Bell Questions What are fossil fuels? What kinds of fossil fuels are used in the U.S. today?

1. What are fossil fuels? They’re any naturally occurring carbon or hydrocarbon fuel, such as coal, petroleum, peat, and natural gas, formed by the decomposition of prehistoric organisms. 2. What kinds of fossil fuels are used in the U.S. today? There are three major kinds of fossil fuels: Coal, Oil, and natural gas.

How is coal formed? Coal is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and varying amounts of sulphur. There are three main types of coal: Anthracite, Bituminous and Lignite.

Stages of Coal There are four stages of Coal Formation(In order): Peat, Lignite, Bitumen, and Anthracite. Peat – Can be used as fuel in it’s dehydrated form. Lignite – Softest, low in carbon. Bitumen – Dense, has medium amounts of carbon. Anthracite - Hardest coal, high in carbon

How is coal used as a Fossil Fuel? Coal is grounded up and mixed with water to make “slurry”. It is then pumped many miles through pipelines. At the other end, the coal is used to fuel power plants and other factories.

How is oil formed? Scientists say that Oil was formed by tiny Diatoms, very small sea creatures. They work just like plants, converting sunlight into stored energy.

How is oil used as a fossil fuel? Oil is first dugout from below the ground, then brought to Oil Refineries in which the oil is refined for usage. Oil is used for many vehicles such as; cars, trucks, boats, ships, airplanes. Oil is in some cases even used on jewelry.

How is Natural Gas formed? Characteristics; Lighter than air, mostly made up of methane, usually found near underground petroleum. Natural gas is colorless, odorless, and tasteless.

How is Natural Gas used as a fossil fuel? Natural gas is used with ignition systems. Gas lit stoves, grills, etc. Machines called "digesters" are used today to turn materials such as: plants, and animal waste into natural gas. This process replaces waiting for millions of years for the gas to form naturally.

Refineries Refineries are used to refine fossil fuels. Crude oil contains hundreds of different types of hydrocarbons all mixed together, you must separate them in order to have anything useful.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 10.8 million gallons of Crude oil were spilled by hitting the Prince William reef. Clean up of the incident was done by using dispersant, a surfactant and solvent mixture. 100,000 to as many as 250,000 seabirds, at least 2,800 sea otters,12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, as well as the destruction of billions of salmon and herring eggs were all reported to have died.

Deepwater Horizon In September 2009, the oil rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 35,050. feet 210,000 US gallons to 4,200,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled per day of the disaster. Nine rig crew on the rig floor and two engineers died during the explosion. a fail-safe device fitted at source of the well, did not automatically cut-off the oil flow as intended when the explosion occurred.