Seite - 37 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

Chapter5 Energyoptions Theworld is presentedwith quite a few options for the energy it needs, with most of them derivative of the largest energy source of all, our Sun. 5.1 FOSSILFUELS The energy resources known as fossil fuels were formed from organicmatter that, under high pressures and temperatures deep in the Earth, was converted over millions of years into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels. Organic matter refers to the huge quantities of carbon-based compounds that originally were the remains of plants and animals. Thismatter, over time, has been physically and chemically altered to become a different set of compounds that we now know as coal, petroleum (oil), and natural gas. Eachwill be discussed inmore detail in Chapter 6. While such fuels are still being formed in various deep underground locations, they are considered non-renewable on ©2019TheAuthor. This isanOpenAccessbookchapter distributedunder the termsof the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposeswith noderivatives, provided theoriginalwork is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This does not affect the rights licensed or assigned from any third party in this book. The chapter is from the bookWater,Energy, andEnvironment:APrimer, AllanR.Hoffman (Author). doi: 10.2166/9781780409658_0037