Fossil Fuels Flashcards
What are fossil fuels?
Fossil fuels are natural substances in earth made up from the remains of ancient plants and animals over time
How are fossil fuels formed?
They’re formed by natural resources such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms.
Why are fossil fuels important?
They can be burned producing significant amounts of energy
What are the types of fossil fuels?
Coal- a solid fossil fuel
Petroleum- a liquid fossil fuel
Natural gas - a gas fossil fuel
What is the physical appearance of coal?
Hard, black, rock-like
What is the most abundant fossil fuel?
Coal
What is coal?
A non renewable energy source because it takes millions of year to create.
Energy in coal comes from the energy stored by plants that lived hundreds of years ago
How is coal formed?
• 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
• this process is called coalification
What are the types of coal?
Anthracite - hardest, more carbon, higher energy content
Bituminous - in between
Lignite - softest, low in carbon, high in oxygen and hydrogen
Peat - precursor to coal
How does coal work?
• electricity from coal is the electric 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
What are the pros of coal?
• heats our homes
• burned in power plants to produce electricity
• very abundant
What are the cons of coal?
• coal production requires large quantities of water, which affects aquatic habitats, land-based wildlife, and people who use these water resources
• burning coal produces greenhouse gases and harmful pollutants such as carbon dioxide, mercury compounds, Sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides
What are some facts about oil?
• also known as crude oil
• been used for over 5000 years
• 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
How is oil formed?
• oil is formed from the remains of animals and plants (diatoms) that lived millions of years ago in a marine environment before the dinosaurs
• oil is formed from plants called plankton
• when the plankton die, it sinks to the bottom of the sea and is buried under layers of sand and mud
• when these layers are mixed it turns into a hard rock, but when bacteria eats the plankton, it turns into ooze and then into oil
How does oil/petroleum work?
• it works by being ran though an engine, where it’s 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 put through the engine it is exposed to a spark. The gas becomes the energy for the vehicle
What are the pros of oil?
• oil is an extremely powerful energy source when it is burned.
• it can run day and night, providing a constant source of energy
What are the cons of oil?
• oil may contribute to global warming in its production and use by releasing carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas)
• oil spills usually cause massive environmental disasters. Evaporation and fumes also pollute the environment
• getting harder to find which is making it more expensive
What is natural gas? Methane?
• methane, a gas or compound that has one carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms. It is lighter than air.
• 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
How is natural gas formed?
• it is formed from a plant called plankton just like oil. The plankton dies, sinks to the bottom, and sand and mud covers it up.
• over the years, bacteria and heat pressure turns the plankton into 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 dead plants and animals that slowly decomposed
• under tons of pressure, some of this decomposing matter forms into pockets of oil, which are piled up and refined in petroleum, creating a vast number of products such as paints, fertilizers, plastics, antifreeze, dyes, photographic film, medicines and explosives
What are the pros of natural gas?
• burns cleaner than other fossil fuels
• doesn’t pollute the underground water or the ground when it’s burned
• used to heat homes, generate cooking fires, heat water, run appliances
• widely available
What are the cons of natural gas?
• non-renewable and released carbon dioxide
• if there’s a leak it can cause a fire or explosion
• mileage using natural gas is lower than gasoline when used in vehicles
Renewable vs. Nonrenewable resources
Renewable: a resource which is replaced on human timescales
Non-renewable: a resource that is not able to be replaced on human timescales
What are renewable resources?
• are materials present in our environment that can be exploited and replenished
• linked with green sources because they are associated with relatively small or easily restorable environmental impact
What are non renewable resources?
• cannot be replenished at a sustainable rate. They are finite within human time frames
• many of these resources come from planetary, tectonic, or long term biological processes and include materials such as gold, lead, copper, diamonds, sand, marble, natural gas, oil, and coal
What are conventional sources of fossils?
Conventional fossil fuels refer to hydrocarbon reservoirs that are relatively easy to extract using traditional drilling methods. They include conventional oil and natural gas fields
What are the geological characteristics of conventional sources of fossil fuels?
Conventional reservoirs are typically found in porous rock formations, where oil and gas have migrated and accumulated over millions of years. These formations often have well-defined structures, making extraction more straightforward
What extraction methods of conventional fossil fuels?
Conventional oil is usually extracted using vertical drilling no techniques, where a well is drilled straight down into the reservoir.
Natural gas may be extracted using similar methods. Once the well is in place, pressure from the reservoir often facilitates the flow of oil or gas to the surface.
What are the environmental impacts of conventional fossil fuels?
While t extraction methods are well established they can result in environmental consequences such as oil spills.
Habitat destruction and air pollution during extraction and refining are also significant concerns.
What are unconventional sources of fossils?
Unconventional fossil fuels refer to hydrocarbon resources that are more challenging to extract due to complex geological characteristics.
Ex: oil sands, shale oil, shale gas
What are the geological characteristics of unconventional fossil fuels?
Unconventional reservoirs are often found in formations with low permeability, such as shale rock or tar sands. Extracting hydrocarbons from these sources requires advanced technology
What are the extraction methods of unconventional fossil fuels?
Methods include hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas and oil and surface mingling or in-situ methods for oil sands. These methods are more complex and may involve horizontal drilling, high pressure injection, or thermal processes
What are the environmental impacts of unconventional fossil fuels?
The extraction methods tend to have higher environmental costs.
Fracking can lead to water contamination, while surface mining of oil sands causes significant habitat disruption.
The overall carbon footprint of unconventional fuels can also ge higher due to energy-intensive extraction processes.
What are conventional sources of energy? (Commercial/non-commercial)
Commercial: coal, petroleum, electricity
Non-commercial: fire wood, dried dung
What are non-conventional sources of energy?
Solar
Wind
Tidal
Bio energy
Energy from urban waste
What are fossil fuel refineries? Why are they important?
• A factory that takes a raw material such as crude oil and makes it into petroleum and other useful products.
• they’re important because it breaks crude oil down into its various components, Whig’s are changed into new products
How do refineries work?
There are a maze of pipes and vessels in an automated control room.
The 3 basic steps in all refineries are:
• separation (fractional distillation)
• conversion (cracking and rearranging the molecules)
• treatment
What is calorific value?
When fuels are burnt, heat is produced. The amount of heat produced by different types of fuels on burning is express d in terms of calorific value.
How is calorific value represented?
• calorific value of a fuel may be defined as the making of heat produced on complete burning of 1 gram of fuel.
• unit of calorific value of fuels is kilojoule per gram (KJ/g)
Why r calorific values significant?
• helps us determine what fuels are good for us
- fuels with higher calorific value are considered a good fuel
Is hydrogen a good fuel? Why isn’t it used?
• yes hydrogen is an extremely good fuel with the highest calorific value of 150KJ/g
• it’s not used because it’s highly combustible and burns with explosion when lighted
• storage and transportation is very difficult
• cost of production is very high making it very expensive
What do almost all fuels consist of?
Atoms of hydrogen and carbon
What do calorific values depend on?
Percentage of hydrogen present. Higher hydrogen percentage equals higher calorific value
Which has a higher calorific value: methane or butane?
Methanes hydrogen percentage = 25%
Butane’s hydrogen percentage = 17%
Methane has a higher calorific value
Environmental factors of fossil fuels
• greenhouse gas emitters (3/4 of all carbon and methane) causing 25% more of suns radiation to be trapped
• leads to heavy concentrations of pollutants in our air and water
• 98% of US energy production is from fossil fuels
• habitat destruction
What are fossil fuels used for?
• cosmetics
• medicine
• plastics
• electricity
• synthetic fabrics
How do geologists find economically valuable deposits?
Seismic surveys
Drill cores
Geophysical and geochemical surveys
Advantages of fossil fuels
• able to generate large amounts of electricity in a short time
• accessible and very easy to find
• most are abundant
• efficient and useful in daily life
• power plants can be constructed in almost any location
Disadvantages of fossil fuels
• pollution
• produce CO2 (greenhouse effect)
• climate changes
• destruction of wide areas of land
• endanger animals and humans
• behaviour/learning disabilities
• asthma and bronchitis
• children: lowered IQ and ADHD
• can cause premature death
Importance of water for mining techniques and the enhanced oil recovery
• universal solvent
• transport medium
• viscosity reducer
• pressure maintainer
• sweep efficiency improver
