We are constantly being told in the newspapers and radio that our current supply of fossil fuels energy is not sustainable and that these non-renewable sources of oil, coal and natural gas will run out eventually. As their generalised name suggests, fossil fuels were formed over millions of years from the decayed remains of plants, animals and vegetable matter produced by living creatures deep below the Earth.
These carbon based organic deposits were converted over a long time by the pressure and heat and pressure of our developing planet into combustible substances we nowadays call coal, petroleum oil and natural gas. Over time, fossil fuels have become a popular energy source because for us humans, they are generally considered to be convenient, plentiful, effective and inexpensive. But are fossil fuels really non-renewable and what do we use fossil fuels for.
While it is true that fossil fuels have made a staggering difference to the world in which we live in because these primary energy sources are the ones that drive our modern world, these carbon based sources are being burnt or extracted from the Earth at a far faster rate than they can be naturally replenished making them a non-sustainable energy source.
The burning of fossil fuels may provide us with the short term energy we need but doing so releases many harmful gases and emissions into our atmosphere that are both toxic and polluting to plants, animals and the planets delicate eco-system. In fact some of these harmful emissions are being held responsible for the increase in global warming and climate change, known commonly as the greenhouse effect.
But there are also advantages to burning fossil fuels, for example, we get lots of heat and energy for our homes as well as the gasoline and diesel oils required for our transportation system because it is this fossil fuel energy that is responsible for driving our modern world and here are some fossil fuel facts.
Petroleum Oil as a Fossil Fuel - Petroleum is generally thought of as being the black crude oil pumped out of wells, but petroleum is a much more complex mixture consisting of different hydrocarbon chains which occur naturally deep within the Earth's core either as a liquid, a gas, or as a solid. As petroleum is available all around the world it therefore makes it the most widely used of all the fossil fuels.
Petroleum consists of carbon and hydrogen molecules produced from microscopic plants, algae and bacteria's that lived and swam in the worlds oceans many millions of years ago. Once they died, these micro-organisms and plants fell to the ocean floor where they mixed with its sand and mud. Over a long time and with a lot of pressure and heat, these dead plants and planktonic type animals became converted into what we now call petroleum.
While the generalised term used to describe petroleum is "crude oil", there are major differences in the quality and types of grades of petroleum oil based mainly on its specific gravity, ranging from heavy to light oil.
Petroleum crude oil can not generally be used on its own straight out of the ground as it is contaminated with sand, dirt, water and other half decomposed organic matter. To be useful it needs to be refined and distilled into a variety of products ranging from tar oil to gasoline. While gasoline is by far the most common product refined from petroleum, but there are other fuel oils such as diesel and gases such as propane and liquid petroleum gas (LPG).
Natural Gas as a Fossil Fuel - Back in the day, natural gas was considered as a waste product of the petroleum oil extraction process but nowadays we use natural gas to heat our homes, for cooking our food and for electrical power generation. The combustion of natural gas produces a lot less harmful emissions and pollutants than does burning petroleum making it an ideal replacement for petroleum.
Natural gas is a colourless, odourless and highly flammable fuel which is lighter than air as it consists mainly of ethane and methane, although it can contain small quantities of other gases such as butane and propane. The natural gas we all use in our homes for cooking and heating is mainly methane with the other gases removed. However, because methane on its own is odourless, the gas companies mix small amounts of other smelly gases and compounds with it so that we can smell and detect any gas leaks avoiding danger.
On its own, natural gas has a lot of advantages compared to petroleum. For a start it burns cleaner with no toxic by-products or polluting ashes and does not pollute or contaminate the soil or groundwater table should there be a gas leak. Also, natural gas can be processed into liquid forms such as butane and propane and other such liquid petroleum gases or LPG, even replacing the use of gasoline and petrol as an automotive fuel in buses and cars.
Coal as a Fossil Fuel - Without doubt, coal is the most abundant fossil fuel on the planet supplying around a quarter of the worlds energy needs. Coal in its basic form are hydrocarbons in solid form with small amounts of other elements giving it the black look that blackens everything it touches.
Just like petroleum, fossil fuel coal originally came from decomposed trees, plants and algae that grew in large swamp lands full of prehistoric trees and plants within a warm and humid climate. Again, as with petroleum these swamp living trees and plants became compressed by the Earth transforming them over time into coal which can now be mined and extracted from all over the world using surface or underground mining.
But not all coal reserves around the world are the same as they are in different stages of decomposition. Fossil fuel coal is generally rated according to its moisture content and its calorific value, that is the amount of usable heat it produces when burnt. The three main factors that determine the type and quality of the coal are: the amount of decomposing time in the ground, the amount of underground heat it has been exposed too, and its compression pressure.
As a result of these factors there are several rankings and types of coal ranging from lowest to highest, depending upon how pure the carbon is, and which also relates to how old the coal actually is. The different types of coal are called lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. Bituminous coal is by far the most abundant type. The problem with coal as a fossil fuel energy source is that it is not very environmentally friendly. The burning of coal produces huge amounts of pollutants that contribute to global warming and acid rain. Also, the open pit mining of coal damages the environment.
Although fossil fuels are widely accepted and used around the world, there are many different ways in which we can make fossil fuels much less polluting, by using clean coal technologies that mixes coal with renewable biomass materials to reduce harmful emissions or by developing hybrid auto-mobiles that run on both gasoline and LPG.
Alternative fuels are being discovered and developed everyday to replace our reliance on fossil fuels, but it will remain to be seen if fossil fuels will continue to supply the majority of the world's energy needs, or whether the use of other renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and hydro energy will overtime surpass our use of coal, petroleum and natural gas. Regardless of the outcome, we must understand that the supply of non-renewable fossil fuel resources is finite, and therefore should be used wisely and sparingly.
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