Evaluation
CCEA AS-Level Environmental Technology 3930
Fossil Fuels
Global Action on Energy Conservation and Climate Change
Macrogeneration
Microgeneration
Energy From Wind
Topic overviewHorizontal and vertical axis wind turbinesKinetic energy, wind power and the Betz limitPower curves, rated output and energy lossesSwept area, blade length and turbine massAir density, hub height and turbine sitingPower control, yawing and survival speedChoosing a location for a commercial wind farm
Energy From the Sun
Topic overviewSolar radiation, tracking and concentrating solar powerFlat plate and evacuated tube collectorsSizing a domestic solar thermal systemPhotovoltaic cells and semiconductor wafersTypes of photovoltaic module comparedPlanning regulations and solar incentivesPassive solar design in new and existing buildings
Energy From Biomass
Energy Storage
Plastics for the Future
Topic overviewCrude oil as a fuel and a feedstockRefinery gases and the making of polymersPersistent plastic waste and the Great Pacific Garbage PatchToxic gases from incinerating plasticsBiodegradable, photodegradable and compostable plasticsTesting photodegradable plastic against polytheneBio-derived polyethylene and a sustainable plastics future
Renewable Energy Investigations
Fossil Fuels
- 6 subtopics
- 18 things to know
- AS 1
What Fossil Fuels covers
Fossil Fuels is examined in Unit AS 1, The Earth's Capacity to Support Human Activity, a written examination. It covers coal, oil and gas in modern society, reserves, lifespan and accessibility, fossil fuel combustion and the IPCC evidence, carbon trading schemes, fossil fuel demand, emerging economies and fuel security and environmental impacts of fossil fuel use.
Where it is assessed
AS 1
The Earth's Capacity to Support Human Activity — a written examination.
Check the CCEA specification ↗The 6 subtopics
Each one has its own page. CCEA AS Environmental Technology students sit this topic in the first year.
- Coal, oil and gas in modern societyHow coal, oil and gas formed, why they are finite, the products of combustion and a methane calculation, their role in industry, transport, medicines and synthetic fibres, and how dependent society is on them.Open →
- Reserves, lifespan and accessibilityReserves and resources, the reserves-to-production ratio, peak oil, where the largest oil and gas reserves lie, energy return on investment, tar sands, fracking and the case for conserving fossil fuels together.Open →
- Fossil fuel combustion and the IPCC evidenceThe IPCC, the natural and enhanced greenhouse effect, rising carbon dioxide, the isotope and upper-atmosphere evidence, climate models and sensitivity, observed changes, the Sixth Assessment Report and its uncertainties.Open →
- Carbon trading schemesCap and trade, why trading finds the cheapest cuts, the EU Emissions Trading System and the UK scheme after Brexit, allowance calculations, the early price collapse, offsetting, carbon leakage and carbon taxes.Open →
- Fossil fuel demand, emerging economies and fuel securityFalling coal, oil and gas use in western countries, the BRIC economies and China's demand, the 2008 oil price, fuel security in Northern Ireland, the 1973 crisis, Ukraine in 2022 and the Strait of Hormuz.Open →
- Environmental impacts of fossil fuel useHabitat degradation, mountaintop removal, oil spills, acid rain and climate change as threats to biodiversity, air pollutants and particulates, the Great Smog of 1952, acid mine drainage, Aberfan and external costs.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
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Key term
Why do the fossil fuels left to extract become harder and costlier to reach?
Key term
Why should countries act together to conserve fossil fuels?
Key term
Give three observed changes the IPCC links to global warming.
Numbers
Discuss the global economic impact of rising fossil fuel demand from emerging economies.
Key term
Explain the concept of carbon trading.
Key term
How does fossil fuel extraction cause habitat degradation?
Key term
List the three principal fossil fuels on Earth.
Numbers
What is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?
Key term
Why is carbon trading often called cap and trade?
Numbers
Describe the trend in coal use in industrialised western countries.
Key term
What is mountaintop removal mining?
Key term
What is a fossil fuel?
Key term
What is the difference between a fossil fuel reserve and a resource?
Key term
Why does the IPCC carry weight as a source of evidence?
Key term
How does carbon trading give firms an incentive to cut emissions?
Numbers
Why did coal use fall so sharply in the UK electricity sector?
Key term
How do oil spills affect biodiversity?
Take Fossil Fuels further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Reserves vs Resources
Reserves: the quantity of a fuel known to exist that can be extracted economically today. Resources: the total amount of a fuel thought to exist, whether recoverable or not.
Carbon trading vs Carbon offsetting
Carbon trading: buying and selling capped emission allowances between regulated polluters. Carbon offsetting: paying for emission cuts elsewhere to compensate for one's own emissions.
Conventional oil vs Unconventional oil
Conventional oil: petroleum held in porous rock that flows to a well under natural pressure. Unconventional oil: petroleum from tar sands or shale that needs extra processing to extract.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
List the three principal fossil fuels on Earth.
Model answer
The three principal fossil fuels are coal, oil and natural gas.
- 2
What is a fossil fuel?
Model answer
A fossil fuel is a carbon-rich fuel formed from the buried remains of ancient organisms. Heat and pressure over millions of years turned the buried remains into coal, oil or gas.
- 3
How did coal form?
Model answer
Coal formed from plant material that fell into swamps and was buried before it could fully decay. Heat and pressure over millions of years turned the peat into lignite, then harder coals.
- 4
How did crude oil and natural gas form?
Model answer
Crude oil and natural gas formed from marine plankton buried in seabed sediments. Heat and pressure over millions of years converted the remains into hydrocarbons, which collected beneath impermeable cap rock.
- 5
Why are fossil fuels described as finite?
Model answer
Fossil fuels take millions of years to form but are burned in moments. Fossil fuel stocks are used far faster than they are replaced, so the fuels will eventually run out.
- 6
What are the main products when a fossil fuel burns completely?
Model answer
Complete combustion of a hydrocarbon produces carbon dioxide and water, releasing heat. Methane, for example, burns as CH₄ + 2O₂ → CO₂ + 2H₂O.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Fossil Fuels revision questions
- Is Fossil Fuels examined at AS in CCEA Environmental Technology?
- Yes. It sits in AS 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
- What does Fossil Fuels cover in CCEA AS-Level Environmental Technology?
- 6 subtopics: coal, oil and gas in modern society, reserves, lifespan and accessibility, fossil fuel combustion and the ipcc evidence, carbon trading schemes, fossil fuel demand, emerging economies and fuel security and environmental impacts of fossil fuel use. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Fossil Fuels organised?
- By the CCEA 3930 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Fossil Fuels, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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