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TEEIC - Energy affairs Category: Earth and Environment > Energy terms Date & country: 28/02/2017, UK Words: 518

Distributed generation
Refers to electricity provided by small, modular power generators (typically ranging in capacity from a few kilowatts to 50 megawatts) located at or near customer demand.

distributed low-head
The generation of small-scale low-head hydropower that is distributed by power lines in a local area. For example, individual farms, homes, or businesses may have their own low-head hydropower facility.

Direct use
Use of geothermal heat without first converting it to electricity, such as for space heating and cooling, food preparation, industrial processes, etc.

Directional drilling
The intentional deviation of a wellbore from vertical to reach subsurface areas off to one side from the surface drilling site.

Disposal well
A well into which produced water from other wells is injected into an underground formation for disposal. Disposal wells typically are subject to regulatory requirements to avoid the contamination of freshwater aquifers.

Dextrose
A sugar found in plant and animal tissue and derived synthetically from starch.

Digester
An airtight vessel or enclosure in which bacteria decomposes biomass in the absence of oxygen to produce biogas.

Direct current
(DC) A steady current that flows in one direction only. The current from batteries is an example of direct current.

Dewatering
The removal or draining of water from an area. Removal or separation of a portion of the water in a sludge or slurry to dry the sludge so it can be handled and disposed of; removal or draining the water from a tank or trench.

Delineation well
A well drilled just outside of the proved area of an oil gas reservoir in an attempt to extend the known boundaries of the reservoir.

Decomposition
(process) The biochemical process by which biological materials are broken down into smaller particles, and eventually, into basic chemical compounds and elements.

Decomposer
An organism that gains energy by breaking down the final remains of living things. Predominantly bacteria and fungi, decomposers are important in freeing the last of minerals and nutrients from organics and recycling them back into the food web.

Danger trees
Trees located outside or inside the right-of-way that pose a threat to the operation of a transmission line.

Decommissioning
All activities necessary to take out of service and dispose of a facility after its useful life.

CWA
Clean Water Act.

Cyclone separator
A device used to remove particulate matter suspended in exhaust gas.

CZMA
Coastal Zone Management Act

Current
The movement of electricity through a conductor. It is measured in amperes.

Cultural Resources
The archaeological sites, historic structures and features, and traditional cultural properties of human occupation or use, including manufactured objects, such as tools or buildings. Cultural resources may also include objects, sites, or natural features significant to Native Americans.

Crude oil
A mixture of various hydrocarbon compounds and other materials, usually containing about 84% carbon, 14% hydrogen, 1–3% sulfur; and nitrogen, oxygen, heavy metals, and salts that total less than 1%. Crude oil is a nonrenewable source of energy (fossil fuel). Crude oil is measured in barrels (one barrel equals 42 gallons).

Crustal rock
Refers to rocks comprising the continental crust, which are typically granitic in composition.

Criteria air pollutants
Six common air pollutants for which National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) have been established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Title I of the Clean Air Act. They are sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), and lead. Standards were developed for these pollutants on the basis of scientific knowledge about their health effects.

Cryptobiotic soils
A biological soil crust composed of living cyanobacteria, green algae, brown algae, fungi, lichens, and/or mosses. Commonly found in arid regions around the world, cryptobiotic soils are important members of desert ecosystems and contribute to the well being of other plants by stabilizing sand and dirt, promoting moisture retention, and fixing atmospheric nitrogen.

Corn stover
The refuse of a corn crop (e.g., stalks, leaves, husks, and cobs) after the grain is harvested.

Corona
The electrical breakdown of air into charged particles, caused by the electric field at the surface of conductors.

Corona discharge/noise
The electrical breakdown of air into charged particles. The phenomenon appears as a bluish-purple glow on the surface of and adjacent to a conductor when the voltage gradient exceeds a certain critical value, thereby producing light, audible noise (described as crackling or hissing), and ozone.

Convection
The heat transfer between a solid and a moving fluid.

Combustion gases
The gases released from a combustion process.

Compressor
A machine used to boost natural gas pressure to move it through pipelines or other facilities.

Compressor station
A permanent facility housing one or more compressors.

Conductor
Metal wires, cables, and bus-bars used for carrying electric current. Conductors may be solid or stranded, that is, built up by an assembly of smaller solid conductors.

Coalbed methane
Coalbed methane is methane contained in coal seams, and is often referred to as virgin coalbed methane, or coal seam gas.

Combustion
A chemical process in which a substance (fuel) reacts rapidly with oxygen and gives off heat.

Closed system
A cooling system that exchanges heat with its surroundings by conduction and convection.

Climate change
Refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer). Climate change may result from natural factors, such as changes in the Sun’s intensity or slow changes in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun; natural processes within the climate system (such as changes in ocean circulation); human activities that change the atmosphere’s composition (through burning fossil fuels); and the land surface (for example, deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.).

Chipper
A machine that produces wood chips by knife action.

Chips
Small fragments of wood chopped or broken by mechanical equipment. Total tree chips include wood, bark, and foliage. Pulp chips or clean chips are free of bark and foliage.

Christmas trees
1) Drilling: The set of valves, spools and fittings connected to the top of a well to direct and control the flow of formation fluids from the well. 2) Well completions: An assembly of valves, spools, pressure gauges and chokes fitted to the wellhead of a completed well to control production.. `Christmas trees` are available in a wide range of sizes and configurations, such as low- or high-pressure capacity and single- or multiple-completion capacity.

Check dam
A small dam constructed in a gully or other small water course to decrease the streamflow velocity, minimize channel erosion, promote deposition of sediment, and divert water from a channel.

Char
The remains of solid biomass that has been incompletely combusted, such as charcoal if wood is incompletely burned.

Charcoal
Black, porous, carbonaceous material produced by the destructive distillation of wood and used as a fuel, filter, and absorbent. Charcoal is almost pure carbon, with about twice the energy content per unit mass as the original wood; therefore, it can burn at a much higher temperature than wood.

CFR
Code of Federal Regulations.

Cellulosic biomass
That portion of plants that are composed of complex sugar polymers and complex polysaccharides.

CEQ
Council on Environmental Quality.

CERCLA
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

CERT
Council of Energy Resource Tribes.

CFL
Compact fluorescent bulb.

Cellulose
A carbohydrate that is the principal component of wood. It is made of linked glucose molecules that strengthen the cell walls of most plants.

CBM
Coal bed methane.

Cavitation
The formation and collapse of vapor- or gas-filled cavities that result from a sudden decrease and increase of pressure. Cavitation can cause mechanical damage to adjacent surfaces in meters, valves, pumps, and pipes at locations where flowing liquid encounters a restriction or change in direction.

Catalytic fuels synthesis unit
A tank in which syngas is mixed with oil and a catalyst that converts the syngas into a mixture of alcohols or biofuel.

Casing
Steel pipe placed in an oil or gas well to prevent the hole from collapsing.

Catalyst
A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed or produced by the reaction. Enzymes are catalysts for many biochemical reactions.

Carbon sink
A pool (reservoir) that absorbs or takes up released carbon from another part of the carbon cycle. For example, if the net exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere is toward the atmosphere, the biosphere is the source, and the atmosphere is the sink. Forests and oceans are large carbon sinks that partially offset greenhouse gas emissions by storing more carbon than they release.

Carbon source
A pool (reservoir) that releases carbon to another part of the carbon cycle.

Carbonless sources of energy
Technologies that generate energy without producing and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Sources include solar power, wind power, geothermal energy, biomass energy, low-head hydropower, hydrokinetics (wave and tidal power), and nuclear power.

carbon monoxide
(CO) A colorless, odorless gas that is toxic if breathed in high concentrations over an extended period. Carbon monoxide is a criteria air pollutant. One source of carbon monoxide is engine exhaust.

Carbon sequestration
The uptake and storage of carbon. Trees and plants, for example, absorb carbon dioxide, release the oxygen, and store the carbon. Fossil fuels were at one time biomass and continue to store carbon until burned.

Carbon capture and storage
(CSS) A technique for trapping carbon dioxide as it is emitted from large point sources, compressing it, and transporting it to a suitable storage site, where it is injected into the ground.

Carbon cycle
Term used to describe the flow of carbon in various forms such as carbon dioxide CO2 organic matter, and carbonates through the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial biosphere, and lithosphere.

Carbon dioxide
(CO2) A colorless, odorless, nonpoisonous gas that occurs naturally as part of the earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a product of fossil fuel combustion, as well as other processes. It is considered a greenhouse gas because it traps heat radiated into the atmosphere. It is the reference gas against which other greenhouse gases are measured, and therefore, has a Global Warming Potential of 1.

Carbon capture
To remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or prevent its emission into the atmosphere through storage.

Carbon
(C) An abundant non-metallic element (atomic number 6) that occurs in all organic compounds. It exists naturally in three forms (diamond, graphite, and amorphous). Diamond and graphite are pure forms of carbon. Carbon is a major component of coal, oil, and crude oil.

Carbon (offset) credits
Part of a tradable permit scheme. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by assigning them a monetary value. A credit gives the owner the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide

Cap-and-trade
A system designed to limit and reduce carbon emissions. Cap-and-trade regulation creates a single market mechanism as opposed to a command-and-control approach that prescribes reductions on a source-by-source basis. Cap-and-trade regulation sets an overall limit on carbon emissions and allows entities subject to the system to comply by reducing emissions at their covered facilities and/or by purchasing emission allowances (or credits) from other entities that have reduced emissions beyond their compliance obligations.

Carbohydrates
Organic compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen and having approximately the formula CH2On. Carbohydrates include starches, cellulosics, and sugars.

By-product
Material, other than the principal product, generated as a consequence of an industrial process or as a breakdown product in a living system.

CAA
Clean Air Act.

Capacity factor
The ratio of electricity generated, for the period of time considered, to the energy that could have been generated at continuous full-power operation during the same period.

Buoy
A float; especially a floating object moored to the bottom, to mark a channel, anchor, shoal rock, etc.

Borrow material
Earth materials such as sand and gravel.

Borrow pit
A pit or excavation area used for gathering earth materials (borrow) such as sand or gravel.

Bubble curtain
A device used during pile-driving without cofferdams that will surround the large-diameter piles and generate bubbles to attenuate peak underwater sound pressure levels, which may adversely affect fish and marine mammals.

boreal
(reservoirs) Related to northern regions.

Borehole
The circular hole made by drilling that extends from the surface to the gas resource to be recovered.

Bone dry
(oven dry) Having 0^% moisture content. Wood heated in an oven at a constant temperature of 212 degrees F or above until its weight stabilizes is considered bone dry or oven dry.

BOEMRE
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, U.S. Department of the Interior. This agency was formerly called the Minerals Management Service (MMS).

BLM
Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Biota
The living organisms in a given region.

Biomass feedstocks
Any material used as a fuel directly or converted to another form of fuel or energy product.

Biomass
Any plant-derived organic matter. Biomass available for energy on a sustainable basis includes herbaceous and woody energy crops, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants, and other waste materials, including some municipal wastes. Biomass is a very heterogeneous and chemically complex renewable resource.

Bioenergy
The production, conversion, and use of material directly or indirectly produced by photosynthesis (including organic waste) to manufacture fuels and substitutes for petrochemical and other energy-intensive products.

Biofuels
Liquid, solid, or gaseous fuel produced by the conversion of biomass. Examples include bioethanol from sugar cane or corn, charcoal or woodchips, and biogas from anaerobic decomposition of wastes.

Biogas
A combustible gas derived from decomposing biological waste under anaerobic conditions. Biogas normally consists of 50 to 60^% methane.

Biodiesel
A biodegradable transportation fuel for use in diesel engines. Biodiesel is produced through the transesterification of organically derived oils or fats. It may be used either as a replacement for or as a component of diesel fuel.

BIA
Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Bilge water
A term used to describe the water that collects in the lowest compartment (bilge) of a ship, generally caused by seawater penetration.

Binary cycle
Binary geothermal systems that use extracted hot water or steam to heat a secondary fluid, which then drives a power turbine.

Best Management Practices
(BMPs) A practice (or combination of practices) that is determined to provide the most effective, environmentally sound, and economically feasible means of managing an activity and mitigating its impacts.

Berm
A raised area with vertical or sloping sides.

Benthic
Living in or occurring at the bottom of a body of water.

Bathymetry
The measurement of depths of water in oceans, seas, and lakes; also information derived from such measurements. Topography of the ocean floor indicated by depth contours drawn at regular intervals.

Barrage
A barrage is a dam placed across an inlet or estuary that allows a basin to fill during the incoming high tide and then water is directed through turbines during the outgoing tide.

Barrage system
A barrage or dam is typically used to convert tidal energy into electricity by forcing the water through turbines, activating a generator. Gates and turbines are installed along the dam. When the tides produce an adequate difference in the level of the water on opposite sides of the dam, the gates are opened. The water then flows through the turbines. The turbines turn an electric generator to produce electricity. A barrage facility operates like a hydroelectric dam and power plant.

Axial flow turbine
A turbine that typically has two or three blades mounted on a horizontal shaft to form a rotor; the kinetic motion of the water current creates lift on the blades causing the rotor to turn driving a mechanical generator. These turbines must be oriented in the direction of flow. There are shrouded and open rotor models.

Background-level noise
Noise in the environment (other than noise from the source of interest).

Baghouse
A chamber containing fabric filter bags that remove particles from furnace stack exhaust gases. Used to eliminate particles greater than 20 microns in diameter.

Ballast water
Water carried in special (ballast) tanks of ships and used to provide stability needed when carrying less than a full load of cargo and to keep the ship at the proper depth in the water. When the ship is loaded with cargo, the ballast water is released to surrounding waters; when the ship is empty, it takes on more water to keep it upright.

Aquatic biota
Collective term describing the organisms living in and depending on the aquatic environment.

Aquifer
An underground bed or layer of earth, gravel, or porous stone that yields usable quantities of water to a well or spring.