Fossil+Fuels+Coal,+Oil+&+Gas

Fossil fuel is energy harnessed from decaying organic materials which have been formed in the earth. The three major types of fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas which can be classified into solid fuels, liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. All three contain carbon, and can therefore be burnt to produce energy in the form of heat.
 * Fossil Fuels **

Fossil fuels were first used to replace the usage of fire for energy. At the time, fire was the only source of energy and therefore people were running out of wood. By the sixteenth century, Britain had to switch to coal since there were so few trees left. The discovery of new ways to use coal triggered the Industrial Revolution. The coal-burning steam engine was the first big invention of the Industrial Revolution and after that inventors were frenzied with creating bigger and faster machines. Coal was used to power industrial machinery that could do that work much faster than any human could. Coal was used until the twentieth century when the internal combustion engine was created which used both oil and petroleum. This engine was refined to make it much more efficient; however, the number of cars using gas and oil on the road today counters those positive changes. Oil and petroleum, as well as natural gas, are used today not only in automobiles and machinery, but for energy generation across power grids in order to support today's society. Today, many people are pushing to move away from fossil fuels as a source of energy because they have such a detrimental effect on the environment.

Coal is dark in colour and rock-like in consistancy and appearance. Coal is made up of carbon and trace amounts of other elements, such as oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur. Different qualities and types of coal have contain different concentrations of carbon and, therefore, have different uses. The two main classifications of coal are coking coal, used in furnaces and stoves because of the limited smoke production, and thermal (bituminous) coal, used for large-scale energy generation. Coal is the world's largest fossil fuel resource. __ Coal Industry and Resources in Canada __  There is a large demand for coal as a tool for energy production. The coal industry in Canada is dominated by a combination of private-sector companies and energy generation companies. The mining of publicly-owned coal is provincially regulated. Coal is an extremely valuable resource in Canada as there is a large amount of it, especially in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. According to scientific assessment, 6.6 billion tons of the 8.7 billion tons of Canada's resources of coal-in-place can be considered available for mining, based on currently available technologies.
 * __Coal __**

**__ Oil __** __Description__ Also known as petroleum, oil comes in many forms with varying physical characteristics. However, all oils are made up primarily of hydrocarbons. Oil is Canada's major energy source despite the amount of work that must go into its extraction and refinement. It is obtained by drilling deep wells into the ground to reach the major deposits and, once recovered, must be subjected to varying degrees of processing to make it usable. For example, some oil found at the foot of the Rocky Mountains Alberta contained a large amount of hydrogen sulphide, which had to be removed in order to make the oil usable in homes and industries. Oil can be used for energy because it can be combusted in the prescence of oxygen.

__Oil Industry and Resources in Canada__ Canada has a large amount of oil resources because the geography of the Canadian landscape provides ideal conditions for oil resources. Most of the oil reserves in Canada are made up of oil sands, which can be found in Western Canada. Canada is currently the seventh largest oil producer and it holds the second largest amount of oil reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia. Two thirds of the oil that is produced by Canada is exported. The rest is used to meet the energy demands of Canadians. Oil is the most important resource for energy production in Canada as it met almost 41 percent of Canadian energy demands in 2006.



__Description __ Natural gas is colourless, odourless and, like other fossil fuels, highly combustable. Natural gas contains a variable mixture of methane, ethane, butane and propane. It is processed before it can be used in order to remove propane, buthane and other non-hydrocarbon gases and an odorant is added so that a gas leak may be detected. It is a gas under normal atmospheric conditions. Natural gas can be extracted by drilling into gaseous deposits under geological formations such as mountains.
 * __Gas__**

__Gas Industry and Resources in Canada__ Canada has been a producer of natural gas for over one hundred years, and is currently the world's third largest producer of natural gas and the second largest exporter. Natural gas is used in all sectors of energy usage of Canada because it is found so abundantly. The most important resource of natural gas in Canada is the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin since about half of Canada's natural gas resources can be found there. Gas hydrates, or frozen methane gases, can also be found in the deep oceans; however, it is impossible to extract these gases at this time. **__

Method of Energy Generation __** In general, fossil fuels are burnt to produce energy in the form of heat. Often, this heat is used to create steam (by vaporizing water), which can then be used to turn a turbine in order to power a generator, producing electrical energy. The diagram above shows the components involved in this type of energy generation involving fossil fuels. The air and the fossil fuels are introduced into the combustion chamber to be burnt, creating heat energy. The steam that results from this process is used to turn the turbine, transferring the heat energy to mechanical energy, and then released as exhaust. The turbine is connected to a generator, which changes the mechanical energy to electrical energy. The electricity passes through a transformer to produce the correct voltage. The video below gives an in-depth look at this process as it is used by coal plants. media type="youtube" key="SeXG8K5_UvU" height="385" width="480"

 __Advantages__ Fossil fuels are able to generate energy in large amounts. Coal, alone, meets one eighth of Canada's primary energy needs. Fossil fuels are independent from other variables. They are not affected by the weather, whereas renewable sources such as a wind energy and solar energy are. This makes fossil fuels more consistent in providing energy and more reliable. Some fossil fuels, such as coal, break down into useful compounds which can be used in other products, such as tires. Many places, such as Alberta, rely on the harvesting of fossil fuels to support their economy. As well, many towns have become centered around coal, oil or natural gas extraction. The production of these sources of energy helps support the people living in these towns and moving away from fossil fuels as a source of energy would be detrimental to their lives. Natural gas is actually a very clean burning source of energy and it provides most of the energy that is needed for Canada's energy supply.
 * __Advantages and Disadvantages of Fossil Fuels__**

__media type="youtube" key="m3bisTi9a1A" height="301" width="383" align="left"Disadvantages __ Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource, which means that deposits of coal, oil and gas are not replenished on a short-term timeframe. Therefore, the quantities of these fuels are limited, and will eventually become depleted. For example, it is predicted that if the current petroleum production and usage rate remained constant, there would be a shortage sometime in the middle of the 21st century. In addition, fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, when burnt, which can contribute to climate change when released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide can also contribute to acid rain by combining with water in the atmosphere to produce carbonic acid. The methods of harvesting fossil fuels also have their disadvantages: the coal mining process is extremely detrimental to the environment; gas requires expensive pipelines to transport it, and must be carefully monitored and controlled because it is extremely flammable; and new oil reserves to replace ones that are depleted are expensive and difficult to find.

Above is a music video created by a supporter of the "350" environmental activist organization. Although this video does not have a professional tone, it has a serious undertone about the environmental concerns generated by the burning of fossil fuels. This video includes some scientific evidence in opposition of using fossil fuels and demonstrates the strength of the negative stigma associated with the use of fossil fuels.

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