Types of Fossil fuels and its links to Air pollution
Hi everyone, for today, I would like share about the types of fossil fuels and how most if not all are harmful to the environment. This occur due to to large amount of emissions of air pollutants as a result of the burning of these resources for energy production.
-https://www.mygreenpod.com/articles/fossil-fuels-and-human-rights/
Fossil fuels are natural non-renewable energy resources which include coal, crude oil and natural gas. Much of the world’s energy comes from these resources they have formed hundreds of millions of years ago and burning it to generate electricity to meet our energy needs, pose huge environmental consequences. While fossil fuels are useful to generate electricity, the burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. As fossil fuel remains as the world’s primary energy resource, it creates a lot emissions of air pollutants into the atmosphere.
Coal:
Black or brown chunks of sedimentary rock with high amounts of carbon and hydrocarbons (Nunez, 2019). Often mined via surface or underground methods, coal contributes a third of all energy supply worldwide. The top coal consumers and producers in 2018 are namely China, India and the US. The burning of coal produces carbon dioxide that accounts for 44 per cent of the world total emissions.
Oil:
Crude oil as an unrefined petroleum liquid composed of hydrocarbons deposits and other organic materials (Nunez, 2019). Often extracted from onshore and offshore wells, the crude oil harvested are then refined into a wide variety of petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and heating oil (Denchak, 2020). Air pollution is also released when oil is burned, drilling and transport which have led to major accidents such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 (Nunez, 2019).
Natural gas:
An odourless gas primarily made up of methane and often lies in deposits deep in the Earth such as coal and oil (Nunez, 2019). Often extracted by combining fracking or hydraulic fracturing such as horizontal drilling (Denchak, 2020). The extraction methods also linked to air pollution where unhealthy levels of smog and toxic air contaminants are released into the atmosphere.
To conclude, we can see that at every process, the extraction, the production, the transportation and the usage of fossil fuels or the bi-product of fossil fuels which is electricity, results in air pollution worsening air quality in the atmosphere.
References:
Denchak, M. (2020, September 30). Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuels-dirty-facts
Nunez, C. (2019, April 02). Fossil fuels, explained. Retrieved November 06, 2020, fromhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/reference/fossil-fuels/