Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, primarily coal, fuel oil or natural gas, formed
from the remains of dead plants and animals.
In common dialogue, the term fossil fuel also includes hydrocarbon-containing natural resources that
are not derived from animal or plant sources.
These are sometimes known instead as mineral fuels.
The utilization of fossil fuels has enabled large-scale industrial development and largely supplanted
water-driven mills, as well as the combustion of wood or peat for heat.
Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed
from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy
oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.
The burning of fossil fuels by humans is the largest source of emissions of carbon dioxide, which is
one of the greenhouse gases that allows radiative forcing and contributes to global warming.
A small portion of hydrocarbon-based fuels are biofuels derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide,
and thus do not increase the net amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Fossil fuel
WRITTEN BY:

 Otto C. Kopp
See Article History
Alternative Title: mineral fuel

Fossil fuel, any of a class of hydrocarbon-containing materials of biological

origin occurring within Earth’s crust that can be used as a source of energy.
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bituminous coalPiles of bituminous coal, a fossil fuel.© stoffies/Fotolia

Fossil fuelCoal is burned to fuel this electric power plant in Rock Springs, Wyoming, U.S.© Jim
Parkin/Shutterstock.com

A “walking beam” operating an oil well pump in Brisas del Mar, Cuba.Alexandre Meneghini/AP
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sedimentary rock: Organic-rich sedimentary deposits

Coal, oil shale, and petroleum are not sedimentary rocks per se; they represent
accumulations of undecayed organic tissue that can either…

Fossil fuels include coal, petroleum, natural gas, oil shales, bitumens, tar
sands, and heavy oils. All contain carbon and were formed as a result of
geologic processes acting on the remains of organic matter produced
by photosynthesis, a process that began in the Archean Eon (4.0 billion to 2.5
billion years ago). Most carbonaceous material occurring before the Devonian
Period (419.2 million to 358.9 million years ago) was derived
from algae and bacteria, whereas most carbonaceous material occurring
during and after that interval was derived from plants.
All fossil fuels can be burned in air or with oxygen derived from air to
provide heat. This heat may be employed directly, as in the case of home
furnaces, or used to produce steam to drive generators that can
supply electricity. In still other cases—for example, gas turbines used
in jet aircraft—the heat yielded by burning a fossil fuel serves to increase both
the pressure and the temperature of the combustion products to furnish
motive power.
 internal-combustion engine: four-stroke cycleAn internal-combustion engine goes through four
strokes: intake, compression, combustion (power), and exhaust. As the piston moves during each stroke,
it turns the crankshaft.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain in the second
half of the 18th century, fossil fuels have been consumed at an ever-
increasing rate. Today they supply more than 80 percent of all the energy
consumed by the industrially developed countries of the world. Although
new deposits continue to be discovered, the reserves of the principal fossil
fuels remaining on Earth are limited. The amounts of fossil fuels that can be
recovered economically are difficult to estimate, largely because of changing
rates of consumption and future value as well as technological developments.
Advances in technology—such as hydraulic fracturing (fracking), rotary
drilling, and directional drilling—have made it possible to extract smaller and
difficult-to-obtain deposits of fossil fuels at a reasonable cost, thereby
increasing the amount of recoverable material. In addition, as recoverable
supplies of conventional (light-to-medium) oil became depleted, some
petroleum-producing companies shifted to extracting heavy oil, as well as
liquid petroleum pulled from tar sands and oil shales. See also coal
mining; petroleum production.
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One of the main by-products of fossil fuel combustion is carbon dioxide (CO2).
The ever-increasing use of fossil fuels in industry, transportation, and
construction has added large amounts of CO2 to Earth’s atmosphere.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations fluctuated between 275 and 290 parts per
million by volume (ppmv) of dry air between 1000 CE and the late 18th century
but increased to 316 ppmv by 1959 and rose to 412 ppmv in 2018.
CO2 behaves as a greenhouse gas—that is, it absorbs infrared radiation (net
heat energy) emitted from Earth’s surface and reradiates it back to the
surface. Thus, the substantial CO2 increase in the atmosphere is a major
contributing factor to human-induced global warming. Methane (CH4), another
potent greenhouse gas, is the chief constituent of natural gas, and
CH4 concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere rose from 722 parts per billion (ppb)
before 1750 to 1,859 ppb by 2018. To counter worries over rising greenhouse
gas concentrations and to diversify their energy mix, many countries have
sought to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels by developing sources
of renewable energy (such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, tidal, geothermal,
and biofuels) while at the same time increasing the mechanical efficiency of
engines and other technologies that rely on fossil fuels.

The Keeling Curve, named after American climate scientist Charles David Keeling, tracks changes in the
concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere at a research station on Mauna Loa in
Hawaii. Although these concentrations experience small seasonal fluctuations, the overall trend shows
that CO2 is increasing in the atmosphere.