OLUSEGUN AGAGU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

APPLIED THERMODYNAMICS

A TECHNICAL REPORT THE TOPIC: THE USE OF

ALIU OLASUNKANMI JAMIU

MEE/19/073

31 August, 2023
 ABSTRACT
Fossil fuels, comprising coal, oil, and natural gas, have historically served as the primary energy
source, driving global industrialization and economic growth. However, the unquestioned
reliance on these non-renewable resources has engendered a multitude of ecological challenges.
The combustion of fossil fuels, to meet the ever-increasing global energy demands, releases vast
quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, chiefly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane
(CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). These gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, exacerbating
the greenhouse effect and leading to global warming, a phenomenon that triggers a cascade of
environmental crises including rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and disruptions in
ecosystems.

Furthermore, the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels are associated with habitat
destruction, oil spills, and air and water pollution. The release of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide
(SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter not only contributes to local air quality
issues but also leads to the formation of acid rain, which damages aquatic ecosystems, forests,
and infrastructure. The depletion of fossil fuel reserves has also spurred increasingly risky and
ecologically damaging extraction methods, such as hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and deep-sea
drilling, which pose threats to groundwater supplies and oceanic biodiversity. Additionally, the
extraction process can disrupt communities and Indigenous lands, causing social and
environmental injustices. To mitigate these adverse effects, a global shift towards renewable and
sustainable energy sources, coupled with energy efficiency measures, is essential. This transition
would not only curb the environmental degradation caused by fossil fuels but also promote
economic growth, energy security, and human health. Policymakers, industries, and individuals
must recognize the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels to preserve the environment
for future generations. This paper underscores the inextricable link between fossil fuel use and
environmental degradation and advocates for decisive action to address this critical global issue.
Introduction

The purpose of this project is to give a brief analysis on how Fossil Fuels effect the environment,
since there is a whole agreement in who have written1 this project-paper that those sources really
have a bad result on the entire environment, destroying the nature and the diversity first, then the
overall population of the world since the natural connection. For this reason, it will be firstly
introduced the topic, such what Fossil Fuels effectively are and what is technically intended by
that name. In the same section it is provided the classification of the acknowledged Fossil Fuels
and a graph which explain their amount in the world. After that, it will be examined how those
sources are used, by noting the development in the human activity and their requirement of
energy, thus it will be analyzed the energy usage by firstly comparing three interesting areas,
such the world, the European Union and the Least Developed Countries, to then compare its
value among Italy and Turkey. In this section there will also be listed the sectors by energy
consumption and showing the Fossil Fuels consumption as in the same areas as in the previous
graph.

A glance to the consequences of the Fossil Fuels combustion comes in following section, in
which they are listed all the results of the single activities. This section seems really interesting,
since it goes to analyze each single step in the Fossil Fuels life, from their researching up to the
usage, while highlighting the damage they cause to the environment. Hence the greenhouse
effect is explained, because of its huge scale and its importance. Before to understand how these
sources are classified by the nature, it is introduced the meaning of their name. In fact, Fossil
Fuel is the word used for all those natural substances which are formed by hundreds of millions
of years under the ground because of the anaerobic process. The technical definition of Fossil
Fuel is "Incompletely oxidized and decayed animal and vegetable materials, specifically coal,
peat, lignite, petroleum and natural gas". This is exactly related to the process that makes them
like people usually use to know about, since it is caused by the absence of air which with really
high pressures and at determined conditions makes those substances useful for the human needs.

In this process solar energy has a big role, because it is primarily collected by biosphere during
geological periods and then it is given to the plants through photosynthesis, to be transmitted to
the animal organisms and to the humans at the end, due to the food chain. In fact, after part of the
sunlight is taken by the plant and all the vegetation (commonly named autotrophic organisms), it
goes to transform the combination of carbon dioxide and water thus forming organic material,
such mostly carbohydrates, which animals (living organisms) absorb by eating them. Thus, at the
end, those substances pass to the ground because of the natural life effect and after all those
centuries they become the substance that people commonly use to generate energy.

Currently, the energy sources are divided in two main categories, rather the traditional fuels and
the non-traditional fuels, where in the first one are just represented:

1. Coal, the most common used within Fossil Fuels, it is further classified in peat, lignite,
litantrace, anthracite, according to the calorific value which increases as more as it pass from the
first to the last one. Globally it represents more than a quarter of the overall energy production,
especially due to its easier availability and lower price if compared with others, but in the same
time it is also one of the most polluting;

2. Petroleum, an hydrocarbon mixture that after a refinery process gives many useful
products, like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline (also known as petrol), naphtha, kerosene
and related jet aircraft fuels, diesel fuel, fuel oils, lubricating oils, paraffin wax, asphalt and tar,
petroleum coke, according to the component of hydrocarbons. All of them are differentiated for
the content in hydrogen and carbon, where this second one gives them an higher value of lower
heating power;

3. Natural gas, commonly found together with the petroleum and it became famous thanks
to Chinese, who first used it in 300 B.C. to boil the ocean water and obtaining the salt. Recently,
industry started to transform it in liquid sources to be more useful and easily transported, like
naphtha or gas oil, through the gas to liquid process (GTL);
 Figure 1 - The amount of fossil fuels in the world by area and devided by clusters (oil, coal, gas).

As clearly is from the Figure 1 coal is the fossil fuels which more gives opportunity for the
future consumption, since it is the most widely source in the world, followed by the gas and
finally the oil. In fact, according to WCA it has been estimated that there are over 4,416 billion
barrels of oil equivalent of proven coal reserves worldwide. This means that there is enough coal
to last us around 148 years at current rates of production. In contrast, proven oil and gas reserves
are equivalent to around 43 and 61 years at current production levels. Hence, if the overall
consumption will increase, as it is thought due to the development of BRIC countries like China
and India, those sources will be not enough for the furthers generations6. Besides, in the second
cluster are grouped the renewable sources, some traditional sources like firewood, agricultural
residues and animal waste, and then nuclear fuels.

The main Fossil Fuels are formed in the same way and even the extraction process is pretty much
the same. In fact, they are found into the ground after many researches with particular
technologies. Not all Fossil Fuels can be used, hence this process of research can takes very long
time8 without give any profitable result, but they are still the most used because of the higher
energy productivity and the improved technology that makes them also cheaper.
 Chapter 1

At the beginning, humanity used to face its problems by using natural sources. Since they have
had the necessity to “create” the energy, people started to first count on their body by mechanical
power, then they improved their skills and how to take advantage from the natural sources like
wind especially. Humans need external energy for almost all the activities they practice, as well
as their body constantly consume energy, which is created more or less for the 90% by the Fossil
Fuels in all over the world as we can see from Figure 2. The other energy is produced by
renewable resources. It has to be said that, according to the World Oil most optimistic proved
reserve estimates, there are still 417 years left for coal extraction, 43 for oil and 167 years for
natural gas. About the last kind of sources (uranium and thorium), if we refer to the way they are
created and the fact that they are not able to auto-reproduce in a short time, we should attribute
them to the traditional fuels cluster. But actually these energies are insert in the renewable cluster
because of their capability to do not generate greenhouse gases.

The step of research medially takes 2-3 years just to find the fields of fuel. This timing can be
less just in case of coal fuel. After that, there will needed about other 2 years and even more to
build the technological instruments for the extraction process. According to majority of people,
renewable resources are the ones who can be restored in short period of time, for this reason
Fossil Fuels cannot be considered like this, since they take million years to be recreated. If we
accept that, we must also recognize that one of the problems of these resources is that they will
not be longer available for next generations, because of our consumption. But it has to be said
that there are different opinions on that.
 Figure 2 - Fossil Fuels Total consumption

During the centuries people always grown their energy necessity, and energy now has become a
really necessity for our life. As time went out, humanity started more and more to work less with
their body and implementing newest technologies instead, being more productive this way.
Nowadays things are really different, most of people cannot live without energy since they find
in it their source of life10. This is why Fossil Fuels are really indispensable for most of people,
because they are used just to produce the energy we need. They make us live. While some people
think that this resources are very common under the ground so we will have them forever.
Although, if we think that Fossil Fuels have been created by anaerobic decomposition of buried
dead organisms, we must think that inside almost all Earth’s crust there is fossil fuel, and then
we must think that this process it has continued for latest centuries so to make new resources for
next to come. When we talk about “people” here, it is surly referred to advanced countries
population, since we know that in many countries there are a lot of people who do not have
anything, not even the essential things. But paradoxically the world goes this way because of the
natural competitiveness.

Figure 3 – Personal elaboration of the energy usage in kg of oil equivalent per capita. Font of data:

In Figure 3 it is represented the average of the energy firstly used in the world and then in two
selected areas, where one is the UE and the other one is Least developed countries (LDC). It is
impressive to see the difference among these two groups of countries, but this is just the reality
of matters, where there are still some countries which do not have access to the energy,
contrariwise those countries which use the energy more than necessary. In the same graph is also
shown the difference in energy usage between Italy and Turkey, and we can see that despite the
number of population which is bigger in the second nation, in the first one the energy
consumption is extremely higher.

Of course, electricity let the industrial system work too, thus energy sources are very important
for the enterprises in all kind of sector, from the production up to the distribution. Following it is
utilized a simple classification showing which the users of energy are:

1. Residential, is related with any place where people live. It also includes Commercial
buildings since the way they use the energy is just the same;
2. Industrial, of course all the industrial sectors use energy but there are six energy intensive
industries which consume more than the others, and they are: (a) petroleum refining; (b) steel
manufacturing; (c) aluminum manufacturing; (d) paper manufacturing; (e) chemical
manufacturing; (f) cement manufacturing;

3. Transportation, is the sector which includes all the way to move either people and goods
from a place to another, such the airlines, railroads and trucking companies;

Of course, as long as they require energy to work, with the Fossil Fuels combustion these sectors
pollute also if indirectly the environment.

Figure 4 – Personal elaboration of the fossil fuels energy consumption expressed in percentage of the total.

Consumption of Fossil Fuels is increasing in the entire world, in fact according to EIA (Energy

Information Administration) all types of Fossil Fuels are used more and more so for private
request as for business matters. Contrariwise to what could be expected, is estimated these Fuels
will still be available for many years, so that the problem of their willingness seems to be really
far away.

It is important to notice that U.S. is not highlighted in Figure 4 although it represents the most
polluting country in current days, but we can see that EU is in its average of Fossil Fuels
consumption very close to the average in the world, despite the very low percentage of the Least
 Developed Countries. According to the data, if we compare Italy and Turkey we can see that
both countries require this kind of consumption for a value which is above the world and
European average but, on the contrary than the first country which during years has started to
decrease its percentage of damaging the environment, Turkey has had an improvement in
polluting because of the Fossil Fuels combustion and request for energy consumption, up to
reach a higher value.

The Disadvantages of using Fossil Fuels

While these non-renewable resources are used, they release a wide quantity of Co2 in the air and
this is the crucial reason why they are really dangerous, but they are still preferred to the
renewable ones due their energy return. Thus, because of the market role, all the population in
the world is suffering many pains, though of course there is always someone whose is more
visible than others. First of all it must be said that all kind of Fossil Fuels involve to the same
problem, which is related to destruction of the humanity because of the environment destruction.
This effect is caused by the Co2 emission at most, since all these sources issue this substance into
the air. Related with the Fossil Fuels there are several problems which are not usually known, but
they can be easily explained looking at the chain of the process:

1. Despite to what is generally thought about, useful fossil fields are not very easy to find, and in
fact they require something like 2-3 years just to do researches. During this phase it might be
destroyed some nature and its inhabitants, even if at the end the deposit will not be used;
2. Drilling phase of course changes the naturalness of the territory, so that neither present and
future life will be able to live in it;
3. Extraction is one of the most polluting phases during this process, because it releases many
dangerous substances both inside and outside the soil that have a serious impact on the
environment. Firstly, the extraction leaves debris and other chemical materials which pollutes the
soil, in fact since it comes to rain those substances are going into the circle of life by the breath
of the plants or the water flow and they access to the food chain, causing many pains to all the
actors of the chain. After that, for those substances which are not dropped on the soil, they are
taken by the atmosphere to be left into the same chain as well as into the air we breathe;
4. Referring to oil and coal, during the cleaning phase, all the water used in the process and then
left on the land impacts the normal life of plants and animals as we told about the extracting
 phase. But most of all, this step has another serious consequence which is given by the water
polluting. In fact, when the water used to clean the “raw materials” goes into the soil, or just
because of the rain, it arrives into the sea changing its habitat. For instance the nitrogen,
phosphorus or sulfur that are taken with the water into the sea, change the composition of the
water making it different for its inhabitants, causing at the same time also the eutrophication
problem which is related to the seaweeds growth;
5. During transportation, refinement and production phases a lot of toxic substances are given into
the atmosphere, so that they are going to have consequences to the overall life. In this case, but
in the all the process too, the Co2 seems to be the worst problem since it goes to makes the
greenhouse effect;
6. The consumption is just the worst example of carbon dioxide impact, since when we burn these
substances we are giving all the Co2 and other gases pollution to the air, which then take its place
in flowing those all around the environment. This just contributes to the greenhouse effect and
the acid rains. Hence, as we can see, there are a lot of problems caused to the environment
because of the Fossil Fuels, but they are paradoxically used for the humanity daily life.
Generally, instead of producers, the countries that are using these sources are the most
industrialized, since they ask for a higher amount of energy at they depend which, thus for this
reason other problems between those are created in addition to the environment ones, such as
conflicts of interest, and this has reflections in the international market.
Greenhouse effect

Life on earth is hung on a thin thread, the atmosphere. Its role is to keep an acceptable life
condition about the climate temperature, given by the inflow and outflow of sunlight which is
also regulated by the ozone. This condition is severely shaken by the carbon dioxide which plays
a different role in this natural flow, since it keeps more than the normal sunlight and pours it
again onto the earth. There are many scientists who have theorized on greenhouse effect and
consequent climate change, also there are lots of them who say that this second effect it is a
normal one and it comes regularly on earth, but most of them think that the real issue is the
pollution caused by Fossil Fuels and the relative Co2 left into the air. The function of this effect
is just the same that happen in greenhouses (or conservatories) when farmers use them for
cultivating, in fact sunlight comes to the earth and when it wants to go back to the space it is not
allowed by the greenhouse gases, which keep more sunlight than necessary sending it back to the
earth. In more details, when the sunlight comes to the earth, its frequency is too high to be kept
by the greenhouse gases, thus it arrives on the ground to be then reflected to the air, but on the
way back its frequency is much lower so that the same greenhouse gases, which were not able to
catch it before, are now enough powerful to trap it and send it back again. For this reason
climate has changed in all over the world causing various problems all connected as a chain.

Figure 5 - Atmospheric CO2 and Global Surface Temperature Trends.

As we can see from the Figure 5 above, during last 160 years, as more as the carbon dioxide
concentration has increased according to the higher energy consumption, the hotter the
temperature has become during years, causing several problems all over the world. For example,
when ice is melted by higher temperatures it goes to increase the oceans and seas level and their
degrees, this way all their inhabitants suffers for the different condition of life and humans get
problems too. The increasing of water level goes to reduce the coastal areas so that people are
not allowed to live there anymore. As also we know, earth’s inhabitants are increasing more and
more as well, thus this way there will be too many people in the world compared with too less
space to live in. Simultaneously, the change in temperatures can break some creature life, like for
some kind of animals. But it commonly implies cyclones, floods, droughts and the spread of
diseases such as malaria, heating and icing waves, acidification of oceans due to reducing in pH,
and so on. In all this vicious circle, the injustice is that the responsibility of these problems
especially related to a smaller percentage of the world population (20%), that whit its selfish
decisions causes pains to the rest (80%) of the humanity in the world, just to consume more
energy than they need without even caring about the environment they are living in.
 Chapter 2

Which countries use fossil fuels more?

When we look at the information which is about usage of fossil fuels of countries in the world.
They show that the countries which are developed or newly developing use fossil fuels more,
because they already have those resources, mostly coal, in their territories,. When they use their
own sources it is more profitable for their economy. Since they have not had renewable energy
or clean energy resources enough yet, they prefer using fossil fuels even if they are harmful for
the environment. It seems that they will continue to use them for a long time. There is some
information below about countries fossil fuel use.

Figure 6. Global Oil Consumption by years

When we look at oil sector, oil trading volume, which was in downtrend since 2008, has become
53.5 million b/d with an increase of 2.2% in 2010. The highest export has come from Middle
East which is followed by former Soviet Union countries. 11% of oil import and 90% of BP, “BP
Statistical Review of World Energy”, June, 2011 import growth rate were from Asia-Pacific in
2010. The breakdown of global oil trade was 70% crude oil and 30% refined products.
According to the BP’s report oil demand, which was declining since 2008, has reached the
highest rate over the time and recorded as 87.4 million b/d with an increase of 2.7 million b/d in
2010. Higher prices meant that oil consumption has recorded the weakest growth in global
energy consumption.

Figure 7. Global Natural Gas Consumption by years

When we look at natural gas sector it seems that natural gas consumption averaged 2.95 trillion
m3 in 2009, recorded as 3.169 trillion m3 with an increase of 7.4%. The highest consumption
increase is observed in Asia-Pacific with 12.6%, South and Central America (9.3%); on the other
hand, the lowest increase comes from North America that is 4.7%. World biggest natural gas
consumer US has raised its consumption by 36.7 billion m3 (5.6%), followed by Russia with an
increase of 24.5 billion m3 (6.3%) and China with an increase of 19.5 billion m3 (21.8%).

According to some news, economically developed or developing countries like China and India
use fossil fuels, mostly coal, and they will use those resources in the following years when we
look at the data below.
Figure 8 – China dominates global coal production

According to some information from EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration), China
produced almost half the world's coal in 2010, that means, three times more than the United
States, the world's second largest producer, and almost as much as the next 10 highest producing
countries combined. While coal is found across the in great quantities globe (outside of the
Middle East), and production are highly concentrated, with the top five producing nations
accounting for over 75% of global production.
Figure 9 – top five coal producing nations

The top coal producers have remained relatively stabilized since 2000. Among the top five
producers, only the fifth rank has changed; Indonesia's coal production grew 368% from
20002010, moving it from 10th globally to get by Russia as the fifth largest producer. China also
saw strong growth, increasing production by 188% over that time period. U.S. coal production,
on the other hand, increased by only 1% from 2000-2010.

Growth in global coal production was heavily concentrated among those five producers. From
2000 to 2010, global coal production rose 66%, from five billion tons per year to over eight
billion tons per year. However, combined production in the top five producing nations grew by
98% during this period, while production in the rest of the world grew by only 7%.
 Chapter 3

Cleaning up coal

Coal is our most abundant fossil fuel. The United States has more coal than the rest of the world
has oil. There is still enough coal underground in this country to provide energy for the next 200
to 300 years. But coal is not a perfect fuel. It is a dirty fuel to burn, but it was like that many
years ago. However, things have changed. Especially in the last 20 years, scientists have
developed ways to capture the pollutants trapped in coal before the dirtiness can escape into the
atmosphere. Today, we have technology that can filter out 99% of the small particles and clear
off more than 95% of the acid rain pollutants in coal. We also have new technologies that cut
back on the release of carbon dioxide by burning coal more efficiently. Many of these
technologies belong to a family of energy systems called "clean coal technologies." Since the
mid-1980s, the U.S. Government has invested more than $3 billion in developing and testing
these processes in power plants and factories around the country. Private companies and State
governments have been part of this program. Actually, they have contributed more than several
billion dollars to these projects.

What can we do to help carbon dioxide emission?

Although some countries which cause carbon dioxide emission by using fossil fuels, they are
working on some project about reducing their fossil fuels energy use. While they are trying to do
something for the environment, also we should do our part as much as possible. For example, we
can do something at our homes which will be really helpful to reduce carbon dioxide emission.
 Conclusion

As it is described in this project, fossil fuels have a big impact in all the world. Generally,
especially most developed countries know about the environmental pollution and all the
consequences they create by using those fuels, but they prefer to use them in their energy
production since they are still easy to find and they are more powerful as well if compared with
renewable ones.

Obviously, while they use them, they pollute the environment by causing several changes at the
same time. Some of them seem like they want to really change this vicious circle, they show like
the willingness to reduce the negative effect caused by carbon dioxide emission, but at the end
the groups of interest just make their business without care about the humanity and future
generations. Thus, they maintain the fossil fuel without care about to find a real alternative such
as the energy conversion with renewable energy.

The point is that everybody can play its role in this change for the climate protecting and all the
species saving, but as the matter of facts nobody seems to believe in this project enough to create
a group of sensitive able to take everybody to the goal for a safety planet.
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