petroleum based fules?

Question

why are we so dependant on petroleum based fuels? what are the advantages and disavantages of this source of energy?

Answer 1

Our dependence is more a matter of habit than anything else.

The advantage of such fuels is that they are portable, safe to store and require little energy to produce. The same can be said of a lot of organic compounds, however when the first internal combustion engines were being developed someone decided to work harder on the versions employing petrochemicals. That took off, and 120 years of development was used to make the gasoline/petrodiesel internal combustion engines better rather than exploit alternatives.

It's a bit of a shame, because the disadvantages (aside from the exhaust gases which are similarly bad from almost all combustion-type energy) are pretty obvious today. It's about politics. We happened to build a multitude of industries around a natural resource which the US doesn't possess in abundance today.... leaving us in a mess in the Middle East. Another disadvantage is that petroleum-based fuels will eventually be depleted; it's not a renewable resource. So, even before the Earth would ever run out of oil, the energy/financial costs of getting that oil out would obviate at least 1/3 of its advantage. We'll have to switch.

Answer 2

Because the carbon economy is the cheapest.
It takes energy to create fuels. With petroleum, geological processes have done this already, at no cost to humans! The disadvantages are that a large amount of carbon, once sequestered deep under the earth is now in the sky and will last for a long period of time, increasing the effects of climate change. The earth has long had a stable carbon cycle, with carbon in biota, the atmosphere, soils and lithosphere and in the oceans. Human acitivty changes this ratio.The advantage is a high net energy content when you consider the production, refinement, and use.

Answer 3

Petroleum-based fuels are popular mostly because of prevailing technologies that have built up around the need for such fuels. Such technologies include:
1. Internal combustion engine (cars, trucks, rail, ships)
2. Natural gas heating and electrical power production.

These account for heating, lighting, and transportation...all very basic needs of a technological society. Relative to the fuels that they replaced (such as whale oill), petroleum is relatively abundant, consistently available, and inexpensive.

Answer 4

Many consider that the fuels are ruining out but is continually being recycled. All fuels produce CO2 but that is OK as our green plants recycle both our air and fuels and has for millions of years. Where do u think the fossil fuels came from??

Answer 5

because we have been programmed to believe that it is the best thing to use, and are also to lazy to implement other sources. adv: it is readily available, disadv: its destroying our earth.