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Fossil fuels, like, coal, lignite, petroleum and natural gas are non renewable natural resources. Both have an organic origin and are called hydrocarbon fuels. Coal was formed in nature as a solid from the remains of the trees buried deep inside the earth, some 500 million years ago.
The more heat and pressure coal undergoes through, the richer becomes the carbon content of it.
Petroleum also occurs deep inside the earth's crust, as a liquid, and is formed by the bacterial decomposition of marine plant and animal matter and prehistoric forests in the absence of air buried at the bottom of the seas. This decomposition takes place under high pressures and temperatures of about 200oC, with the passage of millions of years of time.
Most of the energy needs that started with the industrial revolution some 250 years ago, and which exponentially increased in the 20th century have been met by the reserves of coal and petroleum. The use of coal and petroleum and their products in the world economy is immense. Coal is an important fuel source as its energy is converted into other forms of energy such as electricity, steam and coal gas.
Many thermal power stations are run on coal. Coal is used for many industrial applications such as fuel for iron and steel foundries, metal extraction plants and steam based turbines. Coal tar, a black liquid, produces a mixture of over 200 carbon compounds which are used to prepare drugs, dyes, paints, explosives, plastics etc. It is a source of aromatic hydrocarbon compounds like benzene, toluene, aniline, phenol, naphthalene, anthracene etc. Coke is an important reducing agent is another by-product containing 98% carbon.
Petroleum is often referred to as liquid gold, due to its importance as a fuel in transportation (Petrol, Diesel, kerosene, gas oil, fuel oil) and as a source of over hundred and fifty important petrochemicals used in industrial and consumer applications. Over 25% of the entire chemical industry is devoted to the extraction of petroleum to get petrochemicals. The prosperity of any country depends upon these petroleum reserves.
Hydrocarbon fuels take millions of years to form and because they are depleting at a very fast rate coal and petroleum reserves will be exhausted in the future no matter how carefully we use them. One estimate reckons that at present rate of usage, our known petroleum resources will last us for about forty years and the coal resources will last for another two hundred years.
The management of such non renewable energy sources involves slightly different perspectives from those resources discussed earlier in terms of policy and technology issues. One way of conservation and managing of these resources is to substitute existing technologies so that hydrocarbon fuels are more efficiently used or used less. For example, the use of vehicles with more efficient mileage and exhaust characteristics or a substitution of fuel or raw material. Some technologies in cars now use alternate fuels in combination with petrol (alcohol mixed petroleum) or completely use Bio fuel. Biogas can replace Liquid petroleum fuel (LPG) for cooking in rural areas. A second route is to affect the policy of finding non-conventional and renewable energy sources. Power generation technologies are being developed by using wind energy through windmills, hydro energy and nuclear energy for generating electricity. Steam turbines are used in industries and solar energy based technologies (solar voltaic cells, solar panels are being used for areas such as for lighting, communications, solar heating etc. to reduce the dependence on hydrocarbon fuels.
A related aspect of management of these resources is the emissions they create in terms of pollution levels and green house gases. The choice of efficient technology or alternate fuel and technologies/products has a direct bearing on this characteristic of managing coal and petroleum based resources. High carbon dioxide levels, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, lead to dangerous levels of air pollution affecting health and causing smogs, haze, and acid rain. What choices can reduce them? Sulphur containing automobile fuels for example, have been banned for automobiles in almost all countries for health reasons.
A second area of concern is the excessive emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide from automobile exhaust; petrochemical based industries power stations etc., which cause a rise in atmospheric temperatures (Global warming). Thus we must exercise judicious choices at a personal and community level while using these resources.