Fuel and Oil

Something consumed to produce energy, especially in a vehicle or truck. A material, gas, or oil burned to produce heat or power.fuel, material that can be burned or otherwise consumed to produce heat. The common fuels used in industry, transportation, and the home are burned in air. The carbon and hydrogen in fuel rapidly combine with oxygen in the air in an exothermically reaction one that liberates heat. Most of the fuels used by industrialized nations are in the form of incompletely oxidized and decayed animal and vegetable materials, or fossil fuels, specifically coal, peat, lignite, petroleum, and natural gas. From these natural fuels other artificial ones can be derived. Coal gas, coke, water gas, and producer gas can be made using coal as the principal ingredient. Gasoline, kerosene, and fuel oil are made from petroleum. For most transportation, fuel must be in a liquid form. There is a growing concern about the environmental contamination caused by the burning of great amounts of fossil fuels and about the increasing expense of finding them and processing them into easily usable forms. During the last 100 years the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased, and there is evidence that this phenomenon may be due to the burning of fossil fuel. Use of biomass, which consists of plants or plant waste, would not produce excess carbon dioxide because the plants absorb the gas for their growth. Wood is not as concentrated a form of energy as fossil fuels, but it can be converted into a more energy-rich fuel called charcoal. Burning fossil fuel also releases acidic oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, which are deposited on the earth in rainwater . 

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