Chemical Energy; Why We Use It More Than Any Other Form Of Energy
Of all the forms of energy that humanity has developed in the past few hundred years of mass production, chemical energy is by far the most commonly used. Whether in the batteries that power all of our handheld devices and their chemical reactions, or in the millions of uses weve developed for fossil fuels and their numerous chemical reactions, chemical energy is a staple of our daily lives. Coal is burned for energy throughout the world, gasoline combusts every day in our vehicles, and natural gasses are burned for heating energy every night.
Its on a very basic level that chemical energy is stored. A chemical compound is composed of very simple collections of atoms, bound together. When the bond between these atoms loosens, a chemical reaction takes place and new combinations are created. Very simple reactions, such as the oxidation of metals occurs almost constantly.
However, when a chemical reaction occurs that is exothermic, in which energy is actually released and the chemical compound is reduced, it is possible to harvest that energy for our everyday use. The very simple processes...