What are the three types of fossil fuel, and how is each formed?

What are the three types of fossil fuel, and how is each

formed?

Carboniferous Period 360 to 286 million years ago

• The land was covered with swamps filled with huge trees, ferns and other large leafy plants

• The water and seas were filled with algae

• Trees and plants died, sank to the bottom of the swamps of oceans.

• Formed layers of a spongy material called peat.

• Over many hundreds of years, the peat was covered by sand and clay and other minerals, which turned into a type of rock called sedimentary.

• More and more rock piled on top of more rock, and it weighed more and more. It began to press down on the peat. The peat was squeezed and squeezed until the water came out of it and it eventually, over millions of years, it turned into coal, oil or petroleum, and natural gas.

Coal

Coal

• The world’s most abundant fossil fuel– Created 300–400 million years ago

• Coal = organic matter (woody plant material) – Compressed under very high pressure in swamps to

form dense, solid carbon structures– Very little decomposition occurred

Coal is mined using two major methods

• Strip mining = for deposits near the surface– Heavy machinery removes huge amounts of earth to expose the coal

• Subsurface mining = underground deposits are reached by digging tunnels to follow seams (layers) of coal

• Mountaintop removal = entire mountaintops are cut off – Environmentally destructive– Common in the Appalachian Mountains

Oil

Natural Gas

Nearly 67% of the world’s proven reserves of crude oil lie in the Middle East

Russia holds the most natural gasThe U.S. possesses more coal than any other country

Regions vary greatly in energy consumption

The U.S. has 4.5% of the population but uses 20% of the world’s energy

• Energy returned on investment (EROI) = energy returned/energy invested– Higher ratios mean we receive more energy

than we invest• U.S. oil EROI ratios have gone from 100:1 to

5:1

"We may have already depleted half of our reserves"

• Hubbert's peak and what it tells us.

His prediction in 1956 that U.S.oil production would peak in about 1970 and decline thereafter was scoffed at then but his analysis has since proved to be remarkably accurate.

Which energy source is the largest producer of carbon dioxide?

carbon capture and carbon sequestration

• Figuring out where to put the carbon

• If we plan to keep using fossil fuels, we need to figure out how to sequester the resulting carbon dioxide

What are some of the by-products produced when coal is burned, and

how can they lead to acid rain?

• When coal is burned, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds are released.

Geophones• When shock waves created by the vibrator trucks travel into the

earth, boundaries between the rocks reflect the waves back, and the arrival times of the waves back at the surface are detected by listening devices called geophones. Computers then process the geophone data and convert it into seismic lines, which are nothing more than two-dimensional displays that resemble cross-sections.

• Seismic lines in the old days were just that . . . two-dimensional lines created by laying the geophones out in single line. But today, the data is commonly collected as an intersecting grid of seismic lines referred to as 3-D seismic volume. Data collected in this fashion may even be used to help create 3-D computer models of the underground geometries of the rocks.

What methods do scientists use to determine

where to drill or mine for fossil fuels?

• Coal, natural gas, and oil

produced as a by-product that occurs when bacteria decompose organic material under anaerobic conditions

What is ANWR and what are some of the

political issues surrounding it?

• https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2669&JServSessionIdr004=6udep5zv25.app341a

What is the difference between renewable and nonrenewable

energy?

What are some ways that humans have used coal

historically, besides for heating?

• What is the difference between primary and secondary extraction? Reread the section called "We drill to extract oil"

What are some of the ways that we use fossil fuels?

• When did we begin to use and become dependent upon foreign oil?

• What have been some of the political ramifications of such dependence?

• What are the types of fossil fuel mining that we use, and what are some of the negative environmental impacts of each?

"It takes energy to make energy."

• What does the EROI (energy returned on energy invested) tell us about a potential energy source?

• What are some of the alternative fossil fuels discussed in this chapter, and what are the drawbacks of using them?

"Environmental impacts and solutions."

• Of the three fossil fuels, which ones are cheapest for us to use and which ones are more abundant?

• What is clean coal technology? Read more about it in the section called "Can we capture and store carbon?"

"Oil and gas extraction modify the environment."

• One way the oil industry is decreasing the environmental impacts of drilling

What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Where is it located, and what is its purpose?

"Residents may or may not benefit from their fossil fuel reserves."

"Energy efficiency and conservation."

What has happened in the United States regarding

conservation when gasoline prices rose?

"Personal choice and energy efficiency are

two routes to conservation."