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Fossil Fuels - Page 1/1

►Fossil Fuels:

Fossil fuels are fuels that result from the fossilization process of living tissue after millions of years.
Fossil fuels, chiefly coal, oil and natural gas, now supply most of the world's energy. Only a small amount comes from renewable sources.
By the year 2050, renewable sources could provide forty percent of the energy needed in the world. Use of renewable energy can help both to slow global warming and to reduce air pollution. These fossil fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas also emit greenhouse gases when burned. The world may be supplied with enough coal to last over 100 years The world's oil supply is also estimated to last over 100 years. Natural Gas supplies are projected to last over 100 years.

Percentage of CO2 comes from Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal

Coal:

Evolutionary Stages of Coal Development:

Coal comes in several developmental stages, peat, lignite, bituminous and anthracite forms of coal.
The first two stages are very inefficient producing a small amount of energy per mass of fuel. Lignite can be gasified to natural gas which is a particularly clean burning fuel in itself.
Lignite has also been liquefied to produce liquid petroleum fractions. But the gasification and liquefaction process are very expensive and are not cost effective unless the cost of crude petroleum reaches 60.00 a barrel or more.
Bituminous (soft coal) and Anthracite (hard coal) are the stages of coal most often mined, processed , and used as fuel.
The extraction of the coal from the ground can be very expensive. Most coal deposits lie well below the surface of the earth.
When carbon reacts with the oxygen in the air, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are produced.
C + O2 ----> CO2(g)
and
C + 1/2 O2 ----> CO(g)

The CO2 is the major product of combustion and is of itself not particularly harmful. Carbon Monoxide, CO, is an insidious toxic gas. Its toxicity lies in the fact that CO can bind to hemoglobin in the blood thus depriving life giving Oxygen of its vehicle to reach the cells. It also deprives waste gas, CO2, of the hemoglobin so that evacuation of waste gases is not possible.
Just 50 parts per million of CO in the air can cause dizziness, nausea, and irritability.
A thousand parts per million can result in loss of consciousness. 10,000 parts per million can result in death within 10 minutes. .
Coal that has sulfur impurities will cause the sulfur to undergo combustion:
S + O2 ----> SO2
and
2S + 3O2 ----> SO3

Crude Petroleum :

Crude petroleum is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons resulting in a mixture that has dissolved gases. Crude petroleum is not particularly useful in its natural state. Crude petroleum has to be processed before it can be used efficiently. This refining process involves fractional distillation which yields fractions of the petroleum such as natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel, light oils
(low viscosity), heavy oils (high viscosity), and waxes (solid hydrocarbons). Other refining processes can be done to improve the burning efficiency (monitored as octane rating), Catalytic cracking processes, polymerization processes and others can add to the burning efficiency of the various fractions like gasoline.