How can we make more fossil fuel?
There are a number of companies and processes that are involved in turning garbage and waste products or other renewable materials into oil or other fuels. It doesn't necessarily take millions of years to do so...just the right amount of heat and pressure. The processes can actually take just hours to do so for oil and a few weeks for coal. We can convert the billions of tons of waste products we produce every year or renewable products like junk crops or agricultural wastes into oil and fuels....enough to meet all of our needs and then some. Here's a few links on the topic...... "U.S. green lights 'anything into oil' Defense Department OKs facilities turning natural produce into energy http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.vie... http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.vie... Using plasma to create clean fuels from waste products... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201... Waste plastics into oil........ http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WPIO.php?printing=yes A book and links on future energy solutions....... http://www.manhattan-institute.org/bottomlesswell/ Trash into natural gas........ http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/1002-turning_trash_into_power.htm Converting garbage and waste products into oil via Thermal Conversion process......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWf9nYbm3ac&feature=related On the other side of the equation, we have hybrid technology available today to make cars and trucks much more fuel efficient. If we could enable the national fleet of cars and trucks to get four times better fuel economy, we would reduce our fuel needs for vehicles by four times or allow four times as many vehicles to be used...all things being equal. Porsche recently unveiled it's concept car called the 918 Spyder Hybrid which puts out 500 HP and gets around 80 mpg. If such technology were implemented on all vehicles sold in the future , we would go from an average of 20 mpg to 80 mpg. http://autos.yahoo.com/auto-shows/geneva_auto_show_2010/1320/Porsche-918-Spyder-Concept The Opel Eco-speedster uses a turbo diesel engine and gets around 130 mpg. It's a lightweight race car but it shows what is possible,
How can dinosaur remains provide fossil fuels for us for billions of years? Why can't we use our own remains?
not dinos actually. more like plants and trees(for coal) and microscopic marine creatures(for petroleum and natural gas). its been created as a result of subjection to high temperature and pressure at great depths for millions of years. these conditions cannot be created artificially(atleast not yet). so they cant be made in laboratories. so we cant use our own remains to make fossil fuels. besides its immoral. also fossil fuel reserves wont last for billions of years. they'll be drained dry by the end of the millanium(atmost) at the present rate of consumption and there are no chances of new reserves to be formed. but people dont care, DO THEY!!!!!!!!!!!?????????!!!!!!!
How are fossil fuels made from fossils?
Teachers might be teaching something different in public schools, but back when I learned it in eight-grade in 1974 during Physical Science class it is called fossil fuel because fossil fuel oil are from the decay oils of the dinosaurs and vegetation from billions of years ago. As the dinosaurs died and decayed, the oils from their body soaked down into pools of oil as sediments in the earth’s crust. Wherever the oil was found, it was believed that above ground could have been a burial ground for dinosaurs and the bones returned to dust. Giant bones have been found currently displayed in museums. Godzilla movies, the giant monsters could still exist today in uninhabited islands or underground caves. It could be the cause of tremors instead of earthquakes, giant monsters moving around in caves. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or off shore drilling could be from burial grounds of giant sea creatures. Whales still exist today and in Alaska the oils from sea animals are used to light lamps. Here in the Philippines, many save the oil drippings of the pig when roasted or fried in coconut cooking oil and the used oil is saved used to light wood to cook with. The oils from the pili nut tree is also used like kerosene type fuel. Oils from beef cattle are believe to be the closest resemblance to fossil fuels, but would take years of decomposition to equal the oils that can be refined into diesel or gasoline. We do not eat enough beef cattle to supply the world was the argument not to do the research back in the 1970s. Cruelty to animals like using the skin leather of cattle to make General Motors’ Cadillac bucket seats or fashion leather coats for the winter time was also an argument against finding out if the fat of the hamburger or rib-eye beef steak could be a fuel source. Have you ever washed a pan with really cold water after cooking hamburger or beef steak and the oil would solidify into clumps of beef crud. The oil spill in the Gulf or any oil spill, I would just use a leaf blower on really cold to cool the oil solid to see if it would solidify and use a fishing net to clean the clumps out of the water. But to turn the oil spill into a solid for easier clean up is an experiment I would suggest to petroleum engineers.
Why are coal and petroleum called fossil fuels?
Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source fuels, that is, hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the earth’s crust. They range from very volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years. This is known as the biogenic theory and was first introduced by Mikhail Lomonosov in 1757. There is an opposing theory that the more volatile hydrocarbons, especially natural gas, are formed by abiogenic processes, that is no living material was involved in their formation. According to the biogenic theory, petroleum is formed from the preserved remains of prehistoric zooplankton and algae which have been settled to the sea (or lake) bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions. Over geological time this organic matter, mixed with mud, is buried under heavy layers of sediment. The resulting high levels of heat and pressure cause the organic matter to chemically change during diagenesis, first into a waxy material known as kerogen which is found in various oil shales around the world, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as catagenesis. Terrestrial plants, on the other hand, tend to form coal. Many of the coal fields date to the carboniferous period.
Are fossil fuels really non-renewable?
Yes, Fossil fuel is nonrenewable. The earth has a limited supply of oil, gas and coal at least in practical terms. It takes millions of years for the earth to transform dead organic material into these fossil fuels. The supply of fossil fuels we are using today come from organic materials buried generally at least 20 million years ago, and some that were buried more than 200 million years ago. This is different from renewable materials, like wood, that can be planted again, so the supply can be renewed. Fossil fuels are considered non-renewable sources of energy because when they are burnt, they are finished. When the last barrel of oil has been pumped out of the ground there is no more. It is non-renewable. Similarly with coal and natural gas. The origins of most fossil fuels is over 60 million years old, from the dinosaur age (Mesozoic Era) and the carbon age (within the Paleozoic Era). When that supply is gone it is gone forever so it is a non renewable resource. Renewable fuel grows back or can not be depleted. For example: Wind can't be stopped it will always blow. Trees grow back if we allow them. Oil is under the ground and once it is gone it is gone. Because fossil fuels take hundreds of millions of years to form under the Earth's surface. It will take another million years for more to be produced, so we only have a limited supply. Eventually, more fossils will be made, but by then we will have run out by how much we use them now. If we stop using them so much than we wont die like we are going to. So essentially, all fossil fuels are considered non-renewable. Fossil fuels are considered nonrenewable resources because, fossils fuels are made from the remains of dead plants or animals. It takes more than a million years for the fuels to form from the fossils. It is a long process.
Couldn't we use old dead bodies to continue on with fossil fuels?
- Bodies provide a very large amount of heat when burned. Waiting 10s of thousands of years to get a few calories of fossil fuel isn't very practical, but an incinerator system could prove practical at some small level. Note - fossil fuels aren't from dinosaurs for the most part. They're from billions of tons of plant life, and mostly from the seas that existed back then. It's just "cute" to think you have a dinosaur in your gas tank.
Absolutely not. That they are something that we ultimately need to move away from has nothing to do with the benefits they provide and have provided, which are immense. Seriously - energy is one of the major enablers of economic growth. Economic growth is what lets people stop working on low productivity subsistence farms, get actual incomes, learn to read, purchase luxuries like internet connectivity, write on Quora, and not die at age 45 from overwork and poor nutrition. Fossil fuels provide most of that energy, and most places where it doesn't are incredibly poor. I am totally unwilling to go cold turkey. Fossil fuels have immeasurably diminished human misery all over the world. If fossil fuels made our lives worse, then why would be bothering to replace them instead of simply getting rid of them altogether? That we are so dependent on cheap energy is precisely why changing from a fossil fuel paradigm is so hard. Yes, we do need to eventually lessen our dependence on them, if not because of pollution (yes, including climate change, suck it, Florida) then because of scarcity. The prospect of transition is essentially what I have spent most of my time on, in some form or another, for all of my (short) professional career. But I will never let that convince me that they have been a negative force for humanity.
How are fossil fuels formed?
Petroleum, natural gas, and coal are the main sources of energy for modern use. All of these fuels are classified as fossil fuels. The reason they are called fossil fuels is because they are all made from decayed plants and animals that have been preserved in the earth's crust by pressure, bacterial processes and heat. It takes millions of years for these organisms to chemically change into fossil fuels. Liquid fossil fuels, like petroleum, is formed in areas that geologists believe were once covered by oceans or seas. These fuels were formed when dead plants and animals sank to the bottom of the ocean and were covered by sediments. Over long periods of time (millions of years), pressure, bacterial processes, and heat changed the sediments into sedimentary rocks and the plant and animal remains into oil. Eventually underground pools of oil formed when oil migrated through the pores and cracks of rocks and eventually filled these empty spaces. Geolgists search in areas which may contain oil traps. Oil traps include fault lines where porous rock is aligned next to non-porous rock. These traps are also found among folded rock layers. Another type of fossil fuel is natural gas. It is found sometimes with petroleum, with coal, or by itself. Since it is less dense, it is most often found on top of oil pools. Natural gas is valuable because it burns cleanly, releases energy, and can be easily transported in underground pipelines. We use natural gas in many ways including heating our homes and cooking our food.
How much life remains does it take to create a barrel of oil?
From what I understand the oil deep in the ground is made up of lifeforms that existed 180 million years ago. Made from plants and animals, the pressurized afterlife was converted to crude. I am amazed that there would be so much of this crude oil in the ground that we can pump it for so many years without running out. I'm pretty sure that it would be only a percentage of life which turns to oil. Let's say 50% which I think is high. Just how much life would it have taken to create that much oil. If we were to take every life form currently on the planet and converted it to crude oil, would there be as much as we have already pumped out of the ground. If / When the day comes that life on earth should come to a sudden end as it did in the Jurassic period, would humans contribute to becoming the next crude oil. Come listen to a story about an Alien named Jed A poor space traveler, barely kept his family fed, Then one day he was diggin' with his tool, And up from the ground came an oil using fool. Exxon that is, human remains, Payback time. Well the first thing you know ol' Jed's a fusionaire His kinfolk said Jed get away from there, They said, let nature be So he loaded up the ship and moved off planet E. What goes around, Comes around. i know... i know..... sorry.
Fuel is the turning of carbon, which is the building block of all living things, to carbon dioxide, which is the result of a chemical reaction combining carbon and oxygen. This reaction causes heat and the gas CO2. All fuels have a start in the photosynthesis process of plants. Humans harvest plants to make fuel in the form of wood, charcoal, alcohol, biodiesel. A secondary level would be to feed animals and then process them for lard, animal grease, whale oil, blubber. There is another method of getting fuel, this is the decomposition of our waste products. it is methane from landfills and leach ponds, which can be used to run power plants. The last level and the one that takes the longest and most complicated would be the fossil fuels, this includes oil, coal, shale, sand shale, natural gas. The origins of fossil fuels has been debated but we are coming to an agreement that they are the remains of ancient animals and plants. These fuels have been locked away for millions of years, and now that we are using them, the carbon that was used to grow them is now being released into the environment. This is the bases of the global warming argument. The extraction of these fuels that have been buried for so long now are been used to add to the already existing carbon. One of the unknowns of Global warming is that in the oceans there are small plants that live and die at sea. How much of the sea is populated by these plants is unknown. Are they growing in numbers? Are they absorbing the CO2? We know there are blooms of these plants in different parts of the oceans and we know the life cycles of these blooms. But what is the contribution is the unknown.