Unit-I

Multidisciplinary nature of
Environmental Studies

Prepared by,
M. Pulla Reddy
• Definition :
• 'Environment' is derived from the French word Environner which means to
encircle or surround. All the biological and non-biological things surrounding an
organism are thus included in environment.
• Thus environment is sum total of water, air and land, inter-relationships among
themselves and also with the human beings, other living organ­isms and property.
• The above definition given in Environment (Protec­tion) Act, 1986 clearly
indicates that environment includes all the physi­cal and biological surroundings
and their interactions.
• Multidisciplinary nature of Environmental Science:
• Thus, in order to study environment one needs knowledge inputs from various disci­plines.
• Life Sciences including Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, Genet­ics, Biochemistry and Biotechnology
help in understanding the biotic component and their interactions.
• The physical and chemical struc­ture of the abiotic components and energy transfer and flow are under­
stood with the help of basic concepts of Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Atmospheric Science,
Oceanography and Geography.
• Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science serve as effective tools in environmental modeling and
management.
• Subjects like Education, Economics, So­ciology and Mass communication provide the inputs for
dealing with the socio-economic aspects associated with various developmental ac­tivities.
• A synthesis with Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineer­ing, Hydraulics and Chemical
Engineering form the basis for various technologies dealing with the control of environmental
pollution, waste­ treatment and development of cleaner technologies that are important for protection
of the environment.
• Environmental laws provide the tools for effective management and protection of the environment.
• Environ­mental Studies, therefore, is a multi-disciplinary subject where differ­ent aspects are dealt with
a holistic approach.
• Scope & Importance of Environmental Science:
• Scope of environmental studies is broad based and it encompasses a large number of areas
and aspects, broadly listed below.
. Natural Resources-their conservation and management
. Ecology and biodiversity
• Environmental pollution and control
• Social issues in relation to development and environment
• Human population and environment
• Environment belongs to all and is thus important for all. Whatever be the occupation or age
of a person, he or she will be affected by environment and will also affect the environment
by his or her deeds. Thus, environment is one subject that is actually global in nature.
• Environmental studies is very important since it deals with the most mundane issues like
safe and clean drinking water, hygienic living conditions, clean and fresh air, fertile land,
healthy food and development that is sustainable.
• In the recent years, the scope of environmental science has expanded dramatically the world
over several carrier options are broadly categorized as,
a) Research and development (R&D) in environment:
. R&D activities for developing cleaner technology and promoting sustainable development. In order to avoid
expensive litigation, various companies are now trying to adopt green technologies, which would reduce pollution.
. Invest in pollution control technologies will reduce pollution as well as cut on costs for effluent treatment. Market
for pollution control technology is huge the world over. Cleaning up of the wastes produced is another potential
market.
. It is estimated to be more than $ 100 billion per year for all American business. Germany and Japan having more
stringent laws for many years have gained more experience in reducing effluents.
b) Green advocacy:
. Various acts and laws related to environment should be implemented. The environment lawyers should be able to
plead the cases related to water and air pollution ,forest and wild life etc..
c) Green marketing:
. There is emphasis on the marketing goods with the Eco mark (or) ISO 14000 certification which are environment
friendly.
d) Green Media:
Environment awareness can be spread through mass media like television, radio, news papers, magazines,
advertisements etc.. for which environmentally educated persons are required.
e) Environmental consultancy:
.Many non government organisations industries and government bodies are engaging environment consultancy
for systematically studying and tacking environmental related problems.
Need for public awareness:
. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in
1992 and popularly known as 'Earth Sum­mit' followed by the World Summit on Sustainable
Development at Johannesburg in 2002.
. Any government at its own level cannot achieve the goals of sustainable development until the
public has a participatory role in it. Public participation is possible only when the public is
aware about the ecological and environmental issues.
. A drive by the government to ban the littering of polythene cannot be successful until the public
un­derstands the environmental implications of the same. The public has to be educated about
the fact that if we are degrading our environment we are actually harming our own selves.
. It is all the more important to educate the people that some­times the adverse impact of
environment are not experienced or no­ticed until a threshold is crossed. So we may be caught
unawares by a disaster.
• There is a Chinese proverb "If you plan for one year, plant rice, if you plan
for I0 years, plant trees and if you plan for I00 years, educate people. " If we
want to manage our planet earth, we have to make all the persons
environmentally educated.
Natural Resources:
• Life on this planet earth depends upon a large number of things and services
provided by the nature, which are known as “Natural resources.”
• Thus water, air, soil, minerals, coal, forests, crops and wild life are all examples of
natural resources.
• The natural resources are of two kinds: (1) Renewable resources which are
inexhaustive and can be regenerated within a given span of time e.g. forests,
wildlife, wind energy, biomass energy, tidal energy, hydro power etc. Solar energy
is also a renewable form of energy as it is an inexhaustible source of energy.
• (2)Non-renewable resources which cannot be regenerated e.g. Fossil fuels like
coal, petroleum, minerals etc. Once we exhaust these reserves, the same cannot
be replenished.
• Even our renewable resources can become non-renewable if we exploit them to
such extent that their rate of consumption exceeds their rate of regeneration. For
example, if a species is exploited so much that its population size declines below
the threshold level then it is not able to sustain itself and gradually the species
becomes endangered or extinct.
 FOREST RESOURCES:
• Forests are one of the most important natural resources on this earth. Covering the earth like a green blanket
these forests not only produce innumerable material goods, but also provide several environmental services
which are essential for life.
• USES OF FORESTS:
• Commercial uses: Forests provide us a large number of commercial goods which include timber, firewood,
pulpwood, food items, gum, resins, non-edible oils, rubber, fibers, lac, bamboo canes, fodder, medicine, drugs
and many more items, the total worth of which is estimated to be more than $ 300 billion per year.
• Ecological uses:
• Production of oxygen: The trees produce oxygen by photosynthesis which is so vital for life on this earth.
They are rightly called as earth lugs.
• Reducing global warming: The main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by the forests as a
raw material for photosynthesis. Thus forest canopy acts as a sink for CO2 thereby reducing the problem of
global warming caused by greenhouse gas CO2.
• Wild life habitat: Forests are the homes of millions of wild animals and plants. About 7 million species are
found in the tropical forests alone.
• Regulation of hydrological cycle: Forested watersheds act like giant sponges, absorbing the rainfall,
slowing down the runoff and slowly releasing the water for recharge of springs. About 50-80 %of the moisture
in the air above tropical forests comes from their transpiration which helps in bringing rains.
• Pollution moderators: Forests can absorb many toxic gases and can help in keeping the air pure. They have
also been reported to absorb noise and thus help in preventing air and noise pollution.
• DEFORESTATION:
• The total forest area of the world in 1900 was estimated to be 7,000 million hectares which was reduced to 2890 million ha in
1975 and fell down to just 2,300 million ha by 2000.
• Deforestation rate is relatively less in temperate countries, but it is very alarming in tropical countries where it is as high as
40-50 percent and at the present rate it is estimated that in the next 60 years we would lose more than 90 percent of our
tropical forests.
• India still far behind the target of achieving 33% forest area, as per our National Forest Policy, as we are still having only
19.27 % of our land area (63.38m ha) covered by forests based on satellite data (MoEF, 1998)
• Major Causes of Deforestation:
• (i) Shifting cultivation: There are an estimated 300 million people living as shifting cultivators who practice slash and burn
agriculture and are supposed to clear more than 5 lakh ha of forests for shifting cultivation annually. In India, we have this
practice in North East and to some extent in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and M.P which contribute to nearly half of the forest
clearing annually.
• (ii) Fuel requirements: Increasing demands for fuel wood by the growing population in India alone has shooted up to 300-
500 million tons in 2001 as compared to just 65 million tons during independence, thereby increasing the pressure on
forests.
• (iii) Raw materials for industrial use: Wood for making boxes, furniture, railway-sleepers, plywood, match-boxes, pulp for
paper industry etc. have exerted tremendous pressure on forests. Plywood is in great demand for packing tea for Tea industry
of Assam while fir tree wood is exploited greatly for packing apples in J&K.
• (iv) Development projects: Massive destruction of forests occur for various development projects like hydroelectric
projects, big dams, road construction, mining etc.
• (v) Overgrazing: The poor in the tropics mainly rely on wood as a source of fuel leading to loss of tree cover and the cleared
lands are turned into the grazing lands. Overgrazing by the cattle leads to further degradation of these lands .
• Major Consequences of Deforestation:
• Deforestation has far reaching consequences, which may be outlined as follows:
• (i) It threatens the existence of many wild life species due to destruction of their natural habitat.
• (ii) Biodiversity is lost and along with that genetic diversity is eroded.
• (iii) Hydrological cycle gets affected, thereby influencing rainfall.
• (iv) Problems of soil erosion and loss of soil fertility increase.
• (v) In hilly areas it often leads to landslides.
• DAMS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON FORESTS AND PEOPLE:
• Big dams and river valley projects have multi-purpose uses and have been referred to as Temples
of modern India. However, these dams are also responsible for the destruction of vast areas of
forests. India has more than 1550 large dams, the maximum being in the state of Maharashtra
(more then 600), followed by Gujarat (more then 250) and Madhya Pradesh (130).
• Big dams have been in sharp focus of various environmental groups all over the world which is
mainly because of several ecological problems including deforestation and socio-economic
problems related to tribal or native people associated with them.
• For building big dams, large scale devastation of forests takes place which breaks the natural
ecological balance of the region. Floods, droughts and landslides become more prevalent in such
areas.
• MINERAL RESOURCES:
• Minerals are naturally occurring, inorganic, crystalline solids having a definite chemical composition and
characteristic physical properties. There are thousands of minerals occurring in different parts of the world.
• However, most of the rocks, we see everyday are just composed of a few common minerals like quartz,
feldspar, biotite, dolomite, calcite, laterite etc. These minerals, in turn, are composed of some elements like
silicon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminum etc.…
• USES AND EXPLOITATION:
• Minerals find use in a large number of ways in everyday use in domestic, agricultural, industrial and
commercial sectors and thus form a very important part of any nations economy. The main uses of minerals
are as follows:
• (i) Development of industrial plants and machinery.
• (ii) Generation of energy e.g. coal, lignite, uranium.
• (iii) Construction, housing, settlements.
• (iv) Defense equipment-weapons, armaments.
• (v) Communication- telephone wires, cables, electronic devices.
• (vi) Medicinal system- particularly in Ayurvedic System.
• (vii) Formation of alloys for various purposes (e.g. phosphorite).
• (viii) Agriculture- as fertilizers, seed dressings and fungicides (e.g. zineb containing zinc, Maneb-containing
manganese etc.).
• (ix) Jewelry-Gold, silver, platinum, diamond.
• It is evident that the CIS countries (The Commonwealth of Independent States i.e. 12 republics of former USSR), the
United States of America, Canada, South Africa and Australia are having the major world reserves of most of the
metallic minerals.
• Due to huge mineral and energy resources, the USA became the richest and the most powerful nation in the world in
even less than 200 years. Japan too needs a mention here, as there are virtually no metal reserves, coal, oil and
timber resources in Japan and it is totally dependent on other countries for its resources.
• Minerals are sometimes classified as Critical and Strategic.
• Critical minerals are essential for the economy of a nation e.g. iron, aluminium, copper, gold etc.
• Strategic minerals are those required for the defense of a country e.g. Manganese, cobalt, platinum, chromium etc.
• Some Major Minerals of India:
• (a) Energy generating minerals:
• Coal and lignite West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, M.P., A.P.
• Uranium (Pitchblende or Uranite ore): Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh (Nellore, Nalgonda), Meghalaya, Rajasthan
(Ajmer).
• (b) Other commercially used minerals :
• Aluminium (Bauxite ore): Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, M.P., Tamilnadu.
• Iron (hematite and magnetite ore): Jharkhand, Orissa, M.P., A.P., Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa.
• Copper (Copper Pyrites): Rajasthan (Khetri), Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, M.P., West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and
Uttaranchal.
 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF MINERAL EXTRACTION AND USE:
• More important environmental concern arises from the impacts of extraction and processing of these minerals
during mining, smelting etc.
• (i) Devegetation and defacing of landscape: The topsoil as well as the vegetation are removed from the mining
area to get access to the deposit. While large scale deforestation or devegetation leads to several ecological losses, the
landscape also gets badly affected.
• (ii) Subsidence of land: This is mainly associated with underground mining. Subsidence of mining areas often
results in tilting of buildings, cracks in houses, buckling of roads,bending of rail tracks and leaking of gas from
cracked pipelines leading to serious disasters.
• (iii) Groundwater contamination: Mining disturbs the natural hydrological processes and also pollutes the
groundwater. Sulphur, usually present as an impurity in many ores is known to get converted into sulphuric acid
through microbial action, thereby making the water acidic. Some heavy metals also get leached into the groundwater
and contaminate it posing health hazards.
• (iv) Surface water pollution: The acid mine drainage often contaminates the nearby streams and lakes. The acidic
water is detrimental to many forms of aquatic life. Sometimes radioactive substances like uranium also contaminate
the water bodies through mine wastes and kill aquatic animals. Heavy metal pollution of water bodies near the
mining areas is a common feature creating health hazards.
• (v) Air pollution: In order to separate and purify the metal from other impurities in the ore, smelting is done which
emits enormous quantities of air pollutants damaging the vegetation nearby and has serious environmental health
impacts. The suspended particulate matter (SPM), SOx, soot, arsenic particles, cadmium, lead etc. shoot up in the
atmosphere near the smelters and the public suffers from several health problems.
• (vi) Occupational Health Hazards: Most of the miners suffer from various respiratory and skin diseases due to
constant exposure to the suspended particulate matter and toxic substances. Miners working in different types of
mines suffer from asbestosis, silicosis, black lung disease etc.
• Remedial measures:
• Safety of mine workers is usually not a priority subject of industry. Statistical data
show that, on an average, there are 30 non-fatal but disabling accidents per ton of
mineral produced and one death per 2.5 tons of mineral produced.
• In order to minimize the adverse impacts of mining it is desirable to adopt eco-
friendly mining technology. The low-grade ores can be better utilized by using
microbial-leaching technique.
• The bacterium Thiobacillus ferroxidans has been successfully and economically used
for extracting gold embedded in iron sulphide ore. The ores are inoculated with the
desired strains of bacteria, which remove the impurities (like Sulphur) and leave the
pure mineral. This biological method is helpful from economic as well as
environmental point of view.
• Restoration of mined areas by re-vegetating them with appropriate plant species,
stabilization of the mined lands, gradual restoration of flora, prevention of toxic
drainage discharge and conforming to the standards of air emissions are essential for
minimizing environmental impacts of mining.
FOOD RESOURCES:
• We have thousands of edible plants and animals over the world out of which only about
three dozen types constitute the major food of humans. The main food resources include
wheat, rice, maize, potato, barley, oats, cassava, sweet potato, sugarcane, pulses, sorghum,
millet, about twenty or so common fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, fish and seafood.
• Amongst these rice, wheat and maize are the major grains, about 1500 million metric tons
of which are grown each year, which is about half of all the agricultural crops.
• About 4 billion people in the developing countries have wheat and rice as their staple
food. Meat and milk are mainly consumed by more developed nations of North America,
Europe and Japan who consume about 80% of the total. Fish and sea-food contribute
about 70 million metric tons of high quality protein to the world diet.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations estimated that on an
average the minimum caloric intake on a global scale is 2,500 calories/day. People
receiving less than 90% of these minimum dietary calories are called undernourished and
if it is less than 80% they are said to be seriously undernourished.
• Besides the minimum caloric intake we also need proteins, minerals etc. Deficiency or
lack of nutrition often leads to malnutrition resulting in several diseases.
•WORLD FOOD PROBLEMS:
•During the last 50 years world grain production has increased almost three times, thereby increasing per
capita production by about 50%. But, at the same time population growth increased at such a rate in LDCs
(Less developed countries) that it outstripped food production.
•Every year 40 million people (fifty percent of which are young children between 1 to 5 years) die of
undernourishment and malnutrition. This means that every year our food problem is killing as many people
as were killed by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.
•Indian Scenario: Although India is the third largest producer of staple crops, an estimated 300 million Indians
are still undernourished. India has only half as much as USA, but it has nearly three times population to feed.
Our food problems are directly related to population.
•IMPACTS OF OVERGRAZING AND AGRICULTURE:
•(A) Overgrazing: Livestock wealth plays a crucial role in the rural life of our country. India leads in live stock
population in the world. The huge population of livestock needs to be fed and the grazing lands or pasture
areas are not adequate. Very often we find that the live stock grazing on a particular piece of grassland or
pasture surpass the carrying capacity. Let us see what are the impacts of overgrazing.
•Impact of Overgrazing :
•(i) Land Degradation: Overgrazing removes the vegetal cover over the soil and the exposed soil gets
compacted due to which the operative soil depth declines. So the roots cannot go much deep into the soil and
adequate soil moisture is not available.
•The humus content of the soil decreases and overgrazing leads to organically poor, dry, compacted soil. Due
to trampling by cattle the soil loses infiltration capacity, which reduces percolation of water into the soil and
as a result of this more water gets lost from the ecosystem along with surface run off. Thus over grazing leads
to multiple actions resulting in loss of soil structure, hydraulic conductivity and soil fertility.
• (ii) Soil Erosion: Due to overgrazing by cattle, the cover of vegetation almost gets removed from the land. The
soil becomes exposed and gets eroded by the action of strong wind, rainfall etc. The grass roots are very good
binders of soil. When the grasses are removed, the soil becomes loose and susceptible to the action of wind and
water.
• (iii) Loss of useful species: Overgrazing adversely affects the composition of plant population and their
regeneration capacity. The original grassland consists of good quality grasses and forbs with high nutritive value.
When the livestock graze upon them heavily, even the root stocks which carry the reserve food for regeneration
get destroyed.
• (B) Agriculture: In the early years of human existence on this earth, man was just a hunter gatherer and was
quite like other animal species. Some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago he took to agriculture by cultivating plants of his
own choice.
• 1. Traditional agriculture and its impacts: It usually involves a small plot, simple tools, naturally available
water, organic fertilizer and a mix of crops. It is more near to natural conditions and usually it results in low
production. It is still practiced by about half the global population.
• The main impacts of this type of agriculture are as follows:
• (i) Deforestation: The slash and burn of trees in forests to clear the land for cultivation and frequent shifting
result in loss of forest cover.
• (ii) Soil erosion: Clearing of forest cover exposes the soil to wind, rain and storms, thereby resulting in loss of
top fertile layer of soil.
• (iii) Depletion of nutrients: During slash and burn the organic matter in the soil gets destroyed and most of the
nutrients are taken up by the crops within a short period, thus making the soil nutrient poor which makes the
cultivators shift to another area.
• 2. Modern Agriculture and its impacts:
• It makes use of hybrid seeds of selected and single crop variety, high-tech equipment and lots of energy subsidies in the
form of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water. The food production has increased tremendously, evidenced by green
revolution however, it also gave rise to several problematic off-shoots as discussed below
• (i) Impacts related to high yielding varieties (HYV): The uses of HYVs encourage monoculture i.e. the same genotype is
grown over vast areas. In case of an attack by some pathogen, there is total devastation of the crop by the disease due to
exactly uniform conditions, which help in rapid spread of the disease.
• (ii) Fertilizer related problems:
• (a) Micronutrient imbalance: Most of the chemical fertilizers used in modern agriculture have nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium (N, P, K) which are essential macronutrients. Farmers usually use these fertilizers indiscriminately to boost
up crop growth. Excessive use of fertilizers cause micronutrient imbalance. For example, excessive fertilizer use in Punjab
and Haryana has caused deficiency of the micronutrient zinc in the soils, which is affecting productivity of the soil.
• (b) Nitrate Pollution: Nitrogenous fertilizers applied in the fields often leach deep into the soil and ultimately
contaminate the ground water. The nitrates get concentrated in the water and when their concentration exceeds 25 mg/L,
they become the cause of a serious health hazard called Blue Baby Syndrome. This disease affects the infants to the
maximum extent causing even death. In India also, problem of nitrate pollution exists in many areas.
• (c) Eutrophication: Excessive use of N and P fertilizers in the agricultural fields leads to another problem, which is not
related to the soil, but relates to water bodies like lakes. A large proportion of nitrogen and phosphorus used in crop fields
is washed off and along with runoff water reach the water bodies causing over nourishment of the lakes, a process known
as Eutrophication (eu=more, trophic=nutrition).
• Due to eutrophication the lakes get invaded by algal blooms. These algal species grow very fast by rapidly using up the
nutrients. The algal species quickly complete their life cycle and die thereby adding a lot of dead organic matter. The fishes
are also killed and there is a lot of dead matter that starts getting decomposed. Oxygen is consumed in the process of
decomposition and very soon the water gets depleted of dissolved oxygen. Thus, due to excessive use of fertilizers in the
agricultural fields the lake ecosystem gets degraded.
• (iii) Pesticide related problems:
• Thousands of types of pesticides are used in agriculture. The first generation pesticides
include chemicals like sulphur, arsenic, lead or mercury to kill the pests. DDT
(Dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane) whose insecticidal properties were discovered by Paul
Mueller in 1939 belongs to the second generation pesticides. After 1940, a large number of
synthetic pesticides came into use. Although these pesticides have gone a long way in
protecting our crops from huge losses occurring due to pests, yet they have a number of
side-effects, as discussed below:
• (a) Creating resistance in pests and producing new pests: Some individuals of the pest
species usually survive even after pesticide spray. The survivors give rise to highly resistant
generations. About 20 species of pests are now known which have become immune to all
types of pesticides and are known as super pests.
• (b) Death of non-target organisms: Many insecticides are broad spectrum poisons which
not only kill the target species but also several non-target species that are useful to us.
• (c) Biological magnification: Many of the pesticides are nonbiodegradable and keep on
accumulating in the food chain, a process called biological magnification. Since human
beings occupy a high trophic level in the food chain, hence they get the pesticides in a bio-
magnified form which is very harmful.
• (iv) Water Logging: Over irrigation of croplands by farmers for good growth of their crop
usually leads to waterlogging. Inadequate drainage causes excess water to accumulate
underground and gradually forms a continuous column with the water table. The water table
rises while the roots of plants do not get adequate air for respiration. Mechanical strength of
the soil declines, the crop plants get lodged and crop yield falls.
• Preventing excessive irrigation, sub-surface drainage technology and bio-drainage with trees
like Eucalyptus are some of the remedial measures to prevent water-logging.
• (v) Salinity problem: At present one third of the total cultivable land area of the world is
affected by salts. In India about seven million hectares of land are estimated to be salt affected
which may be saline or sodic. Saline soils are characterized by the accumulation of soluble
salts like sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride etc. in the
soil profile.
• Causes: A Major cause of salinization of soil is excessive irrigation. About 20% of the world
croplands receive irrigation with canal water or ground water which unlike rainwater often
contains dissolved salts. Under dry climates, the water evaporates leaving behind salts in the
upper soil profile.
• Remedy: The most common method for getting rid of salts is to flush them out by applying
more good quality water to such soils. Another method is laying underground network of
perforated drainage pipes for flushing out the salts slowly.
 ENERGY RESOURCES:
• Energy consumption of a nation is usually considered as an index of its development. This is because almost all the
developmental activities are directly or indirectly dependent upon energy. We find wide disparities in per capita
energy use between the developed and the developing nations.
• The first form of energy technology probably was the fire, which produced heat and the early man used it for
cooking and heating purposes. The invention of steam engines replaced the burning of wood by coal and coal was
later replaced to a great extent by oil.
• In 1970 due to Iranian revolution and Arab oil embargo the prices of oil shooted up. This ultimately led to
exploration and use of several alternate sources of energy.
• Development in different sectors relies largely upon energy. Agriculture, industry, mining, transportation, lighting,
cooling and heating in buildings all need energy. With the demands of growing population the world is facing
further energy deficit.
• The fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas which at present are supplying 95% of the commercial energy of the
world resources and are not going to last for many more years.
• RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
• A source of energy is one that can provide adequate amount of energy in a usable form over a long period of time.
These sources can be of two types:
• (1) Renewable Resources which can be generated continuously in nature and are inexhaustible e.g. wood, solar
energy, wind energy, tidal energy, hydropower, biomass energy, bio-fuels, geo-thermal energy and hydrogen. They
are also known as non-conventional sources of energy and they can be used again and again in an endless manner.
• (2) Non-renewable Resources which have accumulated in nature over a long span of time and cannot be quickly
replenished when exhausted e.g. coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear fuels like uranium and thorium.
• (a) Renewable Energy Resources:
• Solar energy: Sun is the ultimate source of energy, directly or indirectly for all other forms of energy. The nuclear fusion
reactions occurring inside the sun release enormous quantities of energy in the form of heat and light. The solar energy
received by the near earth space is approximately 1.4 kilojoules/second/m2 known as solar constant.
• Traditionally, we have been using solar energy for drying clothes and food-grains, preservation of eatables and for
obtaining salt from sea-water. Now we have several techniques for harnessing solar energy. Some important solar energy
harvesting devices are discussed here.
• (i) Solar heat collectors: These can be passive or active in nature. Passive solar heat collectors are natural materials like
stones, bricks etc. or material like glass which absorb heat during the day time and release it slowly at night. Active solar
collectors pump a heat absorbing medium (air or water) through a small collector which is normally placed on the top of
the building.
• (ii) Solar cells: They are also known as photovoltaic cells or PV cells. Solar cells are made of thin wafers of semi conductor
materials like silicon and gallium. When solar radiations fall on them, a potential difference is produced which causes flow
of electrons and produces electricity. Silicon can be obtained from silica or sand, which is abundantly available and
inexpensive. The potential difference produced by a single PV cell of 4 cm2 size is about 0.4-0.5 volts and produces a
current of 60 milli amperes.
• (iii) Solar water heater: It consists of an insulated box painted black from inside and having a glass lid to receive and
store solar heat. Inside the box it has black painted copper coil through which cold water is made to flow in, which gets
heated and flows out into a storage tank. The hot water from the storage tank fitted on roof top is then supplied through
pipes into buildings like hotels and hospitals.
• (iv) Solar furnace: Here thousands of small plane mirrors are arranged in concave reflectors, all of which collect the solar
heat and produce as high a temperature as 3000°C.
• (v) Solar power plant: Solar energy is harnessed on a large scale by using concave reflectors which cause boiling of water
to produce steam. The steam turbine drives a generator to produce electricity. A solar power plant (50 K Watt capacity)
has been installed at Gurgaon, Haryana.
• WIND ENERGY:
• The high speed winds have a lot of energy in them as kinetic energy due to their motion. The driving force of the winds
is the sun. The wind energy is harnessed by making use of wind mills. The blades of the wind mill keep on rotating
continuously due to the force of the striking wind.
• A large number of wind mills are installed in clusters called wind farms, which feed power to the utility grid and
produce a large amount of electricity.
• These farms are ideally located in coastal regions, open grasslands or hilly regions, particularly mountain passes and
ridges where the winds are strong and steady. The minimum wind speed required for satisfactory working of a wind
generator is 15 km/hr.
• The wind power potential of our country is estimated to be about 20,000 MW, while at present we are generating about
1020 MW. The largest wind farm of our country is near Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu generating 380 MW electricity.
• Wind energy is very useful as it does not cause any air pollution. After the initial installation cost, the wind energy is
very cheap. It is believed that by the middle of the century wind power would supply more than 10% of world
electricity.
• HYDROPOWER:
• The water flowing in a river is collected by constructing a big dam where the water is stored and allowed to fall from a
height. The blades of the turbine located at the bottom of the dam move with the fast moving water which in turn rotate
the generator and produces electricity.
• We can also construct mini or micro hydel power plants on the rivers in hilly regions for harnessing the hydro energy on a
small scale, but the minimum height of the water falls should be 10 metres. The hydropower potential of India is estimated
to be about 4 × 1011 KW-hours. Till now we have utilized only a little more than 11% of this potential.
• Hydropower does not cause any pollution, it is renewable and normally the hydro power projects are multi-purpose
projects helping in controlling floods, used for irrigation, navigation etc. However, big dams are often associated with a
number of environmental impacts which have already been discussed in the previous section.
• OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY (OTE):
• The energy available due to the difference in temperature of water at the surface of the tropical oceans
and at deeper levels is called Ocean Thermal Energy. A difference of 20°C or more is required between
surface water and deeper water of ocean for operating OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) power
plants.
• The warm surface water of ocean is used to boil a liquid like ammonia. The high pressure vapours of the
liquid formed by boiling are then used to turn the turbine of a generator and produce electricity.
• The colder water from the deeper oceans is pumped to cool and condense the vapours into liquid. Thus
the process keeps on going continuously for 24 hours a day.
• BIOFUELS:
• Biomass can be fermented to alcohols like ethanol and methanol which can be used as fuels. Ethanol can
be easily produced from carbohydrate rich substances like sugarcane. It burns clean and is non-polluting.
• However, as compared to petrol its calorific value is less and therefore, produces much less heat than
petrol. Gasohol is a common fuel used in Brazil and Zimbabwe for running cars and buses. In India too
gasohol is planned to be used on trial basis in some parts of the country, to start with in Kanpur. Gasohol is
a mixture of ethanol and gasoline.
• Methanol is very useful since it burns at a lower temperature than gasoline or diesel. Thus the bulky
radiator may be substituted by sleek designs in our cars. Methanol too is a clean, non-polluting fuel.
Methanol can be easily obtained from woody plants and ethanol from grain-based or sugar-containing
plants.
(b) Non-Renewable Energy Sources:
• These are the fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear fuels. These were formed by the
decomposition of the remains of plants and animals buried under the earth millions of years ago.
• The fuels are very precious because they have taken such a long time to be formed and if we exhaust their reserves
at such a fast rate as we have been doing, ever since we discovered them, then very soon we will lose these
resources forever.
• Coal:
• Coal was formed 255-350 million years ago in the hot, damp regions of the earth during the carboniferous age. The
ancient plants along the banks of rivers and swamps were buried after death into the soil and due to the heat and
pressure gradually got converted into peat and coal over millions of years of time.
• There are mainly three types of coal, namely anthracite (hard coal), bituminous (Soft coal) and lignite (brown coal).
• Anthracite coal has maximum carbon (90%) and calorific value (8700 kcal/kg.) Bituminous, lignite and peat
contain 80, 70 and 60% carbon, respectively. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world.
• At the present rate of usage, the coal reserves are likely to last for about 200 years and if its use increases by 2% per
year, then it will last for another 65 years.
• India has about 5% of worlds coal and Indian coal is not very good in terms of heat capacity. Major coal fields in
India are Raniganj, Jharia, Bokaro, Singrauli, and Godavari valley.
• When coal is burnt it produces carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas responsible for causing enhanced global
warming. Coal also contains impurities like sulphur and therefore as it burns the smoke contains toxic gases like
oxides of sulphur and nitrogen.
• Petroleum:
• It is the lifeline of global economy. There are 13 countries in the world having 67% of the petroleum
reserves which together form the
• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum exporting countries). About 1/4th of the oil reserves are in Saudi Arabia.
At the present rate of usage, the world crude oil reserves are estimated to get exhausted in just 40 years.
• Crude petroleum is a complex mixture of alkane hydrocarbons. Hence it has to be purified and refined by
the process of fractional distillation, during which process different constituents separate out at different
temperatures.
• We get a large variety of products from this, namely, petroleum gas, kerosene, petrol, diesel, fuel oil,
lubricating oil, paraffin wax, asphalt, plastic etc. Petroleum is a cleaner fuel as compared to coal as it burns
completely and leaves no residue. It is also easier to transport and use. That is the reason why petroleum is
preferred amongst all the fossil fuels.
• Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG):
• The main component of petroleum is butane, the other being propane and ethane. The petroleum gas is
easily converted to liquid form under pressure as LPG.
• It is odourless, but the LPG in our domestic gas cylinders gives a foul smell. This is, in fact, due to ethyl
mercaptan, a foul smelling gas, added to LPG so that any leakage of LPG from the cylinder can be detected
instantaneously.
• Oil fields in India are located at Digboi (Assam), Gujarat Plains and Bombay High, offshore areas in deltaic
coasts of Gadavari, Krishna, Kaveri and Mahanadi.
• Natural Gas:
• It is mainly composed of methane (95%) with small amounts of propane and ethane. It
is a fossil fuel. Natural gas deposits mostly accompany oil deposits because it has been
formed by decomposing remains of dead animals and plants buried under the earth.
• Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel. It can be easily transported through pipelines. It
has a high calorific value of about 50KJ/G and burns without any smoke. Russia has
maximum reserves (40%), followed by Iran (14%) and USA (7%).
• Natural gas reserves are found in association with all the oil fields in India. Some new
gas fields have been found in Tripura, Jaisalmer, Off-shore area of Mumbai and the
Krishna Godavari Delta.
• Natural gas is used as a domestic and industrial fuel. It is used as a fuel in thermal
power plants for generating electricity. It is used as a source of hydrogen gas in
fertilizer industry and as a source of carbon in tyre industry.
• Compressed natural gas (CNG): It is being used as an alternative to petrol and diesel
for transport of vehicles. Delhi has totally switched over to CNG where buses and auto
rickshaws run on this new fuel. CNG use has greatly reduced vehicular pollution in the
city.
ALL THE BEST