IV. Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels are the natural fuels such as coal or gas found in the Earth’s crust. It is formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms. A hydrocarbon deposit, such as oil, coal, or natural gas, derived from the accumulated remains of ancient plants and animals. Carbon dioxide and other gases were produced by burning fossil fuels are considered to be one of the principal causes of global warming.
A. The origin of coal is a plentiful fossil fuel and has been used historically by the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese.
1) Types of coal – how formed, composition.
a) Peat as an energy source is limited and was not considerably ranked. It is the first step in the coal formation and is made of over sixty
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Lignite is also the lowest ranked because of its low heat content. Usually it was burned as a fuel at some steam electric generating plants that are mined in China, Greece, Germany, Turkey, Canada and the United States. However, while Germany’s electricity comes from lignite power plants, Greece, lignite is approximately 50% of power. Lignite’s carbon content is only 25% - 35%.
c) Bituminous coal is formed as more pressure is enforced on to the lignite coal. The more the pressure is enforced, the more water is discharged which increases the amount of pure carbon and increases the heat content of the coal. Bituminous coal is mostly formed when a sub-bituminous coal is of higher levels of metamorphism. It is used in the United States at about 50%, and across Europe. Bituminous has a carbon content between 77% and 87% on a dry ash-free basis and a heating value that is much higher that lignite or sub-bituminous coal (2). Sub-bituminous is the second lowest energy content.
d) Anthracite coal is of a metamorphic rock and is considered the highest grade. It is hard and its color is dark black and shiny. It has a very light weight when compared to other forms of coal and there is a very little water present. As a result, anthracite has the highest heat content and less smoke. Its pure carbon content is over 85%. Anthracite is formed when the bituminous coal is opened to extreme pressure. Historically, anthracite was mined in a 480 square
1 What is coal? Coal is a substance we consider today a fossil fuel, created from all the dead plants millions of years ago. Coal is formed from prehistoric plants that when they die are not able to release the energy they built up from photosynthesis Typically the plants had fallen into large swamps and bogs, and then over time the dead plants lying on the bottom of the swamps and bogs were slowly covered with other dead plants and sediment build-up. Once buried the plants were subjected to high amounts of pressure and temperatures, which over long periods of time it becomes peat then eventually creates coal. We refer to coal as a “fossil fuel” today because it is created from prehistoric plants and the coal we have today has been millions of years since it was in plant form. Today we coal is still being created we just don’t fully recognize it because how long the process actually takes.
Coal: A Human History was written by Barbara Freese to focus on the history of coal and how mankind has used it as part of their lifestyle. Ever since the times when early nomads used the slash-and-burn method, coal has been around acting as jewelry for the Romans and as fuel for peasants and the noble class in Britain. Coal was in such high demand that many inventions were utilized for the convenience of retrieving it from intolerable conditions such as vacuums and the construction of more efficient underground tunnels. The book gives insight of how this small stone has been so vital to humans that they were able to adapt to the ways coal best functions.
Currently fossil fuels are the world’s primary energy source. The fossil fuels include coal, petroleum, and natural gases. Fossil fuels are organic materials formed from decayed plants and animals that due to heat and pressure from hundreds of
The energy we get from coal today comes from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. When an area is to be mined, topsoil and subsoil are removed from the rock and so is another material, call overburden, to expose the bed of coal. All living plants give solar energy through photosynthesis. When plants die the energy gets out as the plants decay. The whole decaying process gets interrupted which prevents the release of the stored solar energy, then the energy stays locked in the coal. The plant material gets subjected to high temperatures and pressures which causes physical and chemical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into peat and then into coal. The formation of peat is the first step in the geological formation of fossil fuels such as coal. Peat plants is not only the first step for formation but they also capture CO2 itself. There are many effect to the environment when it comes to coal; an example is AMD which stands for Acid mine drainage; it includes the outflow of acidic water from coal mines or metal mines. Mines exposed rocks containing pyrite which reacts to water and air to form acid and dissolved iron and can easily wash into rivers and streams. Coal is a huge impact when it comes to hurting our
Western Virginia and the Appalachian Plateau have an abundance of coal in their land. Mostly it is from million year old decomposed plant materials that have created 76 distance coal beds; about half of these are currently being commercially mined. Two fifths of the coal produced in VA is exported out of state. The remaining coal is used to produce energy in local coal burning power plants. Locally sourced coal makes up a little bit over 37% percent of all of Virginia’s power (Sites, 2014).
Coal has been around for 250 million years, but only has been used since the 1800’s first by trains and now for energy all around the world and many other things that people couldn't think of! Coal is a combustible sedimentary organic rock which is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is formed from vegetation which has been consolidated between two other rock strata and altered by the combined effects of pressure and heat over millions of years to form coal seams. There are over 174,000 jobs in the U.S associated with coal and 83,000 of them are mining jobs, Coal miners have found many ways to extract coal from the ground which includes, surface mining, longwall mining, room and pillar mining, and underground mining. “Surface
Coal contains a lot of energy and is abundant. Next, the technological demands are low, as well as the cost. It is easy to manage and needs little purification before
Coal’s reputation has become as black as coal itself, but without it the quality of life that hundreds of millions of people enjoy today would not be possible. Coal has been used in many ways throughout history and it will continue to be a vital resource in supplying the energy needed to fuel an energy hungry world. Research cited throughout this paper suggests that coal is an energy source for the future because it is stable and reliable with abundant reserves, it is the most affordable and efficient fuel source used to produce power, and because of new clean coal technologies, coal can be burned with minimal to no damage to the environment.
Coal Bed Typically formed about 300 million years ago, flooding of dense forests and low-lying wetlands caused vegetation to be buried and over time, compressed. In combination with heat and protection from oxidation by more mud or acidic water the vegetation was converted to coal.
To begin, coal is a combustible black rock which consist mainly is carbonized plant matter, and it found mostly in underground deposits and it is widely used for fuel. As time went on we could see the advantages of coal however, gradually we could see the disadvantages. One advantage of coal is that I can easily burn therefore making it easier to produce more quick energy. Another advantage would be that coal energy is affordable due to its stable price unlike other different energy producers. However, on the opposite side there are many disadvantages. For one, coal energy is depleting rapidly because many people consume large amounts of it daily. Also, the process in which it is obtained is very dangerous. Situations like cave-ins and explosion could and have occurred while men were mining.
Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal.
Coal, a mineral I have discussed previously, is necessary to our everyday lives. Coal is an incredible source of energy; it heats our houses and buildings, and also fuels stoves. You may often wonder where this extremely useful mineral comes from. Coal does not just appear; it needs to be mined through a process which results in our being able to utilize it. Coal mining is fairly inexpensive, is carried out on a large scale and can be mined in either underground or surface mines.
Lignite is the softest coal. Further compression and aging caused the lignite coal to change into bituminous coal. Bituminous is a soft, black, brittle material that is extremely flammable and produces a lot of ash and sulfur when burned. This is the type of coal that is mined in the Appalachian Mountains, Great Plains, and the Colorado Plateau. Heat and pressure then turn bituminous into anthracite. Anthracite is the final stage of coal, and is composed almost entirely of carbon. Lignite and bituminous coal are sedimentary, while anthracite is metamorphic. Anthracite is only found where pressure and heat were very great. It doesn’t produce as much heat as bituminous coal, but it burns longer without as much residue. There are anthracite fields in Pennsylvania and Great Britain (U.S Energy Information Administration).
This paper will discuss the three main fossil fuels which are oil, coal, and natural gas. This research shows how the fossil fuels are formed, where they could be found, and explain how they were formed over millions of years. This paper will show the numerous advantages of fossil fuels compared to the disadvantages and how they are hurting the Earth. Fossils fuels are critical to the function of everyday life. The world would be a different if fossil fuels and their uses were not to of use.
Fossil fuels are essential to life on earth as we know it today. Our world would certainly be much different if it weren’t for such seemingly simple things such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These basic elements of life on earth may not seem like a major concern to some people until we put into perspective how they have shaped our world today. Civilizations have been built, economies have risen and crumbled, and even wars have been fought over these precious fossil fuels. However, these fossil fuels serve us in ways we may never truly appreciate, as long as we use them as recklessly as we do now. The major entity about fossil fuels is concerning their longevity and permanence in our world, and we all know, they will be around forever.