Challenges associated with the use of fossil fuels

- Ayush Dave (21908006), Department of Chemical Engineering

With the growing need of energy and rapid depletion of fossil fuels, it has become of utmost
importance to search for alternative sources of energy. Among the various non-conventional
sources of energies that are present today, the use of biomass for energy generations have
picked up pace. Although fossil fuels provide us with the amount of energy that we require
for the proper functioning of our day to day lives, there are some inherent challenges which
are associated with the use of fossil fuels such as :-
 The very first thing that comes in our mind is that, fossil fuels are exhaustible in
nature, which means that they are present in limited quantities, and exhaust upon
excessive use. Whereas, the renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro and
biomass are present in abundance and as the name suggests are replenishable by
nature.
 The use of fossil fuels generates greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, which are the root causes of ozone layer
depletion. Whereas energy generations with the use of wind, solar solves these
problems. The combustion of biomass for energy generations also emits gases such as
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but that CO 2 is again used the environment for
producing biomass, therefore it is also termed as ‘carbon-neutral’ source of energy
production.
 The transportation of raw crude oil is generally carried out through water ways,
which results in major accident of oil-spills which are getting common day by day,
these accidents severely destroy the aquatic life, killing thousands of aquatic creatures
and also polluting the water. This can be overcome by the use of solar and biomass, as
each house can be equipped with solar systems for generating electricity and biomass
can be used for space heating purposes and bio-gas can be used for cooking purposes.
 Use of fossil fuels to meet our energy needs make us dependent on other countries, if
our country does not have the resources to fuel the entire nation. In case of India, our
country does not have very large oil and gas reserves as compared to other nations.
So, for a major part we have to import raw crude from other nations, that makes us
vulnerable in terms of the prices we pay for the commodity. On the other hand, India
being a country which is close to Equator and receives sunlight for the major part of
the year, hence the use of solar energy for meeting our needs make us independent.
Agriculture is a dominant sector in India which can be used to produce energy crops
and use them as a biomass to produce bioenergy greatly helps in the energy security
of the country.
 Fossil fuels are costly as compared to renewable sources of energy, because of all the
money that is spent in refining and extracting it from earth, whereas growing trees
such as timber or other crops is cheaper and only one time investment is needed to
setup solar system or the gasification or pyrolysis systems to convert biomass to
bioenergy.