Replacement for fossil fuel

Replacement for fossil fuel

Introduction

Standard fuel sources include nonrenewable energy sources such as petroleum-based products, natural gas, coal, propane, and nuclear power. Alternative fuels on the other hand refer to any non-conventional source materials that include biofuels (e.g., biodiesel, ethanol), hydrogen, wind power, hydroelectricity, geothermal energy, and solar power. The energy from alternative fuels may also be stored for later use using chemical storage systems (e.g., batteries, fuel cells). Alternative fuel sources are non-fossil fuel based and are an integral a part of a renewable and sustainable energy practice. Although fossil fuel substitutions have notable drawbacks, the development and implementation of alternative fuel technologies coupled with extreme conservation measures may provide industrialized nations a means to wean their historical dependence on fossil fuels without comprising economic prosperity.

Discussion

The inexpensive fuels of the previous century are no longer and high fossil-fuel consumption among western nations shows trends of declining. In 2008, global oil consumption decreased by 0.6 percent, the largest decrease in nearly three decades that was driven primarily by 2 to 3 percent declines in traditionally major oil consuming nations such as the United States, Canada, and western Europe. However, the oil consumption decline of western nations is being countered by increasing consumption by developing world economies, particularly China and India. The world has already consumed about half of the recoverable fossil fuels since the modern industrial age, remarkable given fossil fuel development requires millions of years and specialized biological, geologic and climatic conditions. For instance, oil forms from the decomposition of marine life deposited in sedimentary basins that undergoes compaction from the increasing pressure of the overlying materials, thus trapping the hydrocarbons and the gas byproducts from the organic breakdown deep into the Earth's crust. The majority of oil and natural gas worldwide are found in sedimentary rock layers of the Cenozoic Era about 50 million years ago. The process of oil and natural gas creation took millions of years, while the process of extraction is on the order of a couple centuries (Lee , James and Sudarshan 2007).

Alternative energy fuels comprise renewable energy resources such as biofuels; solid, liquid or gaseous fuels derived from living or recently living organic material; or biomass. The energy from biomass is used as a fuel for domestic heating and cooking, running power generators for electricity production, and transportation fuels. Biofuels include long-exploited sources such as wood and grass that produce heat directly ...