How exactly are fossil fuels formed and what are some examples of fossil fuels?
300 million years ago, something died and remained deep within the earth until we dug it up. Over time, the heat and the pressure turned the decomposing organism into carbon and hydrocarbon, and when burned, these release energy. Coal, Natural Gas and Oil are three of the main fossil fuels. The type of fuel is dependent on the amount of heat and pressure, and the type of organism that died. When we burn the fossil fuel, we release the stored energy (that originally came from the sun). This very simplified explanation is enough to get you started. You can see why we are concerned about our fossil fuel resources. They are not renewable in our lifetime, and so, we must be very careful about how we consume them. Currently we run about 90% of the world’s resources using fossil fuels! Many scientists believe that the burning of these fossil fuels is responsible for the climate change we are currently experiencing. If you go here:
Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fuels formed by the anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms that lived upto 300 million years ago. These fuels contain high percentage of carbon and hydrocarbons. Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth’s crust over hundreds of millions of years. This biogenic theory was first introduced by Georg Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century. It was estimated by the Energy Information Administration that in 2006 primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.8%, coal 26.6%, natural gas 22.9%, amounting to an 86% share for f
Contrary to what many people believe, fossil fuels are not the remains of dead dinosaurs. In fact, most of the fossil fuels we find today were formed millions of years before the first dinosaurs. Fossil fuels were formed from plants and animals that lived 300 million years ago in primordial swamps and oceans (top). Over time the plants and animals died and decomposed under tons of rock and ancient seas (middle). Eventually, many of the seas receded and left dry land with fossil fuels like coal buried underneath it (bottom). Ten feet of prehistoric plant debris was needed to make one foot of coal. Fossil fuels, however, were once alive! They were formed from prehistoric plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Think about what the Earth must have looked like 300 million years or so ago. The land masses we live on today were just forming. There were swamps and bogs everywhere. The climate was warmer. Ancient trees and plants grew everywhere. Strange looking animal
300 million years ago, something died and remained deep within the earth until we dug it up. Over time, the heat and the pressure turned the decomposing organism into carbon and hydrocarbon, and when burned, these release energy. Coal, Natural Gas and Oil are three of the main fossil fuels. The type of fuel is dependent on the amount of heat and pressure, and the type of organism that died. When we burn the fossil fuel, we release the stored energy (that originally came from the sun). This very simplified explanation is enough to get you started. You can see why we are concerned about our fossil fuel resources. They are not renewable in our lifetime, and so, we must be very careful about how we consume them. Currently we run about 90% of the world’s resources using fossil fuels! Many scientists believe that the burning of these fossil fuels is responsible for the climate change we are currently experiencing. If you go here:
Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fuels formed by the anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms that lived upto 300 million years ago. These fuels contain high percentage of carbon and hydrocarbons. Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth’s crust over hundreds of millions of years. This biogenic theory was first introduced by Georg Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century. It was estimated by the Energy Information Administration that in 2006 primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.8%, coal 26.6%, natural gas 22.9%, amounting to an 86% share for f
