the energy stored in fossil fuels comes from natural gas.
the energy stored in fossil fuels comes from natural gas.
where does the energy stored in fossil fuels come from?
natural gas
prior to the latter half of the 18th century, windmills and watermills provided the energy needed for industry such as milling flour, sawing wood or pumping water, and burning wood or peat provided domestic heat. the widescale use of fossil fuels, coal at first and petroleum later, to fire steam engines enabled the industrial revolution. at the same time, gas lights using natural gas or coal gas were coming into wide use. the invention of the internal combustion engine and its use in automobiles and trucks greatly increased the demand for gasoline and diesel oil, both made from fossil fuels. other forms of transportation, railways and aircraft, also required fossil fuels. the other major use for fossil fuels is in generating electricity and as feedstock for the petrochemical industry. tar, a leftover of petroleum extraction, is used in construction of roads.
fossil fuel
all forms of energy are either potential energy (e.g. chemical, gravitational, electrical energy, temperature differential, latent heat, etc.) or kinetic energy (e.g. momentum). some technologies provide only short-term energy storage, and others can be very long-term such as power to gas using hydrogen or methane and the storage of heat or cold between opposing seasons in deep aquifers or bedrock. a wind-up clock stores potential energy (in this case mechanical, in the spring tension), a battery stores readily convertible chemical energy to operate a mobile phone, and a hydroelectric dam stores energy in a reservoir as gravitational potential energy. ice storage tanks store ice (thermal energy in the form of latent heat) at night to meet peak demand for cooling. fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline store ancient energy derived from sunlight by organisms that later died, became buried and over time were then converted into these fuels. even food (which is made by the same process as fossil fuels) is a form of energy stored in chemical form.
energy development