Energy Resources of Pakistan

The major energy resources of Pakistan are as follows:

Petroleum:
Pakistan is not self sufficient in producing the required amount of petroleum for its needs. Pakistan only produces petroleum up to 15% of its requirement and the rest of the requirements are fulfilled with imports. The demand for petrol has sharply increased whereas; the production has not increased to match the needs. One of the major reasons why Pakistan is unable to extract more petroleum resources is lack of technology and its application.

Following is a list of places where surveys are conducted for the possibility of petroleum extracts:

• Tharparkar
• Hyderabad
• Waris Shah
• Districts of Mirpur
• Kohat
• Dera Ismail Khan etc

Coal:
Pakistan is not self sufficient in coal. Although coal mines exist in Pakistan but the quality of coal found in Pakistan is of very poor quality. Moreover, its only fulfills 7% of our coal requirements.

Coal Mines are found in the following places in Pakistan

• Mine of "Makarwal" which extends of Kalabagh. it approximately possesses 20 millions ton of coal.
• Lakhra
• Coal mines in Quetta , Surdag and Harnai. The coal extracted from there is used in Pakistan Steel Mills.

Natural Gas:
Pakistan is rich in possessing a substantial amount of natural gas. Natural gas as an alternative for fuel is a blessing. Since Pakistan is quite rich in natural gas, Its able to use it as an alternative for fuel in industries.

Pyramid of Energy

The quantitative studies of an ecosystem are carried out by two way i.e by studying the food chain or food web, and by ecological pyramids. The ecological pyramids are the pyramids of number. It is diagrammatic representation of tropic levels. i.e. producers, herbivores and carnivores. Pyramid is drawn on the basis of their number. The second way is the use of pyramid of biomass, instead of numbers are each level it involves total mass of the living organisms present at each tropic level. The third way of study is pyramid energy.

Sun as a Source of Energy

The ultimate source of energy in an ecosystem is the sun light. It travels as electromagnetic waves and about 40% is reflected back from clouds and other 15% is absorbed by Ozone layer and is converted to heat energy by the atmosphere; remaining 45% reaches to earth, of which a small fragment i.e 2-3% is absorbed by green plants while rest reflected and dispersed.

Energy Flow Through The Ecosystem

In an ecosystem, organism are linked together in energy and nutrient relationship. The energy can be defined as the capacity so do work. The term work can be used to any energy consuming process such as living cells maintain electrical gradient across membrane and the active transport process which requires expenditure of energy. However, the ecological studies relating food requirement and energy relationship among living components of an ecosystem are referred as bio-energetics. Energy is found in four main forms i.e , radiant energy, heat energy, chemical energy and mechanical energy. Only a small part of solar energy is visible spectrum.

Need for Energy in Living Organisms

All living cells carry out numerous activities e.g, they generally assemble macromolecules of all types, from raw materials, waste products are produced and excreted, genetic instructions flow from the nucleus to cytoplasm, vesicles are moved from Golgi bodies to the plasma membrane, ions are pumped across the membranes etc. For these high level of activities, a cell needs energy. The energy is used as fuel for life which is derived from light energy trapped by plant cells and converted into energy rich compounds. Other organisms, which do not have the ability to trap light energy, obtain their energy by eating plants or by eating the organism that eat plants. Capturing and conversion of this energy from one form to another in the living system and its utilization in metabolic activities is called bio-energetics.

Bioenergetics

Energy is defined as the capacity to do work. It exists in a number of different forms :heat, light, electrical, magnetic, chemical, atomic, mechanical and sound, The laws which apply to energy conversion are the laws of thermodynamics.