FOSSILFUELS

BYJITHIN KURIAN

What are fossil fuels?Fuels formed by natural resources such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, but exceeds 2 billion years.

Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon: hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals.

What are the different types of fossil fuels?

1: Coal -combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons. The energy in coal comes from the energy stored by plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. For millions of years, a layer of dead plants at the bottom of the swamps was covered by layers of water and dirt, trapping the energy of the dead plants. The heat and pressure from the top layers helped the plant remains turn into what we today call coal.

2: Petroleum -Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the

earth's surface. 3: Natural gas -natural gas -consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with other fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills. It is an important fuel source, a major feedstock fertilizers, and a potent greenhouse gas.

HOW COAL IS FORMED

Consist with hard, black colored rock-like substance

It is also made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and amounts of sulfur.

3 types of coal: anthracite, bituminous and lignite

HOW IS OIL FORMED?

Almost all oil and gas comes from tiny decayed plants, algae, and bacteria. Oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants (diatoms) that lived millions of years ago in a marine (water) environment before the dinosaurs. Over millions of years, the remains of these animals and plants were covered by layers of sand and silt. Heat and pressure from these layers helped the remains turn into what we today call crude oil. The word "petroleum" means "rock oil" or "oil from the earth."

HOW IS NATURAL GAS FORMED?

Natural gas is lighter than air. Natural gas is made out of methane, which is a simple chemical compound made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. This gas is highly flammable. Natural gas is found near oil in the ground. It's pumped, just like oil, from wells that tap into the source and send it to large pipelines.

Thank you!