Fossil Fuels
A Short Video Introduction to Fossil Fuels!
Click on the Slide Show Below to Navigate!
FOSSIL FUELS
What is "all the fuss" about, anyway?
|
Extracting mineral and fossil-fuel resources has always had widespread effects. These include economic benefits to communities, including jobs and taxes, and the resulting resources are used around the world. Extraction can also cause major health and environmental impacts to individuals and communities, many of whom do not share in the benefits.
FOSSIL FUELS - What is all the fuss about? Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—supply over 80% of the energy used in North America. The world's richest countries use the vast majority of non-renewable energy resources on the planet. Fossil-fuel resources are concentrated in only a few countries.
Fossil fuels are nonrenewable resources. Why can’t we just “make more”? Although natural processes are still forming fossil fuels, they are forming far too slowly (on a scale of millions of years) to replace the fossil-fuel reserves we are using. Fossil-fuel formation does not keep pace with use, and as fossil fuels are used up, we will have to switch to other forms of energy. What is COAL?
OIL
What is coal?
|
OBJECTIVES
Definition of fossil fuels-
The 3 types of Fossil Fuels Are:
The Carboniferous Era The Carboniferous Era spanned from 359 million to 299 million years ago.
NOT ALL PREHISTORIC PLANTS TURNED INTO FOSSIL FUELS
Ancient Oil & Gas
FOSSIL FUELS, THE CARBON CYCLE, AND CLIMATE
|
What is Natural Gas?
- Natural gas is a mixture of energy-rich gaseous hydrocarbons (primarily methane) that occurs, often with oil deposits, in Earth’s crust.
- It composed primarily of the simplest hydrocarbon, methane (CH4) formed in essentially the same way as oil, only at higher temperatures, typically greater than 100ºC.
- Over millions of years, as the remains of organisms were converted to oil or natural gas, the sediments covering them were transformed into sedimentary rock, including sandstone and shale.
- Use of natural gas is increasing in three main areas—generation of electricity, transportation, and commercial cooling.
- Natural gas as a fuel for trucks, buses, and automobiles offers significant environmental advantages over gasoline or diesel: Natural gas vehicles emit up to 93% fewer hydrocarbons, 90% less carbon monoxide, 90% fewer toxic emissions, and almost no soot.
- Engines that use natural gas are essentially the same as those that burn gasoline.
- As a fuel, natural gas can be cheaper than gasoline.
- The main disadvantage of natural gas is that deposits are often located far from where the energy is used.
- Because it is a gas and is less dense than a liquid, natural gas costs four times more to transport through pipelines than crude oil.
- To transport natural gas over long distances, it is first compressed to form liquefied natural gas (LNG), then carried on specially constructed refrigerated ships
- What would happen if we suddenly had no oil?
- How Long Will Oil and Natural Gas Supplies Last?
- It is difficult to project when the world will run out of oil and natural gas, but by some estimates even with oil from shale deposits, the peak level of oil production may have already passed, meaning that global resources are in decline.
- In contrast, shale deposits could mean many more decades of ample, inexpensive natural gas.
In April 2010, over 4 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling platform. An underwater pipeline exploded killing 11 workers. Crude oil contaminated the ocean floor and the coast of the southern United States, killing wildlife and causing extensive ecological damage.
|
| ||