Chapter 14 - Energy Resources (Fossil Fuels) Flashcards
What are fossil fuels?
They are energy sources that formed from remains of once-living organisms.
What do all fossil fuels have in common?
That they are nonrenewable, meaning that the processes by which they form are so slow that they are not replaceable.
What does the term petroleum refer to?
Also known as oil, it comprises a variety of liquid hydrocarbon compounds.
What are hydrocarbon compounds?
They are compounds made up of different proportions of the elements carbon and hydrogen.
What is known as natural gas?
Gaseous hydrocarbons, methane is most common.
What are oil sands, and what kind of petroleum do they carry?
Also known as tar sands, they are sedimentary rocks containing a tar-like petroleum called bitumen.
What is coal-bed methane?
It is a novel natural gas source that is formed as a byproduct of coal formation.
What is shale gas?
They are fine sediments that are lithified and then subject to pressure and heat that brakes the lithified sediments into gas.
What is hydraulic fracturing/fracking?
It is a type of technology that drills horizontally along shale beds to allow for natural gas extraction.
What are methane hydrates?
They are crystalline solids of gas and water molecules, they are abundant in arctic zones and marine sediments.
What is a geopressurized zone?
A natural gas resource thousands of meters below the surface, where conditions are sufficiently hot that any oil would have been broken down into natural gas.
What is gasification?
It is the process by which coal transforms into a gas that is induced by heating from steam or hydrogen gas.
What is liquefaction?
It is the process by which coal transforms into a liquid through heating from steam of hydrogen gas.
What is known as oil shale?
It is a rock (not necessarily a shale) containing a hydrocarbon with a waxy solid texture named kerogen.
