Fossil Fuels and Other Energy Sources

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Fossil Fuels and Other Energy Sources
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Five main purposes

• Cooking
• Transportation
• Manufacturing
• Heating and cooling buildings
• Generating Electricity

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Carboniferous Time Period

• Over 300 million years ago

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Coal

• Forms from the remains of plants that lived in
  swamps
• Ocean levels rose and fell covering with sediments

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Peat High in water
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Lignite more water than bituminous less than
peat
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Bituminous more water than anthracite
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Anthracite highest grade of coal. Formed from
the highest heat and pressure
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Advantages and Disadvantages

• Relatively inexpensive
• Requires little refinement after mining
• Surface mining very destructive
• Low grade coal has high particulate and Sulfur
  content

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Petroleum

• Liquid fossil fuel crude oil
• Formed from remains of plankton in shallow seas
• Non-renewable

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Natural Gas

• Primarily Methane
• Burns cleaner than other fossil fuels
• Found trapped above petroleum pools

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Problems with Petroleum

• Availability Non-renewable
• Environmental damage harder and harder to get
• Air Pollution
• Greenhouse gases
• Oil spills during drilling or transporting

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Other Organic Fuels

• Wood- particulates and Carbon Dioxide. Damage to
  Forests
• Garbage can be burned to produce electricity

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• Methane produced from decaying plants in swamps
  and garbage. Locally in Dairies.
• Alcohol Biomass conversion. Produced by yeast
  during fermentation

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Future of Fossil Fuels