Sustainability of Energy Sources: Carbon, Petroleum, Coal & Gas

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Table of Contents

Carbon
Petroleum
Coal
Clean coal
Natural gas
Works Cited

Carbon

Carbon sequestration is estimated to cost $10 to $15 billion per gig watt this is quite uneconomical in consideration to the costs of mining, processing and transportation. This cannot meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations. Carbon based energy is unsustainable this is so because the Carbon capture is relatively expensive (Barber, F & Ulgiati, 20).

Petroleum

The use of petroleum products in the long run will prove unsustainable for businesses due to the increased pump prices of crude oil. Businesses are turning on cheaper means of energy. Also petroleum is a major air pollutant due to the release of carbon materials in the air and with the ongoing campaign for adoption of more environment conserving energy, the use of petroleum will be unsustainable. Governments have increased taxes on petroleum products too (Schobert, 36).

Petroleum is not a renewable source of energy and the crude oil wells are fast drying out thus, in years to come petroleum products will be hard to find due to the increased demand with no increase in supply since petroleum consumption demand has grown over time (Hassler, 103). Petroleum demand grew on average of 1.76 percent from 1994 to 2006.

It is expected that the consumption of petroleum will grow 36 percent over 2006 levels by the year 2030 to 31 billion barrels annually. According to peak oil theory, increasing production will result in a decline in production in the future, while decreasing production will result to a gradual decrease, as the bell-shaped curve will be spread out over many years (Blackburn, 54).

Coal

Coal is used to fuel heavy machines and equipments and with the improvement in technology, businesses are venturing in less heavy machines which consume less energy thus the use of coal can prove to be unsustainable in the long run. Also the drastic increase in demand of coal with the diminishing supply will eventually lead to high prices of coal and become uneconomical to use coal (World Bank, 37).

Use of coal has faced a lot of criticism due to the polluting nature of burning coal. Coal is a high air pollutant and environment conservationists are against the use of coal and governments are advocating for use of other sources of energy as a result. The annual consumption of coal globally is, 6,473,786,000, short tons, there has been an annual increase of 52% to 9.98 billion by 2030. Thus this source of energy is not sustainable (Payne, 99).

Clean coal

Political considerations over the security of the supply of coal are predicted to change the trend in the world’s consumption of coal and other fossil fuels. Environmental issues such as global warming are likely to make use of coal unsuitable in the long run. Coal energy cannot be sustainable as it very expensive to produce and the annual consumption of it is 300,000,000 short tons, thus unsustainable (Cowie, 44).

Natural gas

Natural gas is a finite resource and a non-renewable source of energy. In the long run it is expected to diminish and become extinct. With the slump of the world’s economy the consumption of natural gas is likely to decrease to 21.29 Tcf. The growth of the electricity generation sector is a major has led to a change in trend in consumption of natural gas (Oskarsson, 58; Schobert, 19).

The price of natural gas varies with the prices of other fuels such as coal and crude oil and going by the current trends, the prices are escalating and thus natural gas consumers are seeking cheaper sources of energy (Miller, 67). The natural gas annual consumption of the natural gas in 2006 was 21,684,641million cubic feet. There has been a steady demand of natural gas however the energy source seems to be sustainable as the demand does not surpass the supply (Lock, P & Hu X, 67).

Works Cited

Barber, F & Ulgiati, S. Sustainable Energy Production and Consumption, Morgan, GA: Routledge, 2008.

Blackburn, J The renewable energy alternative, Durham, GA: Duke University press, 2008.

Cowie, J. Climate change: biological and human aspects, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Hassler, W. Clean coal, New York, NY: Yale university,1981.

Lock, P & Hu X. Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technologies,Hong Kong: World Scientific Publishers, 2000.

Miller, B. Coal energy systems,Durham. GA: Academic PresS, 2005.

Oskarsson, K. Guide for selecting clean coal technologies, Washington DC: World bank, 1997.

Schobert, H. The energy source of the past and the future, Perris, CA: University of CaliforniA, 2008.

Payne, W. Natural gas, New York, NY: Fairmont press Inc, 1999.

World Bank group. The natural gas and market development, Washington DC:world bank press, 1999.

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