periodic table. Its monatomic form (H) is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all baryonic mass.

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Enabling technologiesHeat pumps and Thermal energy storage are technologies which use energy sources that normally can't be obtained. Also, heat pumps have the advantage of leveraging electrical power (or in some cases mechanical or thermal power) by using it to extract additional energy from a low quality source (such as sea or lake water, the ground or the air).

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Renewable energy vs non-renewable energy

Renewable energy is generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat—which are renewable. When comparing the processes for producing energy, there remain several fundamental differences between renewable energy and fossil fuels. The process of producing oil, coal, or natural gas fuel is a difficult and demanding process that requires a great deal of complex equipment, physical and chemical processes.

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Ecologically friendly alternativesRenewable energy sources such as biomass are sometimes regarded as an alternative to ecologically harmful fossil fuels. Renewables are not inherently alternative energies for this purpose. For example, the Netherlands, once leader in use of palm oil as a biofuel, has suspended all subsidies for palm oil due to the scientific evidence that their use "may sometimes create more environmental harm than fossil fuels"

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Relatively new concepts for alternative energy

Carbon-neutral and negative fuelsCarbon-neutral fuels are synthetic fuels produced by hydrogenating waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue-gas emissions, recovered from automotive exhaust gas. Commercial fuel synthesis companies suggest they can produce synthetic fuels for less than petroleum fuels when oil costs more than $55 per barrel.

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Algae fuelAlgae fuel is a biofuel which is derived from algae. During photosynthesis, algae and other photosynthetic organisms capture carbon dioxide and sunlight and convert it into oxygen and biomass. The benefits of algal biofuel are that it can be produced industrially, thereby obviating the use of arable land and food crops and that it has a very high oil yield as compared to all other sources of biofuel.

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Biomass briquettesBiomass briquettes are being developed in the developing world as an alternative to charcoal. The technique involves the conversion of almost any plant matter into compressed briquettes that typically have about 70% the calorific value of charcoal.

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Biogas digestionBiogas digestion deals with harnessing the methane gas that is released when waste breaks down. This gas can be retrieved from garbage or sewage systems. Biogas digesters are used to process methane gas by having bacteria break down biomass in an anaerobic environment. The methane gas that is collected and refined can be used as an energy source for various products.

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Biological hydrogen productionHydrogen gas is a completely clean burning fuel; its only by-product is water. It also contains relatively high amount of energy compared with other fuels due to its chemical structure.

2H2 + O2 → 2H2O + High Energy

High Energy + 2H2O → 2H2 + O2

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