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Abstract

Fossil fuels are energy resources derived from altered remains of living organisms buried by sediments and exposed to elevated pressures and temperatures for millions of years. They are defined non-renewable because of the long time it takes to create them. There are three basic forms of fossil fuels: petroleum (or, crude) natural gas, and coal (subdivided in different ranks). Fossil fuels store energy in the bonds between the atoms that make up their molecules. Burning the fuels breaks apart those bonds, and this releases the energy that originally came from the sun. These natural resources are widely, not uniformly, distributed in the planet subsoil.
Fossil Fuels
Fossil fuels are energy resources derived from altered remains of living organisms buried by
sediments and exposed to elevated pressures and temperatures for millions of years. They are
defined non-renewable because of the long time it takes to create them. There are three basic forms
of fossil fuels: petroleum (or, crude) natural gas, and coal (subdivided in different ranks).[1] Fossil
fuels store energy in the bonds between the atoms that make up their molecules. Burning the fuels
breaks apart those bonds, and this releases the energy that originally came from the sun. These
natural resources are widely, not uniformly, distributed in the planet subsoil (Fig. 1, 2, and 3).
The full article is available at: https://ethw.org/Fossil_fuels
Contents
1 Historical development of the terminology
2 Three main groups of fossil fuels
o2.1 Petroleum
o2.2 Coal
o2.3 Natural gas
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
Cite as:
Gerali, Francesco, 2020. “Fossil Fuels”. IEEE Engineering and Technology History Wiki. Hoboken,
NJ: IEEE History Center. https://ethw.org/Fossil_fuels
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