Inaki Voelcker-Sala

Fossil fuels are substances, which originated from living organisms e.g. plants and animals. Over millions of years under ground, the dead organisms eventually become fossilised due to intense pressure. If these fossils are exposed to huge amounts of heat, they can undergo chemical changes and become fossil fuels. Depending on the particular circumstances and what type of organisms is involved, the final product will become coal, oil or natural gas. Coal is usually found and mined on land, huge mines digging up hundreds of tonnes a year throughout the world. During the industrial revolution, coal mining was one of the most important careers and the coal mining industry also had one of the largest percentages of people employed at the time. Coal is generally used to create electricity by using the heat created by burning coal to create steam which, at the right pressure can be used to push blades on a turbine. The spinning blades are connected to a generator via the crankshaft. When the magnets in the generator spin rapidly past other magnets and wires, an electrical current is created, driving electrons through huge wires that eventually branches off into buildings and other appliances. Oil and natural gas are usually found together and can be pumped by oil rigs on land and in the ocean. Natural gas is lighter than air and is made up of mostly Methane gas. The chemical formula for Methane is CH4 (one Carbon atom and four Hydrogen atoms). Natural gas is used extensively domestically for cooking and heating. It is also used in classrooms and barbeques. Oil is a liquid and must therefore be pumped from the ground. After the oil is filtered it undergoes several chemical changes, all controlled by man, to become whatever final product the people want. The main use or oil (petroleum or petrol) is gasoline for cars. All car fuels are made from oils. Fossil fuels are thought o be non-renewable sources of energy. This is because each type of fuel takes many millions of years to be created; yet our society is going through the resources a lot faster than they can be replenished. Fossil fuels are made up largely of Carbon atoms. Coal is made up largely of Carbon, from 50-100% Carbon. The rest of the coal is made from varying amounts of; Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and trace amounts of Sulphur. Raw oil is mainly made up from Carbon and Hydrogen as well, and the reason that Petroleum is such a useful starting product is that it contains many Hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are compounds containing both Hydrogen and Carbon atoms. One of the most common Hydrocarbons is methane (CH4). The main issue with fossil fuels (apart from the non-renewable part) is that when they are burnt, they release a whole lot of Carbon into the air, which combines with Oxygen gas in the air to become CO2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and is probably the number one contributor for global warming. In the past, life on earth has been saved by CO2; the global ice age was ended by volcanic activity burning tonnes of fossil fuels lying in the path of the volcanoes shaft. When the Carbon was released from various volcanoes around the world, enough CO2 was created to significantly raise he earths temperature, effectively ending the great ice age. So, yes, CO2 can be a good thing but the problem with it right now is that we arent in an ice age! The earths temperature has been steadily rising since the industrial revolution (when coal begun to be burnt on a much larger scale around the globe). The rising temperature has already begun to take affect, raising the oceans temperature slightly and probably rendering many species of aquatic animals, whose bodies worked on exact ocean temperatures, extinct.

Inaki Voelcker-Sala

Geothermal energy

Inaki Voelcker-Sala

http://library.thinkquest.org/6075/coal.html http;//www.dafont.com/blazed.font http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy