CHAPTER 6.

5 :
NATURAL FUEL
RESOUCES AND THEIR
IMPORTANCE

NATURAL FUEL RESOURCES

TYPES OF FOSSIL FUELS:
PETROLEUM
NATURAL GAS
COAL

TYPES OF BIOMASS:
oORGANIC WASTES
oWOOD FUEL

WHAT IS FOSSIL FUEL?

fuel are non-renewable energy.
Provide most of the energy that we
depend on every day.
Consist mainly of hydrocarbons, which
are compounds made up of hydrogen and
carbon.
Formed from the remains of organisms
that were buried under layers of
sediment millions of years ago.
Fossil

FORMATION OF PETROLEUM AND

NATURAL GAS
Petroleum and gas are formed from plants and animals that lived in the
sea, in a similar way.
Stage 1- All of the oil and gas we use today began as microscopic plants and animals living in the
ocean millions of years ago. As these microscopic plants and animals lived, they absorbed energy
from the sun, which was stored as carbon molecules in their bodies. When they died, they sank to
the bottom of the sea. Over millions of years, layer after layer of sediment and other plants and
bacteria were formed.
Stage 2- As they became buried ever deeper, heat and pressure began to rise. The amount of
pressure and the degree of heat, along with the type of biomass, determined if the material became
oil or natural gas. More heat produced lighter oil. Even higher heat or biomass made predominantly
of plant material produced natural gas.
Stage 3- After oil and natural gas were formed, they tended to migrate through tiny pores in the
surrounding rock. Some oil and natural gas migrated all the way to the surface and escaped. Other
oil and natural gas deposits migrated until they were caught under impermeable layers of rock or
clay where they were trapped. These trapped deposits are where we find oil and natural gas today.

FORMATION OF COAL
Coal is formed from trees, ferns and moss that grew in swamps millions of years
ago.
HOW COAL IS FORMED?

Coal is anon-renewable energy sourcebecause it takes millions of years to form. That

means what is in the ground now is all there is and we cant realistically make more.
The energy in coal comes from energy that was stored in giant plants that lived hundreds of
millions of years ago in swamp forests, even before the dinosaurs! When these giant plants and
ferns died, they formed layers at the bottom of the swamps.
Water and dirt began to pile up on top of the dead plant remains. Over thousands of years
pressure and heat would build up on top of the plant remains, undergoing chemical and
physical changes and pushing out the oxygen, turning these remains into what we call coal.

CHARACTERISTICS AND USES OF

PETROLEUM FRACTIONS
Crude petroleum contains many types of hydrocarbons mixed together.
They must be separated before we can make use of them. As different
hydrocarbons have different boiling points, they can be separated into
various components called fractions by a process called fractional
distillation.
In the oil and gas industry, fractional distillation is carried out by heating
unprocessed petroleum in a furnace at 400 C in an oil refinery.
The vapour produced in channelled into a fractionating column to collect
the various fractions at different temperatures.
The characteristics of the fraction or distillate is related to its boiling point.
The higher the boiling point of the distillate, the darker its colour
and the more viscous it becomes.

Experiment:
Aim: to study the fractional distillation process of petroleum.

1.Set up the apparatus as shown in the diagram above.

2.Pour 20ml of petroleum(crude oil) into a boiling tube containing some glass wood.
3.Heat the petroleum slowly and at the same time collect four fractions of
petroleum at four different range of boiling temperatures:
(30-80 C),(81-120 C),(120-160 C),(160-200 C)
4.Observation:
(a)colour of fractions
(b)viscosity of fraction
5.Burn each fraction in a crucible using a burning wooden splinter. Observe the
flammability and the colour if the flame. Put filter paper over the flame and observe
the quantity of soot produced.
6.Record all observations and characteristics of fractions in a table.

OBSERVATION:
FRACTION

COLOUR

VISCOSITY

COLOUR

FLAMMAB

QUANTITY

OF

ILITY

OF SOOT

FLAME

(30-80 C)
(81-120 C)
(120-160 C)
(160-200 C)
1.What is the function of glass wool?
_______________________________________________________________________
2.What is the function of water in this experiment?

_______________________________________________________________________

4.(a)State the relationship between the boiling point and the colour of petroleum fraction.
______________________________________________________________________
(b)State the relationship between the boiling point and the viscosity of petroleum
fraction.
______________________________________________________________________
(c)State the relationship between the flammability of the petroleum fraction and the
quantity of the soot produced.
______________________________________________________________________
5.The first fraction and the fourth fraction are used as fuels for motor vehicles. Which
fraction is a better fuel for vehicles and to the evironment? Explain your answer.[KBAT]
__________________________________________________ ____________________

CONCLUTION

Petroleum can be separated into its fraction by___________process beacause each fraction
of petroleum has different _________________.The higher the boiling point,
(a)the____________the colour of the fraction
(b)the______________the fraction
(c)the______________for the fraction to burn
(d)the_______________is produced when burst

THE USES OF PETROLEUM

FRACTIONS:

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PETROLEUM

TO MALAYSIAN ECONOMY:

THE EFFECTIVE USES OF FOSSIL

FUELS: