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The fossil fuels are those whose origin dates back to the mass of organic matter (biomass) produced millions of years ago and buried in the interior layers of the subsoil, where pressure, temperature and other physical-chemical processes subjected it to deep transformation processes whose result is , precisely, substances of enormous energy content.
They can serve you:
- Examples of Hydrocarbons
- Examples of Renewable Resources
- Examples of Non-Renewable Resources
- Examples of Environmental Problems
Fossil fuels are energy sources Non-renewable, since they are currently consumed at a much faster rate than they took to form.
Most of the energy used in the world today comes from the combustion of this type of material, both to generate electricity and feed industries chemicals, such as propagating vehicles, lighting rooms, cooking or heating homes.
Such global consumption is due to how relatively easy they are to extract, the abundant existing world reserves and its economic cost and simple technology, compared to other more sophisticated or less profitable forms of energy.
However, the combustion of fossil fuels produces toxic gases in quantity (carbon monoxide, sulfurous gases, carcinogens, etc.) and is one of the main sources of environmental damage and climate change in the early 21st century.
There are four known fossil fuels:
Charcoal
This mineral is the result of the sedimentation of prehistoric plant remains (It is estimated that the Carboniferous period, about 300 million years ago) in low oxygen environments and high pressure and temperature.
Such a process of mineralization Through the enrichment of carbon, it produces solids with a high energy coefficient, widely used in energy production and the materials industry (plastics, oils, dyes, etc.).
There are four main types of coal: peat, lignite, coal and anthracite, arranged here from lowest to highest carbon content. This matter played a fundamental role in the Industrial Revolution and the development of steam technologies, until it was displaced by oil. The largest coal reserves are in the US, Russia and China.
Natural gas
It is a light blend of hydrocarbons gaseous, extractable from independent (free) or oil or coal (associated) fields.
In both cases, it is generated by the anaerobic decomposition (without the presence of oxygen) of organic matter and is separable into its main and usable components, such as methane (more than 90% of its content, generally), ethane (up to 11%), propane (up to 3.7%), butane (less than 0.7%), together with nitrogen and carbon dioxide, among other inert gases, traces of sulfur and impurities.
The main natural gas reserves in the world they are located in the Middle East (up to 43% of the world total, especially in Iran and Qatar), and being a fuel so versatile and less polluting than other fossil fuels (less CO2 emissions2), it is widely used as an energy source (especially Compressed Natural Gas and Liquefied Natural Gas) and as a caloric source, both in homes and in industries and means of transport.
Liquefied petroleum gas
LPG is a mixture mainly of propane and butane, present in natural gas or even dissolved in crude oil, which have the characteristic of being easily liquefiable (turned into liquid).
They are a frequent by-product of the catalytic fractional distillation (or FCC) of petroleum, widely used as domestic fuels, given their caloric potential and relative safety, and in obtaining olefins (alkenes) for the plastics industry.
Petroleum
This oily, dark and dense liquid is a mixture of complex hydrocarbons insoluble in water (paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics), formed in reservoirs of variable depth (between 600 and 5,000 meters) in the subsoil layers.
Like other fossil fuels, it is the product of the organic matter accumulation (zooplankton and algae mainly) in the anoxic bottom of lakes and seas of prehistoric antiquity, later buried under layers of sediment at high pressures and temperatures. Given their lower density and the porosity of sedimentary rocks, these hydrocarbons rise to the surface or are trapped in oil deposits.
The Petroleum It has been used since human antiquity as a fatliquor, pigment or fuel, but it was not until the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution when its industrial coefficient was discovered, proceeding to its exploitation and use in the manufacture of fuels (gasoline, diesel, kerosene ) for vehicular or electric use, and as raw material in the chemical and materials industry.
It currently represents one of the most central industrial and financial sectors in world economic activity, whose production and marketing fluctuations are capable of affecting the global balance of the human economy.
The list of Petroleum derivatives it is immense, from polyesters and plastics to combustible gases and liquids, solvents, pigments and a very long etcetera.
However, its extraction and consumption represents a serious environmental problem given its insolubility in water, which makes it difficult to clean in cases of spillage, and given the high production of toxic substances that its combustion entails: lead, carbon dioxide, monoxide of carbon, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides and other substances harmful to life and to the ecological balance of the planet.
- Examples of Hydrocarbons
- Examples of Renewable Resources
- Examples of Non-Renewable Resources
- Examples of Natural Disasters
- Examples of Environmental Problems
