FOSSIL FUELS Flashcards
What are fossil fuels?
Natural substances in earth made up of the remains of ancient plants and animals over time.
Fossil fuels are formed by natural resources such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms.
Fossil fuels are of great importance because three can be burned producing significant amounts of energy.
Types of fossil fuels?
1) coal: solid fossil fuel
2) petroleum: liquid fossil fuel (oil/gasoline)
3) natural gas: gaseous fossil fuel
Coal facts? (6)
1) hard
2) black
3) Rock-like
4) most abundant fossil fuel produced around the world.
5) a non renewable energy source because it takes millions of years to create.
6) energy in coal comes from the energy stored by plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.
Coal formation?
Coal is formed by carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and varying amounts of sulphur.
The dead plants from the swamps are piled up with sand and mud on top.
Without water, the carbon increases and forms a hard black substance called coal.
Process is called coalification.
Types of coal?
Anthracite: hardest, more carbon, higher energy content.
Bituminous: in between
Lignite: softest, low is carbon, high o2 content and hydrogen.
Peat: precursor ( a substance from which another substance is formed) to coal.
How does coal work?
Electricity from coal is the electrical power made from the energy stored in coal. Carbon, made from ancient plant material gives coal most of its energy.
This energy is released when coal is burned.
Positives and negatives of coal?
Positives:
It heats our homes.
It’s burned in power plants to produce electricity.
The US contains one quarter of the worlds coal reserves, which could provide more energy potential than all the know recoverable reserves of oil.
Negatives:
Production requires large quantities of water which affects the habitats of both aquatic and land-based wildlife as well as people who use these water resources.
The process of burning coal for energy produces greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants including CO2, mercury compounds, SO2, Nitrogen oxides.
Oil facts?
Also known as crude oil, it has been used for over 5,000 years.
The Egyptians used it as medicine for wounds and to fuel lamps.
Today we use petroleum products such as gasoline, jet fuel, home heating oil and kerosene.
Oil formation?
Oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants (diatoms) that lives millions of years ago in a marine (water) environment before dinosaurs.
Oil was formed from plants called plankton. When the plankton dies, it sinks in the bottom of the sea and is buried under layers of sand and mud.
When these layers are mixed it turns into hard rock, but when bacteria ate the plankton, it turned into ooze and then oil.
How does oil/petroleum work?
It works by being ran through an engine burned and turned into energy for automobiles.
This is a product that is high in hydrogen and carbon molecules.
When the petroleum or gas is out through the beefing it is exposed to a spark. The gas becomes energy for the vehicle.
Positives and negatives of oil?
Positives:
Oil is an extremely powerful energy source when burned. No other fuel can move a vehicle at such a speed and for such a distance as a cup of petroleum can.
It can run day and night, providing a constant source of power, u like solar and wind power which are intermittent.
Negatives:
Oil may contribute to global warming in its production by releasing CO2, a greenhouse gas.
Wherever there’s an oil spill there is usually a massive environmental disaster. Evaporation and fumes also pollute the environment.
It is getting harder to find which is making it more expensive.
Natural gas?
Methane, a gas or compound that has one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. It is lighter than air b
Natural gas is a mixture of gases and was used more than 2000 years ago.
The Chinese burned the gas to dissolve the salt from salt water. Today, natural gas is used to heat homes and produce electricity.
Natural gas formation?
It is formed from a plant called plankton just like pull the plankton died, sank to the bottom, and sand and mud covered it up.
Over the years, bacteria and heat pressure turned the plankton into natural gas.
Where is natural gas found?
In some places, natural gas lived into large cracks and spaces between layers of overlying rock.
The natural gas found in these types of formations is sometimes called conventional natural gas.
How does natural gas work?
Natural gas is a fossil fuel very similar to oil in its composition. Both fuels are formed from lead plants and animals that slowly decompose.
Under tons of pressure, some of this decomposing matter formed into pockets of oil, which are piped up and refined in petroleum and a vast number of other products like pants, fertilizers, plastics, antifreeze, dyes, photographic film, medicines, and explosives.
