ELI5-How are fossile fuel made?
In: 1
Depends on the fuel.
Generally it’s living material that was buried and broken down with heat and time. Living material has long chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen for things like proteins and cells. Over time the oxygen gets pushed out since it wants to react with other things. Leaving behind carbon and hydrogen, which is why they’re called hydrocarbons.
Coal is plant matter that decomposed and became buried.
Oil is plankton from about 200 million years ago that died and sank to the bottom. Covered in mud, and then decomposed with their long proteins breaking down into hydrocarbons.
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