'Fossil Fuels – discovery, utilisation and future\r'

'As industry real and increased, as did the need for reliable and efficient give the sacks to provide the new machinery developed. It did non take long in the beginning fogey evokes were disc e realplaceed, with their innate ability to provide noble amounts of nil at readmingly low cost.\r\n dodo furnishs atomic number 18 found deposited in rock formations. They were form between 350 million and 50 million long time ago, and so, although atomic number 18 technically renewable, it would take this long to retread them, which does not really help us today, it is collectable to the fact we need this long to remove them that they atomic number 18 considered nonrenewable, and and so go away at some even run out. The processes by which they formed are not totally understood, other than that sediments buried decayed mud of ancient plants and/or animals. This is then effectively adust e rattlingwhere millions of years under conditions of very high temperature and press ure, creating coal, petroleum, and natural gas, which consist of roughly 90% snow\r\nFossil fuels are utilize widely in all forms of industry, in fact, coal, petroleum and gas provides over 90% of the life force utilize in just about industrialized countries, compared with just 9% which hydroelectricity and nuclear world power provide together.\r\nYou can read besides Waves\r\nWhen smell at the properties of a good fuel, it is easy to see why fossil fuels are used:\r\n* A fuel should react with an oxidiser to release bulky amounts of pushing †cable carbon based fuels release over 30000 kJ per kilogram\r\n* A fuel must be oxidised f aureolely well, waken quickly and prevail impetuous without further intervention †gaseous or easily vaporized fuels ( such(prenominal) as oil) usually set well here as the mix easily and continuously with type O which speeds up the reaction. Coal is a good deal crushed to form small powders to make it ignite easier, however it is evident from go the reliability of steam trains that carbon is easily burnt.\r\n* A fuel should be readily available, in prominent quantities and at a reasonable price †signly this could be express to be true about fossil fuels, solely now, as tidy sum become more certified of their cons, and of other fuels pros, they are becoming more pricey and less available. Still, the price of oil is so heavy depended upon by the economy, that even the slight fluctuation in price can cause a uncouth to go to war or a administration to fall.\r\n* A fuel should not burn to present products that are difficult to dispose of, unpleasant or harmful †fossil fuels definitely do not fall under this category, plainly the solo fuel that does fall under this category is hydrogen.\r\n* A fuel should be convenient to introduce and transport safely and with out loss †fossil fuels are the only type of fuel that people are before long comfortable with storing, hydrogen and meth ane are so inflammable that people get nervous about using them for cars, and until a safe way of storing them is developed, fossil fuels leave al integrity collect to continue to be used\r\nYou may then wonder what the problem with fossil fuels is as they are obviously good at their job. What we must consider is the fact that they are non-renewable, and that we are overwhelming them at an incredible rate. It is predicted that most of the Earths oil sources will be depleted over the century. Also, fossil fuels are used in some(prenominal) important chemical substance industries, such as making plastics, medicines, and solvents, and by electrocution them, we are decreasing our the feedstock for these vital products.\r\nFossil fuels such as oil are made into these products by a series of different processes. First the oil is fractionally distilled then the different sections join together to make polymers. These synthetic plastics and solvents are used largely in everyday tone, such as polystyrene cups and PVC plastic.\r\nSecondly, the burning of carbon based fuels produces large amounts of carbon dioxide that is one of the main contributors to the â€Å"greenhouse effect”. There are such drastically high levels of carbon dioxide in the air that the only real solution would be to ban all use of fossil fuels, but countries collapse become so dependant upon them that is not feasible.\r\nThirdly, spillages of fossil fuels cause serious damages to local environments. When an oil tanker crashes, immense amounts of sea life and birds die, and the effects are disastrous.\r\nFourthly, inefficient burning of fossil fuels results in the production of carbon monoxide, which is a very harmful and poisonous gas. Inhalation of this gas is in all likelihood to cause death as it interferes with the transport of oxygen in the blood stream.\r\nFifthly, combustion of fossil fuels also produces gases such as north oxides, which cause irate rain.\r\nIn particular we can look at oil. Numerous countries entire economies now rely on the price of oil, as their entire wealth is in the drilling, extracting, and trading in it. This is cause for great attention as oil is non-renewable, and we are consuming it so quickly, it will inevitably run out, and counties will no longer be able to rely on it.\r\nWe have seen in the past that countries entire economies have collapsed due to minor fluctuations in the oil market, therefore total collapse of the market would be lay waste to for many of the worlds major and influential countries. Also, there would be immense amounts of job losses that would inevitably regard the society; this can be seen by looking at at the destruction caused when the coalmines closed.\r\nThere are hardly a(prenominal) ways which can be seen to overcome this impendent problem, however, one, most likely solution would be to check over alternatives to fossil fuels, but all of the possible alternatives have their advantages an d disadvantages which must be taken into account before making any changes.\r\n* Biofuels (plants can be crowing specifically for fuel or the production of fuel, such as wood or sugar cane. Biogas and biomass acquired by the growing and decaying of plants already produce usable fuel so this could easily be exploited to take a fuel source.) Advantages †renewable, reduces waste, simple technology. Disadvantages †not a large enough supply to totally supplant fossil fuels\r\n* Methanol CH3OH (this is a simple alcoholic beverage which can be made from methane.) Advantages †burns neat and completely Disadvantages †more toxic than ethanol, provides less energy per litre than petrol, can cause corrosion of car engines.\r\n* Nuclear fission (energy is released when the nuclei of atoms of isotopes of uranium U-35 are split. The energy created can be used to heat peeing to turn steam turbines.) Advantages †no carbon, sulphur, or nitrogen oxides produces. Disadvan tages †radioactive waste, safety systems needed are very expensive.\r\n* Nuclear fusion (energy is released when deuterium and tritium â€Å"fuse” to create helium) Advantages †potentially almost limitless as an energy supply as the reactants come from pissing. Disadvantages †very costly, cannot before long be produced at economic rates.\r\n* Moving air (wind turns windmills and wind turbines. Lots of research is already universe carried out and soon may provide 10% of the UKs energy) Advantages †renewable, defilement and waste free, can be used in locality to where the energy is needed. Disadvantages †high initial expense, not reliable in calm weather, upset and visual environmental impact\r\n* Moving urine (Hydroelectricity †water stored behind dams can be released done turbines to generate electricity. Waves †The motion of waves is used to create oscillatory motion. Tides †incoming tides in river estuaries fill up large water stores behind barrages, which is then released through turbines.) Advantages †renewable, predictable, pollution and waste free, large scale. Disadvantages †costly to install, environmental impact.\r\n* sun (Solar panels †collect solar heat and are used to heat water. Photovoltaic cells †convert light into electricity). Advantages †renewable, pollution and waste free. Disadvantages †Not good for places of low temperateness levels, high initial costs, not very operable for large-scale use.\r\n* Geothermal energy (heat from rocks under the Earths climb up can be used to heat water which can, in turn, be used to heat houses). Advantages †a lot unlimited. Disadvantages †not widely available, large initial costs\r\n* Hydrogen (extracted from water by electrolysis, many things are capable of running on hydrogen). Advantages †no pollution. Disadvantages †people are nervous about using such a dangerously explosive gas, difficult to store and transport.\r\nIf some of these possibilities were researched further, they could replace fossil fuels and help many of the previously discussed issues.\r\n'