A Canadian company, Trans Canada, wants to begin a project on an oil pipeline that goes from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. However, the Keystone Pipeline carries tar sands oil. This is the dirtiest fuel in the world because it can destroy ecosystem, pollute water sources and put people’s health in danger. There’s a great possibility the pipeline could import dirty tar sands in United States and Gulf Coast’s refineries. Trees intake carbon dioxide from the air, and digging up tar sands oil from the ground can annihilate forests. When tar spills, it is hard and expensive to clean up because it doesn’t float. Tar sand is made from bitumen: mixture of clay, sand, water, and oil. Bitumen is extracted from the sand through mining or from heating in situ. Situ produces higher emissions of greenhouse gases.

There are two ways bitumen can be converted into oil. The first one is adding hydrogen to increase the ratio (hydrogen-carbon) by reacting the bitumen with hydrogen rich compound. The second technique is separating bitumen into carbon and hydrogen rich products. Both processes require the removal of sulfur and nitrogen to strengthen the synthetic crude oil. Refining tar sands oil is dirtier because it produces sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide; this can contribute to higher emissions. These toxic wastes cause smogs, acid rain, and respiratory problems like asthma. United States is already dealing with carbon dioxide rising and now this will create more problems. What is the purpose of this? The health of our people should matter more than this pipeline.

The project can give at least 20,000 new jobs to United States, but it needs permission from Obama to complete the construction. During Mid-April 2014, Obama administrations halt the Presidential Permit.It’ll go through 16 counties in North and East Texas and 6 states (Texas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma). On March 2013, a pipeline carried at least 12,000 barrels of oil burst down residential streets. Although, there are controversy about the pipeline. There is a good benefit for United States. It can stop relying on oil from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria; increase supplies from Canada. In my opinion, this can create danger for the people in U.S.A especially with health issue. I thought it would be better to focus on how to decrease the usage of fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. I do not want to breath in more polluted air. My question is what’s U.S number one priority for its citizens?

References:

http://www.foe.org/projects/climate-and-energy/tar-sands/keystone-xl-pipeline

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/keystone-xl-pipeline/

http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/the-keystone-xl-pipeline

My group members and I decided on an experiment, Exploring Wind Turbine, and we were excited to start the project. However, the wind turbine kit could have not been found. Literally, my group and Dr.Shatz had to think of new techniques to still use the fan to generate voltage. We went from one idea to another and basically tried to figure out how to tape the flashlight to blade of fan. I pushed the blade of the fan just to see the voltage energy on the voltmeter. I was determined not to look for a new experiment. Thanks to Bassam and his brains he figured out a great idea. We took three strong magnets and taped it to each of the fan’s blade. Then, I took the inside part of the flashlight where the coil is located and Dr.Shatz held it from the fan. One of group members  turned on the fan and the voltmeter showed it was generating voltage energy. I do like this experiment because it relates to Faraday’s law and wind turbine. From the fan, it is possible to change the speed and distance.  Overall, we will continue this experiment.

Faraday’s Law explains the change of magnetic field can create voltage and cause current to flow in wires. Basically, Faraday realized the change in magnetic field (magnetic flux) and size of the field relate to the current created. The generator experiment is based on this law to indicate the number of shakes will generate a higher voltage. In this lab, the NXT and lab view were used to retrieve the voltage within 30 secs. My lab partners and I had to count the number of shakes for each trial. After the shakes, the lab view showed list of voltages for every trial.  The sum of voltages was squared.  The highest voltage is 441.3 with 150 shakes. Based on my data, it shows the voltages increase as the shakes increase.

http://www.physics4kids.com/files/elec_faraday.html (reference)

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/farlaw.html (reference)

Shakes                                                  Sum of squared voltages

Couple weeks ago my freshman seminar class had a field trip to MIT nuclear reactor. There was a lecture about the reactor before we went inside. I learned from the power point the reactor operates 24/7 up to 6 MW thermal power and it has sixty-five percent of capacity factor. It is four and half in diameter and no more than two feet; it has 3,000 MW reactors. The MITR-2 uses heavy water for neutron reflection; the light water cools and moderates it using aluminum clad fuel elements. It contains safety channels with three power levels and three on reactor period. There are six boron stainless blades in the core that are positioned in hexagonal shape; any of the blades can shut down the reactor less than one second. I remembered Lin-Wen Hu explained there were 92 elements on the periodic table and anything greater than Uranium was man-made materials (unstable radioactivity). He talked about the Chernobyl and sand contains boron. Lin discussed the one-way chain reaction is intended to prevent atomic bombs and in every generation 2 of 3 neutrons are removed to control the nuclear reactor. The reactor is incapable of melting down and every power plant in United States has an atomic relieve valve of hydrogen. The tour around the reactor was extremely fun I was able to see the control room and it was fascinating to be inside the nuclear reactor. This trip makes me love MIT more and I am considering going there in the future.

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/index.html