Impacts, Risks and Way Forward for Onshore and Offshore Drilling of Gases and Oil

Withgott and Laposata (2014) in their book Environment: The Science behind the Stories present an article on the impacts and risks of onshore and offshore drilling of natural gases and oil. To them, the extraction of natural gas and oil takes place on both the continental shelves of the sea and on the land. The offshore drilling requires sophisticated technology that can withstand ocean currents, cold temperatures, icebergs, waves and the forces of wind. However, Withgott and Laposata (2014) fail to recognize the negative impacts of the used drilling both the land and the shelves of the ocean for the purpose of gas and oil extraction. These authors recognize the risks related to offshore drilling due to extreme drilling depths, icy waters, and stormy weather. However, these risks might be encountered by the miners. Therefore, (Withgott and Laposata, 2014) forget that these miners might also pose risks to the environment. For instance, through the continental shelves are land drilling, certain gases which are hazards might be released to the environment hence leading to both the destruction of plants and human beings. In this article, (Withgott and Laposata, 2014) recognize the fact that the expansion of the British Petroleums Deepwater Horizon in 2010, led to a massive spill of oil as a deep water drill was done at the Mexican Gulf. They recognize that the company had previously drilled one of the deepest oil wells in history. This oil well was over ten kilometers deep. Cleaning up of the oil spill proved to be a challenging task and took several months to put to a hold the flow of oil from this well into the marine environment. Withgott and Laposata (2014) recognize the fact that the construction of infrastructure such as transport networks aids the transportation of gas and oil drilled from these wells. However, they forget that man activities such as the construction of communication infrastructure such as road networks leads to the destruction of the environment and the ecosystem. For instance, an oil or gas drilling company might be forced to cut down natural trees so as to construct a road network that will enable them transport both the miners and the mined products.

The solutions to this environmental challenges are by shifting from the use of oil and natural gases to the use of bioenergy. Through the use of this type of fuel, issues related to the drilling of oil and gas wells will be controlled hence matters of oil spills will be eliminated. The use of bioenergy and solar energy forms part of the clean energies that the world needs to adopt compared to the use of oil. For instance, burning of oil might lead to the emission of gasses into the atmosphere that is dangerous to both the lives of human beings and plants.

Question 1, Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of bioenergy.

The energy that is obtained from biomass resources is known as bioenergy. These types of resources contain chemical energy from photosynthesis and sunlight and they include organic materials derived from the dead or living organisms. The advantages of using this types of products revolve around the mitigation of climate change by biopower through the reduction of emission of carbon dioxide. Therefore, through the capture of landfill gases, there is the reduction of methane which is one of the greenhouse gases (Withgott and Laposata, p.568-569). The use of bioenergy has more benefits compared to coal burning as bioenergy has a clear power process hence healthy to humans. The amount of fuel that is imported by countries is reduced and hence help the rural communities economies as it is also cost effective and cheaper to use bioenergy based on the widespread of biomass geographically.

Bioenergy is environment friendly compared to the use of fossil fuels. For instance, biomass is burned; it does not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, carbon dioxide is trapped so as to enable the growth of biomass. On the contrary side, fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide which is a harmful gas to the environment as it might lead to an increment of greenhouse gases that might destroy the ozone layer.

People from developing areas such as women and children benefit from healthy cooking through the use of bioenergy, moreover, there is the reduction of the firewood collection tasks. There is the prevention of the exposure smoke while cooking using bioenergy other than the use fire. Therefore, deadly respiratory diseases are prevented. Statistics indicate that over 4.3 million people die annually due to the illness that is caused by the use of solid fuels for the purpose of c0oking.

The drawbacks related to the use of bioenergy.

Bioenergy might contain impurities despite its compression and refinement. For instance, bio-fuel when used to power automobiles, the metallic parts of the engine might be corroded. Therefore, this leads to an increment in maintenance costs. However, these gases work well in lamps, water boilers, and kitchen stoves. The production of bioenergy in the modern world faces technological challenges. For instance, the systems that are currently used for the production of this type of energy are not efficient. The costs of production are slightly higher and technologies to simplify the production are yet to be developed. Therefore, it is not possible to supply a large population. The production of this type of energy is more suitable in suburban and rural areas other than densely populated metropolitan areas as the industries that produce bioenergy ought to be near a source of raw materials.

Question 2, Explain how clean coal technologies can reduce air pollution from coal.

Clean coal technologies can be used to reduce air pollution from coal through the following was, for instance, through call cleaning, the emissions of sulfur dioxide and ash are reduced during the burning of the coal. 99% of Fly ash is removed from the flue gases through fabric filters and electrostatic precipitators. The desulfurization of flue gas leads to a reduction of 97% of sulfur dioxide output into the atmospheres. The desulfurization method is mostly practiced in developed countries; this practice depends on the levels of sulfur dioxide and the reduction extent. Coal-fired plants reduce the emission of nitrogen oxide by at least 40% through the use of Low-NOx burners. 90% of nitrogen oxide emissions can be reduced through the use of selective catalytic reduction and re-burning techniques might lead to 70% reduction. The use of newer plants reduces emissions per kWh compared to the old ones as there is an increase in the efficiency of the plant by almost 46% of the thermal efficiency. The Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion and the Gasification Combined Cycle are the advanced technologies that will enable a 50% of thermal efficiencies in the future. The ultra-clean coal which is generated through the reduction of sulfur and ash of below 0.25% can replace the use of heavy fuel oil in the running of large marine engines. Gasification which includes the underground coal gasification uses oxygen and steam to turn coal into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Sequestration is the other method that is used for purposes of disposing liquid carbon dioxide into geological strata once it has been captured.

Reference

Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014). Environment: The science behind the stories (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.