Water Use Efficiency of Our Energy Sources

Here is a heat rate conversions chart from the Energy Information Administration. For more information about water use, check out "The Intertwined Tale of Energy and Water".

FUELSOURCE/POWER GENERATION	LOW-END WATER USE (gallons/millionBtu)	HIGH-END WATER USE (gallons/millionBtu)

Natural Gas	3	N/A
Coal	41	164
Hydrogen	143	243
Liquid natural gas	145	N/A
Petroleum/Oil-electric sector	1,200	2,420
Fuel ethanol	2,510	29,100
Biodiesel	14,000	75,000

Hydroelectric	20	N/A
Geothermal	130	N/A
Solar Thermoelectric	230	270
Fossil Fuel Thermoelectric	1,100	2,200
Nuclear	2,400	5,800

Comments

L S 1/13/2009 2:25:04 PM

The chart cannot be used to gauge the water efficiency of natural gas as long as the space for high-end consumption has no data.
In fact, as the easy-to-access gas has mostly been extracted and used up, natural gas production increasingly relies on the abuse of several million gallons of water per well to hydraulically fracture tight shales.
This water is not only purposely contaminated with drilling and fracking chemicals but after use becomes a serious disposal issue.
Both trucking the supply of water to the drill site and then trucking it away also require the consumption of fossil fuels, which - you guessed it - used and polluted water in their own production phase.
Ultimately, I would not be at all surprised to find that in terms of water consumption, natural gas is the worst energy source, not the best.
Cliff Allen 8/4/2008 11:23:55 AM

Good articles.
PE 8/4/2008 10:55:12 AM

Oops! "Chart at right" has vanished, which makes the text more opaque.

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