What's the source of energy in coal, oil and wood? Why is wood renewable and energy from coal and oil aren't?

Answer 1

Because in the time of useage wood can be regrown but coal and oil cannot be remade easily or over relatively short periods of time. They are fossils of the carboniferous period.

Furthermore burning these fuels releases CO2 into the atmosphere but growing trees relocks the carbon into the trees and so renews the atmosphere to its current condition. The global warming has occurred from the unfettered release of CO2 into the atmosphere resulting in the changes to its composition especially since the time of the Industrial revolution.

We now need to renew the atmosphere to pre -Industrial revolution composition by locking MORE carbon up than we are releasing. This can be done a number of ways but the easiest is to stop burning fossil fuels and to plant more trees rather than keep knocking them over.

The source of all energy in our local environment is the sun. It provides the energy for the chemistry of plants to allow growth and so the locking of carbon in their living cells through photosynthesis.

Answer 2

Wood is renewable cos you can go plant a tree and in a few years - wood. Some people can make wood every morning, but that is a different TV show.

Coal and oil, on the other hand, take millions of years to form, so those supplies will not be replenished any time soon.

Regardless: Wood, oil, or coal - the energy source is the same - it is the sun.

Answer 3

Energy is released when bonds are broken. When these things are burned or heated, the bonds break and energy is released from that process. Coal and oil aren't renewable because they come from fossils and plant matter from millions of year ago. They are the result of organic matter breaking down over a very long period of time. Wood is renewable because you could go grow a tree right now if you wanted (you can renew the resource). However, you can't go make oil or coal because you'd have to wait around a reeeeeaaaally long time.

Answer 4

The energy source is the calories available. Wood is renewable, which means you can plant a tree and harvest it within a dozen years or so. But coal and oil are the remains of peat bogs created during the age of the dinosaurs, and when was the last time you saw one of those? :)

Answer 5

Coal & oil are formed over millions of years. So for practical purposes it's not replaceable.

Where as wood grows reativly fast & in 20 - 40 years it can be harvested.

Answer 6

carbon is the source of energy in all of these materials. wood is considered renewable because it self-regenerates within a relatively short period of time. oil and coal are not regenerated within a short period of time, requiring millions of years and dead animals and plants along with heat and pressure to evolve. wood just needs a few seeds and the right growing conditions.

Answer 7

The source of the flexibility contained in the above factors is ultimately the carbon. It releases ability because it burns. timber is renewable because new timber develop each day. Coal and oil are contained in the Earth and take thousands of years to re-variety, and so are not renewable.

Answer 8

actually coal and oil are renewable, it just takes like a billion years, whereby wood takes a shorter time to renew