Where Are Hydrocarbons Found?

Hydrocarbons are organic compounds that occur naturally in our environment. As the name suggests, these compounds consist entirely of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon molecules and that unique combination is highly combustible. When combusted, the compound gives off CO2, water and heat, making them ideal for use as an energy source.

Indeed, hydrocarbons form the basis of fossil fuel energy sources, including natural gas, oil and coal. Although they are found naturally in our environment, they are formed over thousands of years from the fossils of plants and animals. For that reason, a complicated extraction process is required to locate and remove them from the Earth.

Where hydrocarbons are found

Over several millennia, the elemental forces of weight and pressure compact the organic matter found in dead animals and plants to create hydrocarbons. These are most commonly found buried deep beneath the Earth’s surface in porous rock formations. Some of the principal rock types responsible for sheltering hydrocarbons are limestone, sandstone and shale.

Since these rock formations are generally found in large bodies of water, the biggest source of hydrocarbons is located at the bottom of our seas and oceans. In order to remove hydrocarbons from this habitat and render them useful to the energy generation industry, oil and gas companies must employ expensive and complicated engineering techniques to locate, tap and extract them.

The problem with hydrocarbons

Although hydrocarbons are very efficient sources of energy, they are not the most sustainable for our planet. That’s because combusting hydrocarbons releases an abundance of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, with advanced methane monitoring methods revealing that hydrocarbons are contributing directly to both global warming and climate change.

What’s more, the extraction process can be, in itself, very damaging to the environment. By drilling down into the Earth, oil and gas companies can wreak havoc on the surface and surrounding groundwater of the site in question, while countless animals are displaced or have their lifestyles irrevocably disrupted due to the process.

Sustainable solutions

Because of these concerns, the scientific community has been searching for sustainable alternatives to hydrocarbons as an energy source for some time. Renewable technologies such as solar, wind and wave are becoming increasingly popular as the costs associated with them shrink, while nuclear is another clean option which does not produce unwanted emissions.

In the meantime, hydrocarbons clearly still have an important role to play in fuelling our society, since an estimated 85% of all energy consumed across the globe stems from them today. In order to mitigate the harmful effects that this consumption has, researchers have developed useful gasoline additives that can be mixed in with the hydrocarbons to increase fuel efficiency and curb emissions, among other purposes.