Final Essay

The fuel we use today began forming during the “Carboniferous Period” which was before dinosaurs ruled the Earth (Soft schools, 2014). As many of you may know, the government has recommended phasing out petrol products and replacing them with cheaper, cleaner and continuous, alternative fuel product. The most effective and efficient fuel cell is biodiesel and this is evident through the environmental impacts, the cost, safety aspects, transport, the efficiency of the yield of each fuel and the production logistics in relation to resources.

Petroleum produces the most fuel and has multiple resources to extract it and consists of many advantages. However, it also consists of significant disadvantages for consumers like you, and is why an alternative

The high energy density of petroleum is due to the bonds created and formed. Chemical reactions take in energy to break bonds and give off energy when they make bonds. Organic molecules like those in petrol have lots of weak carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds, which use minimal energy to break. However when crude oil burns, the products from the reaction make multiple strong Carbon-Oxygen and Hydrogen-Oxygen bonds in CO2 and water, these bonds then give off heat when they form, an exothermic reaction. Next, Oil extraction is reasonably low priced and consists of much less effort physical and technical effort. This is due to machinery performing most of the extraction and combustion processes and the resources are already present. Also, due to its liquid form, petroleum is easy to transport and store. Crude oil is most commonly extracted as a liquid or gas with solid forms being rare. Due to a liquidized form being easier to transport the heat of fusion is used to change forms. Heat of fusion is “the energy required to change a gram of a substance from a gas to the liquid state without changing its temperature” (Anne Helmenstine,

The first disadvantage of petroleum as a fuel is that it is a limited resource. According to Matt DiLallo of “USA today” there is approximately one billion barrels of crude oil left in the world, and humans using an average of 32 billion per year, it can be deduced that petroleum will be none existent within the next 30 years. Next, petroleum is detrimental towards multiple environmental factors. When petroleum combust, the atoms within the fuels combine with oxygen from the air to make new molecules. Crude oil is made mainly of carbon. This burns to produce carbon dioxide and thus gets released as a by-product. Carbon monoxide is dangerous because it binds strongly to the iron in hemoglobin (Red blood cells). Once carbon monoxide attaches, it is significantly difficult to release. So if carbon monoxide is breathed in, it sticks to the hemoglobin and takes up all of the oxygen binding sites. Eventually, the blood loses all of its ability to transport oxygen, and result in suffocation. As this is main by product of petroleum within cars it shows that it results negatively towards human ingestion. Carbon monoxide does not just affect humans but also weakens the ozone layer, over time and thus is a greenhouse gas creating higher temperatures for the planet. Another harmful product created through petroleum is Nitrogen oxide. Nitrous oxides form when fuels are burned