Fossil Fuel Energy

Back before dinosaurs roamed the land, the Earth was covered with plants. For about 100 million years, these plants lived and died. They were buried and after a long time they decomposed into fossil fuels, which are natural gas, coal, and oil. See more about this in our research on The Power of the Past.

Fossil fuels are turned into electricity by heating water in a big pot or boiler. The fire had to be extremely high so it can produce high pressure steam. The pot (boiler) had a lid to close it so none of the steam can escape, so it keeps all of the steam in. On one of the sides there is a pipe, which finally lets the steam go inside the turbine. (1,3)

The high pressure steam spins the turbine that turns the generator. the turbine is so big that the high pressure has to be strong to push the turbine. the generator spins with magnets inside a coil or coil inside of magnets spinning. Then after that process is done that is how fossil fuel turns into electricity to be used.

After that process is done the water that was used so it can produce the high pressure steam goes into the cooling tower. The cooling tower is where the water goes so it can cool down instead of it being really hot. After the water is cooled down it goes to a river or lake.

A lot of fossil fuels are found in the Middle East, Siberia, Mexico, and Alaska. Fossil fuel is found there because it is where dinosaurs and plant fossilized over a long period of time millions of years ago.

A good place to put a fossil fuel power plant is where there is nothing around, like in a big open place. A bad place to put it is where a neighborhood is. A fossil fuel power plant can explode because it contains gas and oil. It can catch on fire and the fire could spread.

A good thing about fossil fuel is natural gas burns and doesn’t cause  much pollution. There is about 200-300 more years of natural gas and coal. Fossil  fuel plants are considered by many people to be safer than  nuclear power plants. Most of the other fossil fuels (coal and oil) pollute the air but natural gas is pretty clean. (6)

Fossil fuel is bad for global warning because the burning of these fuels adds carbon dioxide and other pollutants to the air. In the future there will be no more fossil fuels left in the world so eventually we would have no electricity from fossil fuel. (6)

For millions of years  plants decomposed and turned into oil, coal, and natural gas. In a little more than a hundred years we have used much of this fuel. After another 200-300 years the world will run out of fossil fuel. We need to find other sources of fuel because this one is non-renewable.

Fossil Fuel Team: Christyn, Mercedes, Veronica, Ashley