Introduction

 

A black and white photograph shows an Inuit woman in a very basic house. The woman is sitting in front of a seal oil lamp—a semi-circular bowl containing seal oil. A row of small flames appears at the straight edge of the bowl.

Historically, Inuit living in the Arctic depended primarily on seal oil prepared from blubber as a fuel source for light, cooking, and heating. While using seal oil may seem peculiar, it was an ingenious use of this resource because of the oil’s high caloric content, availability, and ease of use.

In most modern societies, factors beyond availability and ease of use must be considered when choosing fuels. Cost and transportation are important factors. However, perhaps the most important consideration is energy richness.

How would you define the energy richness of a fuel? Could you incorporate some of the concepts you learned about in earlier Module 1 lessons to define energy richness? How might you determine the energy richness of a fuel? In this lesson you will learn how to use enthalpy changes to assess fuels.

 

Consider the following question as you complete this lesson:

  • How can the energy richness of different fuels be compared?

  • How are enthalpy changes communicated?
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