Fossil energy is energy derived from fossil fuels, which are fossilized remains of plants and animals buried in the Earth’s crust over a long period of time. There are three main types of fossil fuels from which fossil energy can be obtained: coal, natural gas, and oil. In this section, you’ll learn about the subcategories of fossil energy, the history of these energy sources, and their impact and limitations.
Coal, oil, and natural gas
Coal is a fossil fuel produced by the carbonization of thick layers of woody material, mainly cellulose and lignin, under pressure. Depending on the degree of carbonization, it can be peat, peat, lignite, bituminous, or anthracite. Next, petroleum is liquid hydrocarbons in their natural state, either unrefined or refined. Finally, natural gas is a combustible gas that occurs naturally underground and is composed mainly of hydrocarbons. It is categorized into oilfield gas, gas field gas, and coal field gas depending on the circumstances of its production.
The history of fossil energy before the Industrial Revolution
The first fossil fuel that humans used to obtain fossil energy was coal. According to the literature, the earliest use of coal was in China. There are records of its use in China since the 4000s BC. Later, Greek texts from 315 BC document the use of coal as a fuel for smithies, and the earliest record of coal as a domestic fuel is from the Song Dynasty in China in the 12th century, when coal was taxed and used for domestic purposes. Coal was discovered in England in the 9th century and in Germany in the 10th century, and its use has been common throughout the world ever since, but it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that its use grew by leaps and bounds.
But when did oil become an energy source? It’s actually difficult to know exactly where and when oil was first used. Ancient Westerners are said to have used oil that seeped up from the ground as a lubricant and laxative as early as 2000 B.C., while Persian troops used oil to coat arrowheads with fireproof oil during their attack on Athens around 400 B.C. And when Europeans explored the New World in the 15th century, the indigenous Indians were already using petroleum. In the East, of course, we find evidence of the use of petroleum in China as early as 2000 B.C., according to a history book written by the Han dynasty’s Ban Go. Before the word ‘petroleum’ was first used, it was called subi (水肥), stone paper (石脂), fire oil (火油), and stone brain oil (石腦油), and it was the Song Dynasty scientist Shen Guo (沈括, 1031~1095) who first coined the word ‘petroleum’. He predicted that ‘petroleum comes from the ground, and the amount is very large, so it will be widely used by people in the future’. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century in the West that petroleum began to be recognized as a useful energy source.
The Industrial Revolution, the heyday of coal
In the mid-18th century, the Industrial Revolution began, and coke was manufactured to replace the charcoal that had been used for ironmaking until then. After that, there was one event that greatly increased coal’s status: the invention of Watt’s steam engine. With the invention of the steam engine, the demand for coal as a power source skyrocketed. In addition to the use of coal itself, the gas, ammonia, and tar extracted from coal were also used, and synthetic dyes using coal tar as a raw material were introduced. The technology to make artificial petroleum from coal was developed, but it was not widely used because it was much less efficient than petroleum. This period can be considered the heyday of coal, which by the mid-to-late 20th century was eclipsed in importance by the same fossil energy sources that replaced it: oil and natural gas.
After the Industrial Revolution, a transition from coal to oil
By the turn of the 19th century, the importance of oil over coal was beginning to be recognized and gaining attention, and by the mid-19th century, the interest was very high. On January 21, 1861, London’s Times newspaper reported that “in November, 1859, a well was dug in the State of Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, to draw out petroleum or rock oil.” This suggests that Westerners already knew that oil was widely distributed throughout Europe, the West Indies, and Persia. But that’s not the only implication of this article. It could be argued that it already signaled the beginning of a shift in the center of world industry to the United States, a precursor to a shift in the balance of power from Britain to the United States. The story of Edwin L. Drake (1819-1880), the first man to successfully drill for oil in the modern era, is the subject of this article. Although oil was already well known before he ushered in the petroleum era, all the literature on the history of petroleum points to Drake’s successful drilling in Pennsylvania on August 27, 1859 as the beginning of modern oil exploration.
The automobile internal combustion engine invented by G. Daimler and C.F. Benz in 1885 was the basis for the development of the automobile industry from the end of the 19th century onward, and the development of the internal combustion engine led to a significant increase in the amount of oil consumed for transportation. In addition, the diesel engine, invented by R. Diesel in Germany in 1893, was used in ships, automobiles, and other applications, helping to increase oil consumption. Meanwhile, it was reported by the United States in 1904 that oil was superior to coal as a boiler fuel in many ways, and the switch from coal to heavy oil was actively promoted.
After World War II, the increasing demand for energy and the limited supply of coal or hydroelectricity led to a massive switch to oil, even in countries that were dependent on coal. It also became widely used for home heating and cooking around the world.
The Oil Shock, an example of the economic impact of fossil energy
With such massive global use, the balance of supply and demand for oil began to be increasingly disrupted. In addition, since oil reserves were limited to the United States and the Middle East, the status of oil-producing countries was bound to increase day by day. Eventually, on October 17, 1973, the Fourth Middle East War became an oil war. The six oil-exporting countries of the Persian Gulf declared their intention to use oil as a political weapon at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting by announcing a 17% increase in the posted price of crude oil, followed by a decision to cut oil production by 5% each month from the previous month. This resulted in a nearly fourfold increase in oil prices within a year, which finally subsided in 1978. This was the first oil shock.
The oil shock caused a global economic recession, and countries’ balance of payments ran into huge deficits. This first oil shock led to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) seizing control of the price of crude oil, which had been monopolized by international petroleum capital, and strengthened resource nationalism.
However, the Iranian revolt in late 1978 and the Islamic Revolution in early 1979 led to a second oil shock. This second oil shock again hit the global economy hard, causing a drop in economic growth and a sharp rise in prices. These two oil shocks demonstrated the influence of fossil energy producing countries on the global economy.
The environmental challenges of fossil energy
Fossil energy sources are basically fuels made up of hydrocarbons. The classification changes as other additives are added, such as sulfides, nitrogen compounds, and many others. However, since hydrocarbons are the primary component, burning fossil fuels typically produces carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that’s been blamed for global warming, a hot topic in recent years. It is this carbon dioxide that makes fossil energy a limiting factor in terms of environmental damage. Moreover, carbon dioxide emissions have recently been regulated globally, and carbon dioxide credits have become extremely valuable.
In order to break out of this situation and continue to use fossil energy, various alternatives have been developed, such as burying carbon dioxide in the ground or seabed, but it is not enough to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to a satisfactory level compared to current fossil energy use. We are, quite literally, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Alternative energy required
In such a situation, continuing to use fossil energy is not only an economic loss, but also an environmental loss and a secondary economic loss, so the world is looking for efficient and sustainable alternatives to fossil energy.
Natural gas is commonly thought of as an alternative to fossil energy, but that’s not quite right. As we mentioned at the beginning, natural gas is a fossil energy source, which means it’s a fuel made up of hydrocarbons. It can be used as a substitute to prevent other damaging effects, but it is not a substitute for global warming, which is the main environmental problem caused by the use of fossil energy.
Fossil energy has helped humanity develop greatly, but it has also become a major contributor to environmental pollution. It has been to humanity what morphine is to a soldier in the battlefield. It’s time for humanity to kick the addiction to fossil energy and find other sources of energy before the morphine kills the soldier.
