Fossil Fuels Impact

The topic of energy I chose to do my paper on was fossil fuels and their impact. For those of you who may not know what fossil fuels are they are formed by natural processes. They are hydrocarbons generally coal, fuel oil which come from dead organisms like plants and animals. These fuels became well recognized and in use following the 18th century’s industrial revolution. Since then we’ve seen the fossil fuels used more and more. Fossil fuels are classified as organic matter. The utilization of such fuels has allowed large scale industrial development and largely supplanted water driven mills. The term fossil fuels is a general term for “buried combustible geologic deposits of organic material, formed from decayed plants and animals that …show more content…
The energy in it can be anywhere from 5000 to 15000. About 87 percent of the coal used is mainly used by the electric utilities all over the world. Specifically in the United States coal is used to generate more than half of all the electricity produced. When it comes to exporting coal the United States sits at the top at one of the greater exporters in the world to mainly Western Europe, Canada, and Japan. Coal can be recovered from the earth by surface mining or deep mining. Surface mining is more cost effective and happens for the most part in the flat land areas. Deep mining can be more expensive because it involves digging shafts and tunnels to get to the coal. Coal can gasified to a synthetic fuel like natural gas and liquefied to synthetic crude oil which will lead me to my second natural gas being …show more content…
It is used in both industrial and commercial heating and cooking. In a compressed form natural gas can be used as a transportation fuel. Natural gas is found in the mix of oil or released from coal. The greatest world reserves are in Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United States, and the United Arab Emirates. The United States consumed 19.7 million cubic feet of natural gas in 1999. Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, New Mexico, and Oklahoma are where more than 85 percent of the United States natural gas reserves reside. We get our natural gas through the drilling of the underground reservoirs of porous rock. Once removed it can be either pumped to the processing station for removal of the hydrocarbons or stored in large cavities underground until it is needed. Pipelines have become the main source of natural gas transportation. The most complex and most expensive process is liquefying and shipping the natural gas overseas. Also the improvement of electric generation by natural gas has been improved by the development of combined cycle systems. The process of making a more energy efficient system through the use of 60 percent of the heat from the natural gas being harnessed to make