Fuels formed by natural processes like anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms are known as Fossil fuels. Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum, and natural gas. they vary from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like paraffin, to liquid oil to nonvolatilizable materials composed of virtually pure carbon, like anthracite coal. the utilization of fossil fuels raises serious environmental issues. The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of CO2 (CO2) annually, however it's estimated that natural processes will solely absorb concerning half that quantity, so there's a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospherical CO2 per year (one tonne of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 44/12 or 3.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide).The burning of fossil fuels by humans is that the largest supply of emissions of CO2, that is one of the greenhouse gases that permits radiative forcing and contributes to global warming.
A small portion of hydrocarbon-based fuels are biofuels derived from atmospherical CO2, and therefore don't increase the net quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere. Fossil fuels are not a renewable energy resource.
Once we've burned all of them, there's not any further, and our consumption of fossil fuels has nearly doubled every 20 years since 1900.
This is a specific drawback for oil, as a result of we also use it to form plastics to make alternative product.
Last date updated on December, 2024