17.1 Petroleum: a fossil fuel Flashcards
What are the three fossil fuels?
The fossil fuels are petroleum (crude oil), coal and natural gas.
Why are fossil fuels given that name?
They ar called fossil fuels because they are the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.
How was petroleum formed?
Petroleum formed from the remains of dead organisms that fell to the ocean floor, and were buried under thick sediment.
What converted the remains into petroleum, and how long did it take?
High pressures slowly converted them to petroleum, over millions of years.
What it natural gas often found with?
Natural gas is often found with petroleum.
What is natural gas made of?
Natural gas is mainly methane.
How is natural gas formed?
It is formed in the same way as petroleum, but high pressures caused the compounds to break down to gas.
What is coal made of?
Coal is the remains of lush vegetation that grew in ancient swamps.
What converted the remains into coal, and how long did it take?
Dead vegetation was buried under thick sediment. Pressure and heat slowly converted it to coal, over millions of years.
What is in petroleum?
Petroleum is a smelly mixture of hundreds of different compounds. They are organic compounds. In fact, most are hydrocarbons.
What are organic compounds?
A large class of chemical compounds in which one or more atoms of carbon are covalently linked to atoms of other elements, most commonly hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen.
What are hydrocarbons?
Hydrocarbons contain only carbon and hydrogen.
