chemical energy????

Question

hos is chemical nenergy contained in fossil fuels converted to electrical energy in an electric power station? where is energy lost?

Answer 1

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Energy is never lost except from a system under observation. Solar energy is stored in plant and animal matter which being buried long ago in the absence of oxygen was preserved as fossil fuels that are mainly hydrocarbons. When the fossil fuels are combusted with oxygen in a power plant furnace, heat energy is produced from the chemical energy of the fuel. Combustion is a chemical reaction. The tremendous heat of combustion is used to produce high pressure steam in a steam boiler and the steam is directed at the blades of a steam turbine to rotate an electricity generator that produces electricity at high voltage for delivery to residential and commercial customers. The steam turbine extracts much of the energy from the fuel and steam. However, considerable heat energy is lost to the atmosphere up the smoke stack of the power plant and after the steam is spent in the steam turbine it is condensed perhaps using river water that heats up carrying away waste heat.

Answer 2

fossil fuel is burnt, there is developed heat, the heat causes the water is changing into steam, the steam makes work a turbine, the turbine is turning magnets, as the magnets are rotating, elecric field around is changing, there are wires all around, as the electromagnetic field is changing, the electrons in wires are moving and the electric current flows is the wires (I simplified that but the princimple very similar)