Hydrocarbons
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Hydrocarbons are organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen that can take the form of a solid, liquid, or gas. Hydrocarbons are the main components of fossil fuels, also known as nonrenewable energy resources, including coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels are combustible and release energy when they are burned. They are reformulated into gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil. Additionally, they are burned to generate electricity. From 1900 to 2015, fossil fuels accounted for at least 80 percent of total U.S. energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Additionally, the United States was the top global producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2015, according to the EIA. Of that production, crude oil accounted for approximately 60 percent and natural gas accounted for approximately 20 percent. The remainder came from biofuel and refinery fuel processing.[1][2][3]
Background
Carbon atoms join together to constitute the core of what will become a hydrocarbon compound. Hydrogen atoms then join this core in various arrangements. Several hydrocarbons are naturally occurring in trees and plants, and others are found under the Earth's surface. The chemical composition and structure of specific hydrocarbons depend on the kinds of chemical bonds linking the atoms together.[4]
Hydrocarbons are a central component of coal, petroleum (also known as crude oil), and natural gas. Crude oil and natural gas are combustible fuels that are also used as raw materials to manufacture, solvents, fibers, rubbers, and plastics, and coal is burned to generate heat and electricity.[5]
Energy use
Hydrocarbons such as coal, oil, and natural gas are used for energy in the form of gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, electricity, and more. These energy forms are used in industries, homes and businesses, schools, motor vehicles, and power plants.[5][6][7]
Coal is a black to brown sedimentary rock composed of hydrocarbons and traces of sulfur and nitrogen. After coal is mined, it is readily combustible and thus can be used as an energy source without any refining, unlike petroleum. Coal use in the United States increased throughout the 19th century as coal replaced wood as a source of fuel. Trains and steamships in the 19th century began using coal to power their boilers. By 1875, coke (a substance made from coal) replaced charcoal in steel-making. Beginning in the 1880s, coal was used to generate electricity.[8][9]
Petroleum (crude oil) is a naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds in liquid form. After it is extracted, crude oil is used as a transportation fuel, a heating source for buildings, a source of electricity generation, road oil, and a resource used to make plastics and other synthetic materials. The first U.S. petroleum well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859. The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of Connecticut was established to drill for oil around Titusville, Pennsylvania, after oil was found floating on the surface of a nearby body of water. Sometime after 1859, John D. Rockefeller built a small oil refinery, and in 1867 established what would become the Standard Oil Company, which became the largest oil refining company in Pennsylvania by 1870. By 1880, the United States accounted for 85 percent of global oil production.[10][11]
Natural gas is burned to generate electricity, heat buildings, fuel vehicles, heat water, and power furnaces in industrial facilities. Throughout the 19th century, natural gas was used primarily as lamp fuel. In 1855, Robert Bunsen invented the Bunsen burner, a device that combines natural gas with certain levels of air to produce hotter flames. The burner was a forerunner of gas-powered stoves and furnaces. Beginning in the 1940s, natural gas pipeline construction increased as construction became more economical.[12][13]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Glossary, H” accessed January 29, 2014
- ↑ U.S. Department of Energy, "Fossil," accessed April 18, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Fossil fuels still dominate U.S. energy consumption despite recent market share decline," July 1, 2016
- ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica, "Hydrocarbon," accessed April 10, 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Nonrenewable Energy Explained," accessed April 7, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Energy, "How Fossil Fuels were Formed," accessed April 15, 2017
- ↑ Just Energy, "The History of Fossil Fuels," January 12, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Coal Explained," accessed April 10, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Coal," accessed April 18, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Oil: Crude and Petroleum Products Explained," accessed April 10, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Energy, "Squeezing Oil out of Rocks," accessed April 7, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Natural Gas Explained," accessed April 15, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Energy, "Getting Gas from the Ground...and the Sea," accessed April 15, 2017
