6.3: Fuel Types

What are the most common fuel sources in developing nations?

Wood and Charcoal

What are the environmental consequences of using Wood as a fuel source?

It can lead to deforestation and habitat loss.

How is Charcoal created?

Heating wood under low oxygen conditions for a long time.

Peat

partially decomposed organic matter (often ferns or other plants)

Where is peat found?

In wet and acidic ecosystems like bogs and moors

How can peat be used as a fuel source?

It can be dried

How is coal formed?

Pressure from overlying rock and sediment layers compacts peat into coal

What is the order of coal from least to most energy dense?

lignite, bituminous, anthracite

What does a higher energy density mean for the amount of energy produced?

More energy is produced with higher energy density (that is why anthracite is the most valuable form of coal)

How does oil and gas form?

Decaying remains of plants and animals are buried under layers of rock and converted by pressure into oil and natural gas over time

What is natural gas mostly made of?

methane

Where is Natural gas found?

On top of trapped oil deposits

Why is Natural Gas considered the “cleanest fossil fuel”

It produces the least amount of air pollutants and CO2 when burnt

How does emissions from Natural gas compare with Oil?

Produces half as much CO2, no particulate matter, and produces far less sulfur and nitrogen oxide, and no mercury

How does crude oil form?

Decaying organic matter trapped under rock layers is compressed into oil over time

What are the two ways to extract crude oil?

By drilling a well and pumping out the oil, or by using tar sands

Bitumen

Thick, sticky, semisolid form of petroleum

What are the costs of using tar sands to extract oil?

It is very energy and water intensive

Fractional Distillation

The conversion of crude oil into lot of different products

Crude Oil

Petroleum

How does fractional distillation work?

Crude oil is heated, and hydrocarbons with lower boiling points rise to the top, and hydrocarbons with lower boiling points gather at the bottom

What is the different types of products created from crude oil, from lowest to highest boiling point?

Petroleum Gas, Gasoline, Naptha (used to make plastic), Jet Fuel, Diesel Fuel, Motor Oil, Bitumen (asphalt for roads)