Fossil Fuels Coal, Petroleum, And Natural Gas - 756 Words

Fossil fuels—coal, petroleum (oil), and natural gas — are concentrated organic compounds found in the Earth’s crust. They are created from the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago in the form of concentrated biomass. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), fossil fuels meet 81 percent of U.S. energy demand. Scattered records of the use of coal date to at least 1100 BC. By the middle Ages, small mining operations began to spread in Europe, where coal was used for forges, smithies, lime-burners, and breweries. The invention of fire bricks in the 1400s made chimneys cheap to build and helped create a home heating market for coal. Coal was firmly established as a domestic fuel in much of Europe by the 1570s, and represented the major heating source for buildings, especially in cities located far from easy access to less energy-dense biomass forms. Coal was the first of the fossil fuels to go into widespread use, displacing low-energy firewood as the leading source of fuel in the US, and triggering the country’s industrialization in the second half of the 19th century. Within a few decades, the US went from a net importer of coal (mostly from Britain) to a major exporter of the fossil fuel, a development made possible by mining the nation’s vast reserves of coal. Oil was used in architectural adhesives, ship caulks, medicines, and roads in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC. Two thousand years later, the Chinese refined crude oil for use inShow MoreRelatedDepletion of Non Renewable Resources of Energy1422 Words   |  6 PagesA  non-renewable resource  is a  natural resource  which cannot be produced, grown, generated, or used on a scale which can  sustain  its consumption rate, once depleted there is no more available for future needs. Also considered non-renewable are resources that are consumed much faster than nature can create them.  Fossil fuels  (such as  coal,  petroleum, and  natural gas), types of nuclear power (uranium) and certain  aquifers  are examples. Natural resources such as  coal,  petroleum,  oil  and  natural gas  take thousandsRead MoreFossil Fuels : The World s Primary Energy Resources1736 Words   |  7 PagesAbstract Fossil Fuels such us oil, coal, and natural gas are currently the world’s primary energy resources because they originate from living things. Formed millions of years ago from the decomposition of organic materials such as plants and animal life, it is non-renewable resources that supplied U.S. and global economic development over the past century. In fact, Fossil fuel industries mine or drill for this energy resources, burn them to provide electricity. Natural gas and oil are used whenRead MoreThe Sources Of Fossil Fuels1428 Words   |  6 PagesIV. 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