1 Introduction Imagine a day without electricity; you woke up late realizing your alarm clock did not ring

because there is no electricity. You go and take a shower and realize that there is only cold water because there is no power for the heater. You open the refrigerator and realize most of your food has gone bad without the refrigerator cooling to preserve your food. You have to walk or ride a bicycle to school instead of taking the MRT, bus or car as they are not working without electricity. When you finally reach the lecture theatre, you end up in a dark and hot lecture hall with no lights and air-conditioning.

Electricity has already become an important source of energy in our daily life. How did this source of energy come about? We do not have the technology yet to harness directly from the power of nature. Hence, in this paper, the aim is to analyze law of energy conservation and thermodynamics using the generation of electricity and the electrical appliances we use in our daily life.

2.1 Conservation of energy The total energy of an isolated system cannot change. Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can change form. 2.2 Internal Energy Internal energy of a system is the sum (U) of the kinetic and potential energies of the molecules that form the system. Molecules in the system can and will move around in random motion. There are three types of motion that a gas molecule can move: translational, molecular rotation and intramolecular vibration motion. In order to move, the molecules must contain kinetic energy. Thermal energy is the sum of the kinetic energy of random thermal motion of all molecules. The average translation kinetic energy of molecules is proportionate to absolute temperature. The average kinetic energy for monoatomic gas can be calculated by Eq. (1)

KEavg

3 kT 2

(1)

Where k is the Boltzmann constant of 1.38x10-23J/K Microscopic potential energy of the molecules is the sum of the energy of the intermolecular attraction between molecules. Some examples are electric potential energy between bonded atoms, van der Waals' forces of attraction between gas molecules, or hydrogen bonding.

2.2 First law of thermodynamics First law of thermodynamics is the application of the conservation energy principle. By arbitrarily dividing the universe into a system and its surrounding, we can state based on the principle of conservation of energy as Eq. (2). Euniv = Esys + Esurr = 0 (2)

This means that the sum of all energy changes in the system we defined and the energy change of its surrounding will be zero. Energy can be transferred from one system to another through work (W) or heat (Q) energy. Thus, Eq. (3) shows a more useful form of equation commonly used to show the conservation of energy of a non-isolated system. Esys = Q + W surrounding and the work done on the system by its surrounding. 1 (3) The increase in the energy of a closed system (Esys) is equal to the sum of the heat energy gained from its

2.3 Second law of thermodynamics "Entropy is a thermodynamic potential and a quantitative measure of irreversibility. A system and its surrounding create an isolated composite system where the sum of the entropies of all reversible changes remains the same, and increases during irreversible processes." 2 In other words, energy converted from one form to another will always result in an increase in entropy unless it is a completely reversible process (e.g. conservative energy such as gravitational energy and kinetic energy). The entropy of a system will not change when the system and its surrounding possess the same amount of entropy.

3.1 Application of First Law of thermodynamic and Energy Conservation Electricity used in our daily life is generated from a varied source of energy. What remains the same for all of the energy used is that law of energy conservation is always observed. Energy source such as chemical potential energy stored in fossil fuels or natural gas, kinetic energy from wind, gravitational potential energy in water using dam and energy input from the source must satisfy the electrical energy gained and any other energy conversion such as heat loss due to friction. In this paper, we will examine how a natural gas power plant generate the electricity using natural gas as it is the main source of energy for our electricity in Singapore.3 Power plant makes use of a thermodynamic cycle called the Rankine Cycle to extract useful energy from chemical potential energy to be converted into electrical energy.

Figure 1: T-S diagram of Rankine Cycle4

The energy changes that occur in Rankine cycle mostly involve the internal energy of water of the system. Water is first pressurized by an external pump from point 1 to 2 in figure 1. Due to energy
being supplied by the pump as work on water, it causes an increase in the internal energy of system, hence temperature increases. The increase in pressure on water also increases the work required by water to expand. The work done by the expansion of gas is calculated by Eq. (4) W=-PV (4)

The negative sign in Eq. (4) indicates that energy is required by the gas to expand against the surrounding. At a higher pressure, water boils at a higher temperature. Due to a higher pressure, more work is required to expand the gas to the same amount of volume as before. Thus, the system needs to have additional energy resulting in a higher boiling temperature. As a result, the heat and work energy supplied by its surrounding is used to increase the internal energy. The -PV in Eq. (5) indicates that internal energy of the system provides the energy for work done on the surrounding by water. U = Q + W - P V (5)

For an open system, the pressure of the surrounding and the system will be constant. Some gas may escape or enter the system which means that work is done. Hence, energy is required to do work against or on the surroundings. For liquid and solid, the change in volume is negligible, hence any increase in energy will be used to increase temperature of the system. However, for gas, the change in volume is not negligible. In order to calculate the actual energy used to increase the energy of the system, enthalpy (H) is introduced to simplify the calculation. H = U + (PV) (6)

If we substitute Eq. (6) into Eq. (5), we get the Eq. (7)1 H= Q + W (7) By comparing the H for both point 3 in figure 1 and H, if it was not pressurized means that the total energy per unit volume at point 3 in figure 1 is much higher than it would be if it was not pressurized.

From point 2 to point 3 in figure 1, heat energy is supplied to the water which results in further increase of temperature due to increase in enthalpy of water. A heat energy source has to be supplied as the system cannot generate this energy on its own based on the law of energy conservation. Hence, in this case, natural gas is supplied as the source of energy. Methane is the main component of natural gas.5 To illustrate how chemical potential energy is converted to heat energy, we will take the combustion of methane as an example in figure 2.

Figure 2: Energy level Diagram of Combustion of Methane6

Figure 2 shows the energy that a state of molecules is holding relative to the energy of the reactants (CH4 + 2O2) From figure 2, we can see that one mole of CO2 and two moles of H2O combined have a energy level lower than one mole of CH4 and two moles of O2. Thus 802kJ/mol of energy has to be released in the form of heat and light energy. This is also called an exothermic reaction.6 Thus, the energy came from the chemical potential energy held by the chemical bonds of the molecules. The energy released is supplied to the system causing a further increase in the internal energy of water. Since internal energy is the sum of both the kinetic and potential energy of the molecules in the system, the initial increase in the internal energy is mostly due to the increase in kinetic energy in water causing the temperature to rise. Further increase in the internal energy allowed the molecules to overcome the hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals' forces between the molecules and do work on the surrounding to expand. Thus, allowing liquid water molecules to break free and become vapor water molecules.

From point 3 to 4 in figure 1, work is done on the turbine by water. Enthalpy of water is converted into mechanical energy of the turbine which is then used to generate electricity. The work done on turbine by water spins the motor connected to the turbine generator shafts causing magnetic induction which converts the mechanical energy of the turbine into electrical energy. This electrical energy is the energy that enabled us to provide power for our computers, street lights, television, heaters and many more which we often used in our daily life. The high pressure and temperature of steam become relatively low at output as it lost its energy in the process.

From point 4 to point 1 in figure 1, waste heat energy is extracted from the steam output condensing the wet vapor to saturated liquid, removing excess temperature and pressure. The removal of temperature and pressure ensures that the temperature and pressure at the condenser remains constant to maintain efficiency of the system. The liquid is then fed through the pump to be reused for the cycle again.

Overall, taking the system as a whole, even though the enthalpy of water has been changing throughout the process, the overall change of enthalpy of water is zero. This is because enthalpy is only a function of the temperature and pressure. As it returns back to its initial state at point 1 in figure 1, there is no change. This is due to the energy of the combustion of natural gas that gets converted to the work energy of the turbine in order to generate electricity for us.

3.2 Usage of electricity in our daily life One of numerous usage of electricity is to convert it into light energy. Light bulb that sources its energy from electricity is commonly used in street lights, signboards and many appliances found in our daily life. Electricity is passed through the tungsten in the bulb, generating heat and light energy. As an electrical current is made up of the movement of free electrons, the flow from the negative end to the positive end of the wire causes electrons to bump into the atoms of the filament. This causes the filament to heat up as more electrons transfer their energy to the filament material.7 When the filament atoms are heated up to a temperature high enough, the electrons in the filament atom will have enough energy to get excited to the next energy level. When the atoms fall back to their original energy level, the atoms releases a packet of energy which is called photon or light energy. The total energy is conserved throughout the process as electrical energy is converted into both heat energy and light energy.

Another usage of electricity is in air-conditioning and refrigerator. Both air-conditioner and refrigerator have a similar process that makes use of the energy changes that occurred during the phase change of the

refrigerant. The boiling point of the refrigerant used has to be lower than the surrounding. In order for a liquid to turn into gas, it requires heat energy from its surrounding to break free of the intermolecular forces of attraction between its molecules. Thus, the energy of the air molecules in the room is transferred to the refrigerant, cooling the room down. The refrigerant vapor is then transported to a container outside to be compressed back again to liquid. In order to compress the refrigerant, electrical energy is used by the compressor to do work on the gas and turn it back into liquid. Using Eq. (3), an increase in pressure on the gas will result in an increase in the energy of the system. Since there is negligible kinetic energy and potential energy increase, the internal energy of the refrigerant increases, causing a rise in temperature. The temperature gained is then removed as heat energy to the surrounding which further increases the rate of condensing. The liquid refrigerant is then transported back into the room to be evaporated. The cycle repeats. 8

4. Limitation of energy conservation In the real world, heat energy is lost via many different ways, heat loss to environment, heat loss as friction, leftover energy loss through condenser, etcetera. Even in the ideal situation, where there is no heat loss to any other factor, we will never be able to achieve 100 percent thermal efficiency for any energy conversion that converts heat to useful energy such as mechanical energy. Efficiency is the useful energy produced (mechanical energy gained by turbine) divided by the total energy supplied. This is due to the law of energy conservation and second law of thermodynamic. Energy will always flow from a hot region to a cold region to generate positive entropy. For example, when heat energy of steam is converted to work done on turbine, heat energy will also be transferred to the turbine at the same time. This results in a rise in temperature of the turbine. Hence, in order to achieve 100 percent thermal efficiency, there must be no temperature difference between the steam and turbine. However, zero temperature difference will result in no net energy flow as both systems are at the same energy level, resulting in no work done to the turbine. This is because for energy to flow there has to be an energy difference to allow energy from a higher region to flow to the lower region. Thus, the theoretical efficiency that we can achieved from a heat cycle is as shown in Eq. (4) 8 Theoretical Efficiency = Thot - Tcold x 100% Thot (4)

Another limitation is that energy gets less useful as it is used.9 From point 3 to 4 in figure 1, the heat energy that is extracted from the system is considered as waste heat energy.4 It means that the energy is useless to generate any power for us. In order to further extract this energy, very large and expensive equipment is needed due to the small temperature difference between the output steam and the ambient temperature.

Overall, the total entropy of the system has increased. Concentrated source of energy (chemical potential energy in natural gas) has been diffused to heat and electrical energy which is converted again too many other forms of energy such as heat in hair dryer, mechanical energy in washing machine, lights, electronic devices. During each conversion, energy is leaked out to the surrounding as a low grade thermal energy to the atmosphere which cannot be reused. The total energy is still conserved throughout the whole process satisfying the first law and entropy increases due to the spreading of energy satisfying the second law. The expended energy is unable to reverse the process on its own and convert back to chemical potential energy. Hence, in order to keep generating electricity, new concentrated source of energy has to be provided which is in this case new continuous supply of natural gas. 9

Implications Due to the very low entropy of our source of energy, their rate of forming is very slow. As we continue using our source of energy at a much faster rate than their rate of forming, they will eventually run out. The total entropy of our Earth will also increase as concentrated source of energy gets converted to low grade thermal energy. However, as we are not an isolated system, we are continuously exchanging energy with the universe to maintain the entropy of Earth in the form of radiating heat energy and receiving low entropy energy as solar energy. In order to not run out of resource, we have to start using alternative sources. Renewable energy has been gaining popularity as a source to replace our current source of energy. The main source of renewable now is solar and nuclear energy. Solar energy comes in the direct form: sunlight directly from the sun or indirect, wind, tide, gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy of rivers. As our technology advances, we may be able to greater increase our efficiency in harnessing this energy and reducing entropy gained but we can never reduce entropy of a system without increasing the entropy of its surrounding at a higher rate.

Reference

1. G. Bodner, Purdue University College (West Lafayette, October 16, 2013); http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch21/chemical.php

2. Y. Demirel, Nonequilibrium thermodynamics transport and rate processes in physical, chemical and biological systems 2nd ed. (Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2007).

3. Energy Market Authority (Singapore, October 17,2013); http://www.ema.gov.sg/LNG/

4. W. H. Wiser, Energy resources: occurrence, production, conversion, use. (Springer, New York, 2000)

5. United States Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, D.C, September 9, 2013); http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html

6. C. Ophardt, Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, November 16, 2013); http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/512energycombust.html 7. S. Kitsinelis, Light sources: technologies and applications. (Boca Raton, Taylor &

Francis, 2010)
8. A. Ameen, Refrigeration and air conditioning (New Delhi, Prentice-Hall of India, 2006)

9. D. Watson. (November 16, 2013); http://www.ftexploring.com/energy/2nd_Law.html