Biological Origin of
Energy
Dr.
Dwijesh Kumar Panda
Life on earth is a miracle, developed approximately three
billion years ago. Life’s energy is derived from the sun. A very small portion
of this energy is stored up as coal and petroleum. Almost all fuel is used
today has a biological origin. Coal, oil, and natural gas are derived mostly
from plant life. All the energy is obtained from the sun. All fossil fuels are
indeed canned sunshine. Hydrogen and carbon combined to form sources of natural
gas deep in the earth in the process of evolution. No single prescription
exists for a solution to the energy problem. Energy conservation is not enough.
Petroleum is not enough. Coal is not enough. Nuclear energy is not enough.
Solar energy and geothermal energy are not enough. Only the proper combination
of all these will suffice.
Our planet was formed five billion years ago. Early life
existed in the oceans, and food for that life was manna from heaven. The
topmost layers of the atmosphere exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
This is a small portion of solar radiation. It arrives in a big chunk of quanta. All radiation consists of such
quanta or energy bundles. From the high-frequency radiation came manna. These
are the molecules easily capable of undergoing chemical changes. These quanta
could serve as food for rudimentary forms of life.
Three billion years ago the atmosphere consisted of the
elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen which are the chief
constituents of living matter. They cannot release energy by reacting with each
other. Once the light is absorbed by these molecules, chemical reactions can
occur among them resulting in complicated molecules having energy content. This
is the nutrient called manna, which falls from the sky into the ocean.
Fig-1
Solar Energy converted into Fossil Fuels
The nutrients that rained down from the skies for billion
years have established a rich soup in which life could flourish and multiply.
Chlorophyll is a complex chemical substance that utilizes sunlight for the production
of manna. It is the final result of lengthy evolution. It absorbs visible light
in the red and blue parts of the spectrum. It has a remarkable ability to store
absorbed energy. The energy that accumulates is sufficient to compose basic
plant components and nutrients such as cellulose and sugar. Thus, chlorophyll
made it possible for abundant vegetable life to exist on earth. The body of the
plant was made of carbon dioxide and water. It released oxygen in the course of
photosynthesis. Oxygen made animal life possible, first in the sea and later on
land. Animals are parasites to plants. We owe to plant life the oxygen we breathe.
The total energy stored in known fossil fuels - in coal,
oil, natural gas, tar sand, oil shale – equals one hundred thousand quads. Coal
is dirty and hard to transport. Oil is cleaner and much easier to ship. Yet,
there is much more coal than oil. The product depends upon the number of carbon
atoms linked together. In natural gas, the atoms are few. Hydrogen atoms are
more than twice as carbon atoms. Oil is the result if the number of carbon
atoms is between five and a dozen. Tar or asphalt are produced in bigger
molecules. In the best coal, anthracite, the number of hydrogen atoms might be
as low as one percent of carbon atoms.
Fig-2
Traps surrounding a salt dome
Traps are a salt dome. Salt is deposited from the evaporating
seawater. Its horizontal layers are frequently covered by equally horizontal
deposits of sand compacted by the stony substance. The salt is less dense than
the stone layers above it. Therefore stone and salt exchange places. Big masses
of salt pushing in the form of solid domes happen. The process takes millions
of years. The rising salt beds break the geological layers. A typical structure
of traps is illustrated in the figure. The shaded areas are different
impermeable stony deposits. Oil and water are found in the permeable layers.
Natural gas is present at the top of the oil layer. Salt domes and other traps
can be located by geologists by their reflected sound waves. They are sought in
the way a doctor checks our lungs. But while the doctor taps, the geologist
uses a high explosive charge; and while the doctor listens with a stethoscope,
the geologist uses a seismograph. Thus the salt domes and other traps are
easily located. Most salt domes are drilled to determine the presence of oil.
The earth’s fossil
stock will be effectively exhausted within the foreseeable future. In the case
of oil, this may happen in a few decades. Coal will last for a few centuries.
Nuclear fuels will be ample for many millennia. Solar energy is both ample and
inexhaustible. In time, the use of these energy sources will become a practical
reality. But fossil fuels made the Industrial Revolution which satisfied our
needs. The future energy sources will be clean, ample, and lasting.
Reference
1.
Energy from Heaven and Earth - Edward
Teller.
2.
Origin and Evolution of Biological Energy- Herrick
Baltscheffsky
Dr.
Dwijesh Kumar Panda, M.D, Ph.D. (Medicine).
Senior
Scientist Awardee
M5/12,
Acharya Vihar, Bhubaneswar, 751 013
E:mail-
doctordwijesh@gmail,com
Contact:
9438470777