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Contents

Introduction:....................................................................................................2
Fossil Fuel:.......................................................................................................3
Crude oil:.........................................................................................................4
COAL:...............................................................................................................7
Natural Gas:...................................................................................................10
Saving Fossil fuels:........................................................................................13
BABLIOGRAGHY:.............................................................................................14

Introduction:
This report covers the whole description of fossil fuels .Fossil fuels are of
great importance because they produce current worlds energy supply and it
is inexpensive in comparison to renewable resources. Fossil fuels are the
layers of plants and animals buried under the earth many million years
ago .There are three types of fossil fuels coal, crude oil and natural gas. The
report has been arranged in following way
The report body starts with introduction of fossil fuels then; three major fossil
fuels crude oil, coal and natural gas have been discussed respectively in
detail. The detail covers introduction, production, refining, applications,
advantages and disadvantages and transportation method of fossil fuel. In
the end of report methods for saving fossil fuels have been discussed.

Fossil Fuel:
Origin :
fossils are those combustible materials that obtained from underneath earth
and are belived to be fromed million years ago . there are formed from
decayed plants and animals and converted to fuel of this generation named
fossils .

Importance of fossil fuels:


* Energy rich carbon compounds and hydrocabons such as coal,natural gas
and petroleum .more than three quarters of the worlds energy consumption
comes from fossil fuels .
* thewidescale use of fossil fuels to fire steam engines enable the Industrial
revolution
* Trasnportation
* fossil fuels are also used in generating electricity and as feedstock for the
petrochemicl industry
* construction of roads

Crude oil:
Crude oil is one of the most major type of fossil fuels that is currently the
most demanded non-renewable source. All the vehicles uses its refined
products as their fuel for running the vehicle. Its the only non-renewable
source of energy that exist in all the three states of matter upon purification
and refining. It is defined as the naturally occurring yellow to blackish oily
liquid that is extracted from the underground earth surface. And is used for
different purposes of energy consumption after refining.

Origin
It is believed that there are two major micro-organism responsible for their
formation i.e. zooplankton and algae. Scientists believe that crude oil was
formed some millions years ago when these organism were buries
underneath earth surface an over the years they got converted to thick oily
liquid called crude oil due to the intense heat and pressure. And now is found
beneath the earths surface.

Extraction:
All the extraction methods of gaining crude oil from underground are
mechanical. Some of the methods of extraction of oil includes pit mining, oil
drilling, steam injection etc. The most common equipment is the pump jack
that pump the oil out of the oil wells. At some places the oil itself seeps out
of the earth surface and it becomes easy to suck it from there. So one has to
be wise while choosing the site for its extraction

Composition:
The composition of crude oil is entirely organic and upon distillation it on the
basis of boiling points we have three distillates macroscopically and theyre:

Light distillate
Heavy Distillate
Residue

The majority of crude oil is alkanes, cycloalkanes (naphthenic), aromatics,


polycyclic aromatics, S-containing compounds, etc.Heavier crude contains
more polycyclic aromatics and carbonaceous deposits called coke. The light
distillate crude oil has low viscosity, density, waxy content but have high
API gravity value (in comparison with water at the value of 10). The
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products of this distillate are more costly than the one from heavy
distillate and residue because the most desired product from the
processing of crude oil is gasoline and it is one of the lightest fractions of
petroleum. The heavy distillates specifications include high
density, viscosity and wax content. The petroleum products from this
fraction are of less price and have low API gravity value.

Refining:
The main process of its reefing is the distillation on the basis of boiling
points. The basic steps of its refining are:

Separation
Conversion
Treatment

The distillation of crude oil is done either atmospheric distillation or


vacuum distillation. Some of the process units are individually
discussed below:

Physical Separation Processes


1. Desalting 4. Crude Distillation
2. Solvent Deasphalting
3. Solvent Dewaxing

Chemical Catalytic Conversion Processes


1. Catalytic Reforming

4. Hydro treating

2. Catalytic Hydrocracking

5.Catalytic Cracking

3. Alkylation

5. Solvent Extraction

6. Isomerization

Thermal Chemical Conversion Processes (Upgrading Processes)


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1. Delayed Coking
2. Flexicoking
3. Visbreaking
After refining last step is of upgrading the quality of the processed products
obtained by the refining of natural crude oil. This is also proceeded by the
removal of sulfur content from the products that acts as the impurity for
refined petroleum.

Reserves of crude oil:


Huge amount of the total reserves of crude oil across the world are in North
America then Russia and its neighboring countries, Middle East and some are
in Africa as well and the list goes on in this way. The world map is presented
below showing the natural distribution of crude oil reserves.

It is also estimated that the world consumes about 90 million barrels each day
that shows the importance of it in daily routine.

Cons and Pros of crude oil:


At current petroleum is the highly demanded energy fuel whose prices are
responsible for the economic stability of a country.it is extensively used as a fuel
majorly gasoline and kerosene. It is also use for burning in power plants to make
electricity. Almost all plastic comes originally from oil. It is also used for domestic
purposes and as a fuel for ship tankers. Crude oil also has some applications as a
chemical reagent to make fertilizers and pharmaceuticals. Just the case that nothing
is ideal in real world so does the usage of crude oil have some limitations. The
biggest limitation of this resource is that its non-renewable and the natural
reserves are decreasing day by day and offshore exploration disturbs the
surrounding of environment and scientist believe that such excessive drilling and
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extraction may start causing seismic activities. Upon burning of its processed
products it releases some un-friendly greenhouse gases that are polluting the
atmosphere day by day due to combustion of it ultimately causing global warming
more. It usage sometimes causes blood disorder in extreme cases due to the
indirect intake of toxic material it contain. Marine life in ocean is also to a great
threat due to the spilling problem of it during its transportation in ship tanks that
causes a layer to form over the surface of water choking the passage of sunlight for
marine life.

COAL:
Coal is a fossil fuel obtained from the remains of plants that lived and died
hundred years ago when part of earth was covered with huge uncultivated
ground. It contains Hydrogen, Sulphur, Oxygen and Nitrogen.

Origin
The coal formation started in a period known as First coal age which
spanned over a period of 360 million to 290 millions of years ago. In
geological past, earth had dense forests in low lying areas. Due to natural
processes the forests were buried underneath the soil. The temperature of
soil also raise there. Due to high temperature and pressure there this
vegetation converted to coal.

Types of coal
The types of coal are actually the transformation stages of coal. These are
stated below.

Peat:Peat is the accumulation of partly decomposed organic matter or


vegetation. It contains 12-60% carbon in it. In its dehydrated form it is very
effective absorbent.

Lignite:Peat is initially converted into lignite or brown coal. It is the


coal with low organic maturity. It much softer and lighter in color. It contains
60-75% of carbon in it. It has long been used as ornamental stone.

Sub bituminous coal:Over many millions of years the


continuing effect of temperature and pressure produces further changes in
lignite and transformed it into sub bituminous coal. It contains 70-80% of
carbon and it is comparatively harder form.

Bituminous coal:Further chemical and physical changes occur


until these coal became much harder and blacker forming bituminous or
hard coals. It contains 80-90% of carbon.

Anthracite: under the right conditions, the progressive increase in


organic maturity continue finally forming Anthracite. It contains >90% of
carbon in it.

Physical state:
The physical state of coal varies considerably depending upon the nature
and composition of decomposed matter. Mostly it is a combustible black or
brownish black sedimentary rock.

Reserves:
Coal is found all over the world, predominantly in the areas where forests
and marshes existed prehistorically before being buried and compressed
over millions of years ago. Some of the largest deposits are in US (22% of
worlds total), Russia (14.4%), China (12.6%), India (7%) and Pakistan with
0.3% only.

Destructive distillation of coal:


When coal is burned in the absence of air it does not burn but produces
useful byproducts. This process is called destructive distillation of coal. Its
main products are
Coke
Coal gas
Coal tar
Ammonia liquor
These can be obtained on laboratory scale by taking coal in a test tube and
heating it. Coal tar is collected at the bottom of the second test tube and
coal gas escapes from the side of that test tube. Ammonia produced is
absorbed inwater to get ammonia liquor. The residue left over is coke.

Refining of coal:
Refining of coal is not as complex as that of crude oil. Coal is simply washed
with water to remove impurities.
WPDA Lakhra Coal Power Plant is only coal fired power plant in Pakistan
that has installed capacity of 150 MW and it hardly operates at 20 MW. This
means that a huge deposit of coal in Sindh is still unexploited for power
generation.

Transportation:
Coal is transported by train or by Barge (canal boats). In mine mouth plants,
the coal is dug out from the ground and put on the conveyor belt that runs
directly to the plant.

Utilization:

Coal is primarily used as a solid fuel to produce electricity and heat


through combustion.
Several chemical products can be made such as activated carbon,
carbon fiber and silicon metal etc.
Other uses include its use in industries like paper, alumina refinery,
chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Coal derived fuels can play an important role to growing energy needs
of transport section.

Hazards of coal:

Burning coal emits harmful wastes such as NOx and SOz. It also emits
twice as much CO2 when compared with natural gas.
Burning of coal has also lead to acid rain in some areas.
Coal mining can scar land scape and the equipment used for mining
are large and noisy that can effect local community.
The mining industry can cause many health problems to miners which
include lungs cancer and respiratory diseases.

Natural Gas:
Background of Natural gas:
Natural gas is the vital component of worlds supply of energy. It is the
cleanest, safest and useful source of energy. Natural gas is cmbusitle mixture
of hydrocarbons gases.it contain 70 to 90./. of methane and 20 ./. of other
hydrocarbons like ethane ,propane, pentane etc and trace amount of othrrt
gases like CO2,O2,H2S,N2.

FORMATION OF NATURAL GAS:


There are three methods by which we can prepare natural gas

* By

compression of organic matter:

Natural gas is also a fossil fuel, like coal and oil .It is formed in similar way
like oil formation, when organic matter is compressed under the earth, at
high temperature and high pressure for long period of time. This is referred
as thermogenic methane.

* By

microorganisms:

Natural gas can also be formed by transformation of organic matter by tiny


microorganism. This type of methane is called as biogenic methane.
Methogens are ting microorganisms that break organic matter to produce
methane.

* By

abiogenic process:

Third way to produce natural gas is by abiogenesis method. Deeply under


the earth crust, there exists hydrogen rich gases and carbon molecules. as
these gases rises upward, they interact with mineral which are also exist
underground, in absence of oxygen. This interaction results in formation of
gases that are found in atmosphere and when these gases rises to surface of
earth they are likely to methane deposits.

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Physical state of natural gas:


It is
* Colorless
* Shapeless
* Odorless in pure form
* The distinctive rotten egg smell is due to presence of mercaptan .it is
added so that it can help in detecting leakage

NATURL GAS RESERVES:


CH4 production is relatively high level and remaining reserves are estimated
to be 885.3 billion. Pakistan gas field are only expected to last long for about
20 years at most due to heavy industrial usage. The SUI gas field is biggest
gas field in Pakistan. It is located in Baluchistan. The gas field was discovered
in late 1952 and commercial exploration of field began in 1955. Sui gas field
accounts for gas production in Pakistan. Remaining reserves are estimated to
be at about 800 billion cubic feet and daily production is around 600 million
cubic feet .

PROCESSING AND EXTRACTION:


Extraction of natural gas is same as that of crude oil. The only difference is
that natural gas is found in greater depths. So we have to dig a greater hole
to extract natural gas.
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PROCESSING:
* PURIFICATION:
It involves the removal of material that inhabits the use of gas as industrial
or residential fuel

* Separation:
Spilting out of components like heavy hydrocarbons (ethane , propane etc )to
obtain pure gasoline.

* Liquefaction:
We increase energy density of gasoline so that it can be sorted and
transported easily.

* Compression:
Wet gas is compressed at about 2400 KN/m2 and then cooled at about 300 K
where heavy hydro carbons are separated, and then it further cooled to 270273K.
After that absorption or adsorption will occur and pure gasoline will be taken
out

Applications:
It is used as
* Fuel for industrial work
* As heating agent in dehydrating process
* Fuel for public and industrial power stations

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* Household fuel for cooking, heating and providing hot water.


* Raw material for chemical synthesis

Transportation:
Pipelines are the safest way to transport natural gas. There are three types of
pipelines which include gathering , interstate and distribution pipeline.

Hazards:
* Global warming
* Air pollution
* Injurious to health
* volatile

Saving Fossil fuels:


Some of the methods are as follow:
* Reduce uses of plastic
* Reuse and recycle the plastic
* Be energy concious in the home
* Install solar plants

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BABLIOGRAGHY:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_crude_oil
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crude_oil_products
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_crude_oil
http://www.eesi.org/topics/fossil-fuels/description
http://www.tutorvista.com/content/physics/physics-ii/fission-andfusion/coal-distillation.php
http://www.worldcoal.org/coal/coal-market-pricing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas
https://chemengineering.wikispaces.com/Natural+gas+processing
Course contents taught in class

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