1. Energy from organic fuels
Chapter 15
Energy from organic fuels

2. The Need for Energy
fuel: any substance from which energy is obtained.
Examples:?
How have things changes?
Organic fuels: contain carbon compounds, examples:
Hydrocarbon: compounds composed of only hydrogen and carbon, example: methane (a lot of them end in “ane”
Methane, Ethane, Octane…. The octane rating of gasoline is derived from a formula based on the amount of energy contained in the gas compared to pure iso-octane.

3. Butane isomers: same number of atoms, different structure.

4. Organic fuels often contain other chemicals (the bad part usually for us anyhow), example: sulfur or lead
Called impurities, many contribute to pollution.
Fossil Fuels
When organisms die, not all of the energy they had stored was released.
When buried, and you add pressure, typically the organisms energy is not loss.
Therefore: fuels derived from the remains of organisms that lived long ago are fossil fuels. Examples: coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

5. Coal
Generated by organisms that died, covered in sediment, and with added pressure and heat formed coal.
Chemically changed, and water removed (via pressure) become solid rock (coal)
Over time, hydrogens and oxygen's are removed, concentrating the carbon (concentration of coal is directly related to the amount of energy available).
This concentration is how we categorize different types of coal materials.
Peat
Not technically a type of coal
Lowest value of energy available
High water content, low percent of carbon
First stage of coal formation
Looks kind of like decaying wood
The youngest of these categories
Gives off a large amount of smoke (due to high water concentration)

6. Lignite
Second stage of coal formation
Soft, brown coal composed of about 40% carbon
Burns quickly, very little smoak
Must be mined (peat does not have to be mined)
Bituminous Coal
Soft coal, 85 % carbon
Must be mined
Even more pure, burns hotter
Used by many power plants
Most abundant coal mined in US
Anthracite
Purest coal, 95% carbon
Shiny, black, often deeper underground than any other
Burns the hottest, least amount of smoke
Most expensive to acquire as well.

7. Petroleum
- crude oil, and a liquid fossil fuel
non-renewable
Formed from microscopic protists, plants, and animals
Millions of years to form
Trapped in pocked beneath nonporous rock (with water and natural gas)
Can be under very high pressure (hence the term “gusher” when drilled into it.
Worlds most important resource.
Used to make a variety of products after being refined
Heat homes
Produce electricity
Grease and lubricants
Asphalt for roads
Many types of plastics

10. Natural Gas
Often found trapped above petroleum pools
Mostly gaseous hydrocarbons
Methane is the primary
Others include: propane, nitrogen, and helium
Used instead of coal or oil because it burns cleaner (stoves, heaters, etc…)
Really good because it does not have to be converted to electricity, can be burned directly
Because of this, more efficient and less expensive to use
Often NG is considered a waste product at the oil platform and is burned off.

12. Other organic fuels
Biomass Fuels (is a fuel formed from the products of living organisms)
Wood
Still relied on heavily in developing nations
Advantages: renewable
Disadvantages: lots of smoke that is high is carbon dioxide, tree reduction can cause more erosion.
Garbage
About 2/3 of the material in garbage can be burned.
Some cities in the US already take advantage of this (using the heat to generate steam, thus produce electricity)
Methane
“swamp gas”
Decaying garbage dumps also produce methane (both are being harvested and used same ways as natural gas)
Cows are the number one releasing agent of methane (both ends) but this is much harder to use.

13. Alcohol
bioconversion: converting organic materials into fuels
Sugarcane and corn are used to make alcohol.
Ethanol is the primary alcohol being produced right now
Good: renewable
Bad: not as much energy available as from regular gas
Gasohol: mixture of 4 parts gasoline to one part ethanol.