Fossil Fuels - discovery, utilisation and future

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Fossil Fuels

        As industry developed and increased, as did the need for reliable and efficient fuels to power the new machinery developed.  It did not take long before fossil fuels were discovered, with their innate ability to provide high amounts of energy at seemingly low costs.

Fossil fuels are found deposited in rock formations. They were formed between 350 million and 50 million years ago, and so, although are technically renewable, it would take this long to remake them, which does not really help us today, it is due to the fact we need this long to make them that they are considered nonrenewable, and therefore will at some point run out.   The processes by which they formed are not totally understood, other than that sediments buried decayed remains of ancient plants and/or animals. This is then effectively baked over millions of years under conditions of very high temperature and pressure, creating coal, oil, and natural gas, which consist of roughly 90% carbon

Fossil fuels are used widely in all forms of industry, in fact, coal, petroleum and gas provides over 90% of the energy used in most industrialized countries, compared with just 9% which hydroelectricity and nuclear power provide together.

When looking at the properties of a good fuel, it is easy to see why fossil fuels are used:

  • A fuel should react with an oxidiser to release large amounts of energy – carbon based fuels release over 30000 kJ per kilogram
  • A fuel must be oxidised fairly easily, ignite quickly and sustain burning without further intervention – gaseous or easily vaporized fuels (such as oil) usually perform well here as the mix easily and continuously with oxygen which speeds up the reaction.  Coal is often crushed to form small powders to make it ignite easier, however it is evident from steam the reliability of steam trains that carbon is easily burnt.
  • A fuel should be readily available, in large quantities and at a reasonable price – initially this could be said to be true about fossil fuels, but now, as people become more aware of their cons, and of other fuels’ pros, they are becoming more expensive and less available.  Still, the price of oil is so heavily depended upon by the economy, that even the slight fluctuation in price can cause a country to go to war or a government to fall.
  • A fuel should not burn to give products that are difficult to dispose of, unpleasant or harmful – fossil fuels definitely do not fall under this category, but the only fuel that does fall under this category is hydrogen.
  • A fuel should be convenient to store and transport safely and with out loss – fossil fuels are the only type of fuel that people are currently comfortable with storing, hydrogen and methane are so flammable that people get nervous about using them for cars, and until a safe way of storing them is developed, fossil fuels will have to continue to be used
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You may then wonder what the problem with fossil fuels is as they are obviously good at their job.  What we must consider is the fact that they are non-renewable, and that we are consuming them at an incredible rate.  It is predicted that most of the Earth’s oil sources will be depleted over the century.  Also, fossil fuels are used in many important chemical industries, such as making plastics, medicines, and solvents, and by burning them, we are decreasing our the feedstock for these vital products.

Fossil fuels such as oil are made into these products through a series ...

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