1. What fossil fuels are and how they provide energy?
Fossil fuels are in essence hydrocarbons, consisting mainly of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It is produced from the remains of dead plants and animals in the earth’s crust, which act over millions of years to eventually form different types of chemical fuels. These chemical fuels will have all the energy stored in the body of plants and animals when they are alive, and when burned by people’s cell phones, this stored energy will be re-released, and then supply energy for our daily life in various ways.
2. What are the types of fossil fuels?
2.1 Coal
Coal is a hard black substance composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Its main source is plant remains buried in the earth’s crust, usually several kilometers below the surface, and it is the most abundant fossil fuel and the most widely used fossil fuel for providing electricity, but it is also the most environmentally hazardous fossil fuel. Coal can be used to produce a variety of derivatives, such as coke, coal tar, and coal gas.
The usual types of coal as a fossil fuel are anthracite, bituminous coal and lignite, the main difference between the three types of coal is the carbon content.
2.2 Oil
Petroleum is produced from the remains of marine life and is a liquid fossil fuel. Petroleum crude oil can be refined to produce a variety of fuel products, such as gasoline and diesel, which can be supplied to different industries. Because of its expensive value and special color, oil is also called “liquid gold” and “black gold” by the energy industry.
2.3 Natural Gas
Natural gas is a colorless, odorless hydrocarbon, mainly composed of methane, which generally remains in a gaseous state. It exists in nature in natural deposits consisting of methane in underground rock formations, usually together with oil deposits, and is the world’s third largest primary energy source.
The unique state of natural gas allows us to transport it easily through pipelines, and generally speaking, natural gas for domestic use may also be compressed to a liquid state before being supplied for use. As a relatively less polluting and less costly fossil fuel, it is now also widely used in various fields.
3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Fossil Fuels
3.1 Advantages of fossil fuels
3.1.1 Low price
The price of fossil fuels is so low, the main reason is that the fossil energy industry can get a lot of subsidies from the government, and the power generation of fossil fuels itself is more sustained, do not need to rely on other energy sources such as wind energy and other equipment to help maintain the continuity of energy supply, which to a large extent also reduces the cost of using fossil fuels to generate electricity.
Secondly, fossil fuels are not as difficult to obtain as other energy sources such as solar and wind, or require special materials to collect. The presence of fossil fuels only requires the use of collection tools to obtain them from the earth’s crust, which also reduces the cost of its acquisition.
3.1.2 Easy transportation and storage
Fossil fuels exist in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. In either state, fossil fuels are quite easy to store and transport. Solid fossil fuels can be transported directly by land or sea, and there are no special requirements for storage. Liquid and gaseous fossil fuels can be transported across borders via international gas pipelines and tankers. As the industry continues to evolve, more efficient and safer modes of transportation are becoming available, which may further improve the ease of storing and transporting fossil fuels in the future, as well as reduce the cost of transportation.
In contrast, newer energy sources such as solar, wind and tidal energy are unable to be stored efficiently to cope with sudden emergencies.
3.1.3 Large storage capacity and abundant resources
Although fossil fuels are a finite source of energy, they are abundantly stored from a global perspective. Large amounts of fossil fuels are stored in many parts of the world, and even in areas where fossil fuel resources are not available, fossil fuels can be obtained through transportation from neighboring countries. The advantage of abundant fossil fuel resources makes it possible to have a large price advantage in various energy sources.
3.1.4 Mature utilization technology
Fossil fuels were discovered earlier, and many countries have been extracting and using fossil fuels for decades. This means that both the equipment for collecting fossil fuels and the technology for utilizing the heat generated by fossil fuel combustion for energy supply have reached a more mature level. In contrast, the new energy industry still needs more time for continuous R&D and development to reach a perfect level.
3.1.5 More Stable and Reliable
Fossil fuels are often considered to be the most reliable way of generating electricity. First of all, their combustion can be carried out throughout the day and night, and the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity will not be affected by weather and other environmental factors. In contrast, one of the biggest drawbacks of new renewable energy sources is that they are dependent on the environment for their energy supply, and the efficiency of their power generation depends entirely on the environment. In the right environment, they have a very good performance, while in bad weather, their power supply is far less stable than burning fossil fuels.
3.1.6 High energy density
Fossil fuels are a highly energy dense and efficient source of energy. Millions of years of natural processes have concentrated all the energy in living organisms into fossil fuels, which means that a large amount of energy can be obtained by burning less fuel. This enables companies to use fossil fuels at a fraction of the cost of fuel.
Secondly, the high energy density of fossil fuels allows it to perform better in large-scale industrial processes.
3.1.7 Creating more jobs
Unlike those new energy sources, fossil fuels require a lot of labor from extraction, collection, transportation, and processing. Millions of people around the world work in the fossil energy sector. New, cleaner sources of energy are more technologically demanding and, with increased automation, require less and less labor. Therefore, for countries with a large fossil fuel industry, it can solve the employment problem of a large number of workers for the country.
3.2 Disadvantages of fossil fuels
3.2.1 More water resources consumed for extraction
Fossil fuels consume a large amount of water in the process of mining. This water is not only needed to help drill rigs to drill down into the earth’s crust when mining, but also for cooling when refining fuels and using fossil fuels to burn for electricity. It is estimated that a medium-sized coal-fired power plant consumes billions of gallons of water per year.
3.2.2 Air Pollution
Fossil fuels generate a variety of harmful products during combustion, including tiny particulate matter, sulfides, nitrogen oxides, and large amounts of greenhouse gases.
The greenhouse gases produced by their combustion are one of the products that have the greatest impact on the environment. As a major cause of global warming, carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion accounts for 70% of total global emissions, with an average of 3.5t of carbon dioxide produced for every ton of fossil fuel collected. These greenhouse gases, which are emitted in large quantities, cause a series of environmental problems such as global warming, sea level rise, and ozone layer depletion.
Secondly, when burning coal and oil, sulfur dioxide and other sulfur compounds as well as many nitrogen oxides are produced, and when these substances are dispersed in the air and merge with water, acid rain is produced, which destroys millions of hectares of forests every year and leads to the acidification of many freshwater lakes.
It is worth noting that all these chemicals can cause health effects on the human body, including infection with asthma, bronchial diseases, heart disease, etc., and the number of people who die every year because of air pollution can reach several million.
3.2.3 Pollution of water resources
The fossil fuel industry not only consumes a large amount of water resources, but also causes pollution of water resources. The most deadly pollution is caused by oil leaks during the extraction process. When the extraction of oil, once the leakage occurs, these sticky liquid will flow into the nearby waters, seriously affecting the survival of the living creatures in the waters, most of the fish, birds will die because of pollution or adhesion. Another reason why water pollution from oil spills is so serious is that it is difficult to clean up. Oil does not dissolve in water, and when it causes pollution, a large area of it floats above the water, which can only be fished out manually, and no matter how it is cleaned up, there will be oil residue at the end of the day.
Fossil fuels can cause much more water pollution than just oil, such as pollution from wastewater discharged directly into waters from the refining of fossil fuels, or from rainwater mixed with air pollutants. Global water resources are in a constant cycle, and wherever water pollution occurs, it will have a global impact.
3.2.4 Combustion contributes to global climate change
In addition to the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, which contribute to environmental problems such as global warming, the resulting climate change will also have a gradual impact on the world. The production process of fossil fuels has caused increasingly severe natural disasters, including storms, droughts, and floods.
3.2.5 Fossil fuels are not renewable
Fossil fuels are a non-renewable energy source that takes millions of years to form, and the current global stockpile is only enough for 100-200 years. And with the rise of modern industry, the demand for fossil fuels is bound to increase, and once fossil fuels are depleted, they will never be available again.
3.2.6 Increasing Costs
One of the original reasons people used fossil fuels in the first place was because of their low cost, but as the cost of the fossil fuel extraction and refining process has risen, as well as the fact that there are many renewable energy sources that are cheaper than fossil fuels. As the energy industry continues to grow, this cost gap will increase, and eventually fossil fuels will lose their affordability.
4. Are there better options for generating electricity than using fossil fuels?
The answer is yes. Installing solar panels is a great way to get away from using fossil fuels to generate electricity. Installing solar panels can produce a lot of energy for people. Solar energy is better than fossil fuels in terms of supplying energy to homeowners, first of all because solar power system does not emit any greenhouse gases, which means that there is almost no harm to the environment or to the human body. Secondly, the efficiency of solar panels has reached a high level, which is comparable to that of fossil fuels.
Secondly, the use of solar panels to generate electricity can do a better job of protecting the environment. Some homeowners are taking the initiative to use solar panels out of a conscious desire to reduce their carbon footprint and emissions, and while there is an upfront investment required to acquire the technology, the payback from using solar panels will be far greater.
As the industry has evolved over the decades, the price of solar panels has gradually become more affordable. Solar tax credit programs offered by the government are now available to reduce the upfront cost of obtaining solar panels. Notably, after installing solar panels, users can even earn money by selling excess electricity produced to energy companies, which can further increase the payback benefits of installing solar panels.
As the clean energy industry continues to develop, the price of solar energy will continue to fall, while the price of fossil fuels may continue to rise in the face of resource depletion, and the gradual replacement of fossil fuels by solar energy as a clean energy source is an inevitable trend. In this environment, choosing to use solar panels to generate electricity is absolutely the best choice.
