All books

Professional

Apps About Coach Log in Start reading

Chemistry · Glossary

What is Fossil and renewable fuels?

Also known as: fossil fuel · renewable fuel

Definition 14.10 School Chemistry — Grades 1 to 12 · Chapter 14 — Combustion: Fuels, Products and Greenhouse Gases

A fossil fuel — coal, oil, natural gas — formed underground over millions of years from the remains of ancient plants and sea creatures. A renewable fuel is made from plants grown today, or from waste: wood, biogas from manure and food waste, ethanol made from sugar beet or cane.

Renewable fuels return to the air the carbon their plants took from it; fossil fuels add carbon that had been stored underground.
Renewable fuels return to the air the carbon their plants took from it; fossil fuels add carbon that had been stored underground.
A coal-burning power station.
A farm biogas plant: manure becomes a renewable fuel.
Read in context →