1) How much oil is the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve? For how much time could the reserve supply the oil we're now importing from other countries?

2) Research advanced combined-cycle power plant designs and find an example of a contemporary high-efficiency design. Give the manufacturer, the total power output, and the overall efficiency. From the highest and lowest temperatures, calculate the thermodynamic efficiency limit: the theoretical maximum for any heat engine operating between these temperatures. Compare this result with the actual overall efficiency.

3) Find the composition of a typical gasoline, listing the major chemical components and the percentage of each.

4) Find the latest edition of the U.S. Department of Energy's Monthly Energy Review (available online). Under the "International petroleum" section, find data you can use to produce a graph of world oil production versus time. Is Hubbert's peak evident yet?

5) Consult the U.S. Energy Information Administration's International Energy Statistics web site to find data on world oil consumption. Plot the data from the year 2000 to the present and fit an exponential function (which will involve the term where t is the time in years). Compare the growth rate r of your exponential fit with the 1.3% figure used in Box 5.3

ESSAY/LAB FORMAT PLEASE

MUST INCLUDE:

Introduction to Data (Error) and Hypothesis on the Experiment

Experimental Setup Discussion of the Experimental Steps and Procedures Results of Experiment Conclusion References

BOOK : Energy, Environment and Climate

Third Edition

by Richard Wolfson

CHAPTER 5