This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2013) Coal, one of the fossil fuels. Fossil fuel consumption per capita for the countries with the twenty largest populations.[1][2] Ratio of gross domestic product to kilograms of fossil fuel carbon consumed, for the worlds 20 largest economies. The two countries with the highest GDP per kilogram carbon ratios, Brazil and France, produce large amounts of hydroelectric and nuclear power, respectively.[1][3] Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years.[4] Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum, and natural gas.[5] They range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants[6] by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earths crust over millions of years[7] (see biogenic theory) was first introduced by Georg Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 10:56:34 +0000
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