Muhammad Imran Nawaz

2008-ENV-43

Consumption Formation and Production of Fossil Fuels and their Environmental Effects Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons such as coal, oil and natural gas, sourced from the organic remains of prehistoric organisms. The fossil fuels, which contain high percentages of carbon, include coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of [1] almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. How fossil fuel forms? Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years.

Figure 1: Diagram explaining the generation and entrapment of oil and gas.

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Production and consumption

World consumption and production, export, import and consumption of oil, coal and gas are plotted individually in Fig. The world consumption of oil, coal and gas increased three, two and three times, respectively, from 1965 to 2006. In the increases from 1949 to 2006 were four, two and five times, respectively. The figure also shows that the production of coal and gas are increasing over time, but oil production has remained stable for half a century. Moreover, the production of coal and gas has increased in line with consumption over the last half century. Consequently, the consumption of all types of fossil fuels has increased, while production has increased only for coal and gas.

Figure 2: Production, consumption, imports and exports of natural gas from 1949 to 2006.

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Muhammad Imran Nawaz

2008-ENV-43

Figure 3:

Consumption of fossil fuels worldwide from 1949 to 2030.

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What are the alternative renewable energy sources? Renewable energy sources can provide comparable energy production and heating. At present some technologies are cost inhibitive, but the rate of technological development is making them more affordable with time. Other examples of renewable energy sources include: water powered
turbines, tidal generators, nuclear, compost and rape seed oil.

Figure 4, 5, 6 :

From left: Wind turbines generate electricity, solar panels convert sunlight into
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electricity, geothermal plant utilize underground heat.

Environmental issues with energy Today we are living in 21 st century where the concept of Sustainability and Energy Conservation are the most emerging concepts and alternative that world should follow Sustainable energy sources are most often regarded as including all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, bio energy, and tidal power. It usually also includes technologies that improve energy efficiency various economic instruments can be used to steer society toward sustainable energy. Some of these [4] methods include eco taxes and emissions trading. References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel 2. http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/fossilfuels.htm 3. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421507004934 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_with_energy