why is petroleum important?

Question

what's the benefit of using this sources compare to the other energy sources.

Answer 1

Petroleum is important not because of its benefits, but because of the energy forces at play in the US and Internationally.

In 1979 a nuclear power plant in the US failed. Three Mile Island. No new nuclear power plants have been built since then. Only reactors started before 1979 were completed after that failure.

If the US had been able to continue building and innovating in nuclear technology, we may not have the dependence we have on foreign oil now. It is possible we wouldn't use cars for travel. We all might be on commuter trains powered by electricty.

Petroleum is important because we don't have an alternative. Public fear is catered to and the successful containment of the accident at Three Mile Island is interpreted as if it were a Chernobyl-type catastrophe. Now we are stuck with oil for the forseeable future. Alternatives are given lip-service, but nothing will happen until the nation is crippled with gas prices that can't be afforded.

Hybrid cars are the best alternative today because it actually reduces the use of gasoline. Electric cars don't help much because the electricity that they use is made with coal and gas and will only increase the use of oil and pollution that goes with them.

Hydrogen cells don't have a delivery system and are still too volitile for public use at this time.

It isn't outside the realm of possibility that we could have been able to produce a power cell based on nuclear technology that could be used as a nearly unlimited energy supply for all things that need gas or electricty today. Since 1979, there has been enough time, if resources had been seriously diverted to the alternative power source need -- as if there was a looming crisis -- that there actually was. (And still IS!)

Answer 2

Supposedly because it is the easiest and most reliable to use. The first cars were actually electric. The downside was that they required lots of batteries (As many as 80) and these batteries only had so much juice in them and needed recharged constantly. They also tried steam but that was too much work.So for decades petroleum based fuels such as gasoline and diesel were pretty much the only way to go. Interestingly enough the very first diesel engine was powered by peanut oil. The downside was that not enough peanut oil could be made or found to power an automobile for an extended period. So petroleum was refined to make the diesel fuel as well as gasoline.

I have heard people have had success converting their vehicles to run on french fry grease although the feasibility of this on a population wide scale remains questionable.

Answer 3

It is a valuable source of energy and may by-products are manufactured from petroleum

Answer 4

Almost the entire planet uses petroleum products and it might not be feasible to use alternatives because of the price and availability.Petroleum is cheap,in a way, and reliable!

Answer 5

Not only is it used for power, it's also used to make plastics. Can you imagine how much plastic we use? If we didn't have it, we'd be SOL. And since we're hooked on it as a fuel, too, it would be very difficult to modify everything we have to run on something else.