Fossil Fuels Research Paper

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Fossil Fuels are organic deposits derived from decaying plants and animals that have been fossilized over millions of years. There is more to them than that however they are also hydrocarbons comprised primarily of the following elements: carbon and hydrogen and some sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and minerals. Different combinations of these elements are used as a fuel for our everyday lives. This paper’s purpose is to explain some of the chemistry behind the use of these various fossil fuels as well as just some general properties and parts of chemistry as a whole.
How Fossil Fuels Are Formed
As I mentioned earlier, fossil fuels are formed over millions of years(since there is no other catalyst than temperature and pressure to speed up this long
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There are some limitations to fossil fuels like sulfur being burned causes it to convert to sulfur dioxide, which is SO2 and on the periodic table there’s one sulfur and two oxygen. When the sulfur is in contact with water it is converted into H2SO3. This is called sulfurous acid. There are many things in the world and the source of them is called carbon which every man made thing has. Gasoline is a mixture of of many straight chain, brained, and aromatic hydro which carbon molecules that make up undecane which has 11 carbon atoms and 24 hydrogen atoms which the chemical formula is C11H24. Fossil fuels are wide in variety and some are used more than others. Some are kerosene, jet fuel,and diesel fuel. You use these things for heat and gas for your cars to drive. Eicosane has the chemical formula of C20H42. These molecules join to become a solid which is (S) on the periodic table. It has 20 carbon atoms which is C on the periodic table with an atomic mass of 12.011, and it has 42 hydrogen atoms which is H on the periodic table with an atomic mass of …show more content…
You can see this from sodium to oxygen . sodium is a metal and oxygen is a nonmetal . with both these elements being on completely opposite ends these changes the characteristics of these elements. For example sodium has a molar mass of 22.989707 and this being in group 1 period 3 and oxygen molar mass being 15.9994 and this being in group 16 period 2 . these different sections make them very much different . the element sodium is an alkali metals along with the elements lithium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, and francium But for the element oxygen these non metals like carbon , nitrogen and sulfur these are found in most of our typical fossil fuels. These fossil fuels are usually covalent bonds that can only be created from these non metals . a covalent bond is the bond between two elements and they share these electrons amongst each other to fill each others valence shells . the most typical bond between these is the hydrocarbon bond . These molecules are formed from when dead plants die millions of years ago and they begin to build sedimentary layers on top of them where this no oxygen and under these conditions with the heat of the earth form new molecules. Since everything is made up of carbon carbon dating is a very effective way to date the age of these fossils . You figure this out by using the isotope 12 and 14 of carbon so that you count how many relative carbons to

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