Fossil Fuels

We Use Them Everyday, But What Do You Know About Fossil Fuels? --By Paul White

Plants and animals living millions and millions of years ago, slowly died and decomposed. Most of these life forms were phytoplankton and zooplankton, in other words algae and protozoa, rotifers (microscopic creatures) and crustaceans. These were ocean dwellers and when dead, together with pressure, heat and time formed the majority of our fossil fuels today.

Indeed Fossil Fuels are a non-renewable energy source, that means they cannot be replaced. Fossil fuels are formed from plants and animals that lived as much as 300 million years ago, as mentioned. The fuels are found in deposits beneath the earth's surface. The fossil fuels when burned release the chemical energy stored within. More than eighty-five percent of the energy demands of the world today are met by the combustion of fossil fuels.

Beds of organic remains of the algae and other creatures combined with silt and mud forming thick layers, in time, minerals formed on top of the organism and mud mixture which causing the organisms to be entombed in rock. After this the pressure and temperature rose causing the organic matter to break down into hydrocarbons. If the hydrocarbons configured to form oil or gas, these travel toward the surface. As the Earth's rock layers shift back and forth in plates, they can form reservoirs of oil and gas, such as when the plate of rock is formed in a dome shape, as it settles beneath it lies a pool of oil or gas, that has been trapped by the rock plate during its ascent.

Oil fields are found everywhere on earth except Antarctica. Oil companies have to extract the oil from the oil field. In large oil fields, water and gas injection methods are used by pumping these into the wells so more of the oil will flow upwards for them. Small reservoirs get equipped with a simpler beam pump that is called a nodding donkey. Large oil fields are even under the sea floor.

Fossil fuels actually existed before humans even heard of fire, but it was in the 1800's when anyone even began to tap them as an energy source. That is when coal and gas were used as heat and light sources and for steam locomotives as a combustible. The use of the fuels wasn't very large, until the 1940's when the government gave support and extra incentive to develop fossil fuel technologies. Technologies such as fractional distillation, the primary refining technique used for modern fuels today. Fuels are boiled and vaporized, and since the differently sized and configured hydrocarbons rise into vapor at different boiling points, they can this way be collected separately.

Gasoline is a specialized fuel with a quick starting point even cold, relative quiet and good combustion efficiency. Its hydrocarbons range from butane to C10.

Distillate fuels include, kerosene, turbo-jet fuel, diesel and heating oil. Fuel oils are basically the by-products of other fuels. Fuel oils have a lower quality than some fuels and a high pollution factor, so they are used less often than other fuels anymore.

For more information on the different types of Fossil Fuels, and their uses, try visiting VideoJug.com, where they have an expert in the matter - Terry Tamminen, author & Environmental Policy Advisor - discuss these issues through a free, online, video format.

Overall, Fossil Fuels are the primary source of electrical energy in the world, coal plants provide sixty per cent of the energy in the U.S. and fifty-two per cent of the supply of electrical energy in the entire world. Coal is combusted in large furnaces, this heat evaporates water in boilers into steam, a turbine at the end of the boiler is forced to move by the steam, this rotation spins a magnet inside of a power generator. Electrons are then captured from the spinning magnet and sent to the national power grid to be distributed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Dobson loves VideoJug! It is the world's leading purveyor of online, "How To", video content. Filled with instructional films on thousands of subjects - it really is the place to go with any questions. Visit VideoJug today! --END

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"The Earth is but one country, and mankind it's citizens." --Baha'u'llah