Fuels that We Use Trivia Quiz

Answer: All of these

Besides charcoal, tar and acetic acid, wood gas and methyl alcohol are also formed. Charcoal is the residue and the others are volatile. Charcoal is an ideal fuel but its use is widely discouraged because thousands of trees are felled for this.

Answer: Methane

Biogas also contains hydrogen, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. In fact it contains about 65 percent of CH4. Natural gas contains small amounts of ethane and propane also. Both the gases are clean fuels since they cause little or no pollution. The importance of these gases is increasing at a fast rate for both rural and urban usage.

Answer: Hydrogen

One gram of Hydrogen releases about 150 kilojoules of energy, almost thrice as much as methane does. I'm sure you know about liquid hydrogen! Coal comes second followed by wood having a low calorific value of 17 kJ/g.

Answer: Carbonization

About 300 million years ago, in a period of history called the Carboniferous Era, huge swamp forests were buried deep in the Earth's crust due to earth movements. Extreme pressure and temperature converted their biomass into coal. This process is called Carbonization.

Answer: Anthracite

It contains about 95-97 percent of C. However, the most widely used type is lignite or brown coal. Coal used to provide valuable organic chemicals. Nowadays it has been replaced by oil.

Answer: CH4

By the destructive distillation of coal, we can obtain coal gas, coal tar and ammonia. Coke is left as a residue. Coal gas contains methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Since all the three are combustible, coal gas is a good fuel with a high calorific value.

Answer: Fractional Distillation

This process is based on the fact that the different components of oil have different boiling points. In this process, oil is heated in a furnace to 400 degree Celsius(752 F) and it vapourises. The vapours are introduced into a tall fractionating column.

There the component vapours condense one by one at different heights. The vapours with lower boiling points condense at the top and those with higher boiling points condense near the bottom. The various fractions are then collected from the column.

Some of them are - Petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil, lubricating oil, wax and asphalt.

Answer: Butane, Propane, Ethane

Petroleum gas, obtained by the fractional distillation of oil, is liquified under pressure and used as a domestic fuel by the name of LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas). It is a very good fuel with a high calorific value.

Answer: False

The substance added to LPG is called Ethyl mercaptan(C2H5SH). Being a sulphur compound, it is strong-smelling. Tetra-ethyl Lead{Pb(C2H5)4} was formerly added to petrol as an 'anti-knock'. But nowadays, unleaded petrol is used so as to prevent lead pollution.

Answer: USA

You might have thought that oil was first struck somewhere in the Middle East. In 1859, the first oil well was struck in Pennsylvania in the USA. The second oil well was struck in 1867 in Makum, India.

Answer: Kerosene

Kerosene is obtained by the fractional distillation of oil, and hence is a 'secondary fuel'.

Answer: Cracking

Cracking is done so as to meet the increasing demand of petrol. For example Dodecane(C12H26) is cracked into Heptane(C7H16) and Pentene(C5H10) by heating intensely with the presence of a catalyst. The new hydrocarbons are similar to the hydrocarbons of gasoline. Nowadays however, synthetic petrol is also used widely.

This is produced by mixing powdered coal with heavy oil and passing hot hydrogen gas over it.

Answer: Dinitrogen tetra-oxide

Other oxidizers are - Nitric acid, nitrates and chlorates. Don't forget liquid oxygen! The formula of methyl hydrazine is CH3NHNH2. CO2 and glucose are not oxidisers and liquid Na is a metal and hence is a reducing agent, meaning it burns but doesn't support burning. Methyl Hydrazine and N2O4 reacted and formed enormous amounts of gases which propelled the rocket.

Answer: Coke

Coke contains about 98 percent carbon. Coke is also used in the production of fuel gases like water gas (CO + H2) and producer gas (CO + N2). It is also used to prepare Calcium carbide which is further used to prepare acetylene, acetic acid and plastics like PVC.

Answer: It cuts off the oxygen supply

There are three conditions necessary for combustion.
1)Presence of a combustible substance(like paper,wood, etc.)
2)Presence of a supporter of combustion(like oxygen)
3)Attainment of ignition temperature. CO2 is heavier than oxygen. It settles on the top of the burning substance and cuts off the O2supply to the fuel. So the second condition is not satisfied and the fire is put-out. Water extinguishes the fire by lowering its temperature. So the third condition is not satisfied and the fire is extinguished. Liked my quiz? Do check out my other science quizzes.