CHEM H90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Chemical Energy, Kilowatt Hour, Atomic Number
Energy and Nuclear Processes
• cost of your personal energy use
o typically about 20 cents per kWh in CA
o US average is about 12 cents
o so 50 kWh/day is only $10/day
o about $3000/year
• but…
o your lifestyle is supported by the US economy
o all the appliances had to be MADE and brought to the stores
o someone BUILT your hosue, streets, etc.
o take US consumption and divide by 370 million, and your share is 5x personal
use!
• forms of energy
o microscopic
▪ kinetic energy of atoms
▪ chemical potential energy of bonds
▪ photons
o everyday scales
▪ oil, coal, gas
▪ hydro-electric
▪ wind
▪ solar
▪ biomass
▪ nuclear
▪ tidal
▪ geothermal
• global consumption
o about 7 giga-people on planet
o average person uses about 25,000 kWh per year
o this is about 15 TW (T= 1012)
o world energy usage is equivalent of every person driving around the world once
per year (without carpooling)
o average American is about 4 times worse than the average human
• world consumption of energy by source
o oil 33%
o natural gas 24%
o coal 28%
▪ burning hydrocarbons and produce CO2
• combustion: fuel
o oil has many complex hydrocarbons
o cracking produces gasoline plus many useful by-products
o burning hydrocarbons releases CO2 into the air, an important greenhouse gas
• changing our planet
o we are stressing our planet. the planet will recover, but we may lose a large
fraction of the people along the way
• nuclear energy
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