- Three examples of fossil fuels could be
a. Coal
b. Oil
c, Natural Gas
- The fossil fuel that is most abundant and least expensive is
Coal
- The plant material that dies in swampy areas and does not decay eventually forms a dense material called what?
Peat
- What conditions are necessary in swamps or bogs to prevent or slow decay?
Low oxygen conditions
- The 4 steps in coal formation are:
- a. The organic matter accumulates and forms a bed of peat.
- b. The peat bed gets buried by other sediments and under heat and pressure begins to transform to a low grade coal known as lignite.
- c. More heat and pressure further change the lignite into bituminous coal.
- d. Even more heat and pressure change the bituminous coal into a nice hard shiny anthracite coal.
- The increase of what 2 conditions changes these from one form to another over time?
a. Heat
b. Pressure
- What is the highest grade of coal that produces the least pollution and most energy per unit?
Anthracite Coal
- What area of North Carolina could become a coal bed thousands of years from now?
Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina
- What are the 2 main methods of coal mining? Name a negative environmental impact of each.
a. method: Underground impact: Acid mine drainage
b. method: Surface impact: Erosion, loss of habitat.
- What are the 2 types of surface mining for coal?
- Strip Mining
- Mountaintop Removal
- What are 2 negative impacts of burning coal?
- Burning coal produces carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and methane gas, all of which could contribute to global climate change.
- Coal (and fuel oil) combustion emit fly ash particles into the atmosphere, which contribute to air pollution problems.
- What is the main ingredient of Natural Gas?
Methane
- What are three of its characteristics?
- Formed from the remains of tiny sea animals and plants that died thousands of years ago. (Same process that formed petroleum.)
- The gas became trapped in the rock layers much like wet household sponge traps water.
- What are 2 benefits of using Natural Gas?
- Cleaner fuel than petroleum or coal.
- Has the highest energy content of the hydrocarbons used for fuel.
- What is the term for fuel sources that come from plant and animal waste?
Biomass.
- What is the name of the organic material in Oil Shale?
Kerogen.
- What are the other names for “Tar Sands”?
Oil sands or bituminous sands.
- What are 2 of the environmental impacts of using shale or tar sands?
- This can be processed to make synthetic crude oil or be refined into petroleum products.
- This may prove to be a viable alternative to oil imported from the Middle East.
- Name one alternative energy and list some of its benefits.
Nuclear Energy
- It produces huge amounts of energy from small amounts of nuclear fuel (uranium and plutonium).
- Earth contains enough nuclear fuel to meet all present and future needs.
