Fuels, marine organisms

The major fossil fuels are coal and petroleum. Marine organisms were typically deposited in mud and under water, where anaerobic decay occurred. The major decomposition products are hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, water, and ammonium. These deposits form much of the basis for our petroleum resources. Many of these deposits are situated so that the evaporation of the more volatile products such as water and ammonia occurred, giving petroleum resources with little nitrogen- or oxygen-containing products. By comparison, coal is formed from plant material that has decayed to graphite carbon and methane. 

Tributyltin compounds are significantly more toxic to marine organisms than to rats or (presumably) humans. For this reason, they have been used in marine paints as antifoulants for many years. Their economic benefit in such applications has been estimated at 3 billion annually, much of which is attributable to savings in fuel with a resultant decrease in engine emissions to the environment. The small amounts of tri-... 

The combustion source hypothesis was tested to ascertain the behaviour of hydrocarbons in sediments from a remote sub-antarctic island (King Edward Cove) (49). This site was an important seal hunting ground for decades early in the nineteenth century and then hosted a whale processing factory which closed in 1965. These activities led to significant contamination of the bay with fossil fuel and organic material. Marine sediment cores collected at a depth of 18 m clearly reflect the cessation of industrial operations, while further research is necessary for a better understanding of the fate of petroleum components in cold benthic ecosystems. 

CH3)2S by marine organisms, together with volcanic emissions (mostly S02). These natural sources are now exceeded by the emission of S02 from burning sulfur-containing fossil fuels. Most... 

D. A. Misch, C. J. Cheatham, D. L. Karinen, J. F. Acute Toxicity and Uptake-Depuration Studies with Cook Inlet Crude Oil, Prudhoe Bay Crude Oil, No. 2 Fuel Oil and Several Subarctic Marine Organisms, Northwest Fisheries Center Auke Bay Laboratory Report, May 1976. 

Propane is most widely available as a component of petroleum and natural gas, fossil fuels that formed many millions of years ago when marine organisms died, sank to the bottom of seas, and were eventually buried under massive layers of debris. The decay of those organisms without access to oxygen resulted in the formation of so-called fossil fuels natural gas, petroleum, and coal. All fossil fuels are complex mixture of some free carbon and a very large variety of... 

When the impact of process scale is viewed from the planetary boundaries perspective, the inherent multicriteria nature of any sustainability assessment is indispensable. Even when only environmental LCA impacts are accounted for, studies have shown that certain boundaries have been crossed or are very close to the limit (i.e., with respect to climate change, biodiversity loss, and nitrogen and phosphorous cycles), while others are stiU reasonably well safeguarded (i.e., stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean acidification, and freshwater use) [64]. It is therefore possible that different production sectors may have an impact on different planetary boundaries some of which may be within or already outside their safe operating space. For instance, studies have indicated the severe impacts of plastic debris on marine organisms [65]. Thus, from a cradle-to-grave LCA perspective, fossil-based plastics production may have a more direct or at least a different kind of effect in terms of biodiversity compared to fossil-based fuel production, which is certainly in higher production scales. 

Crude oil (petroleum) is a valuable fossil fuel. It is formed from the remains of marine organisms. Oil is a mixture of... 

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