Role of Microorganisms in the Development of Fossil Fuels

For decades there has been great interest in the origin of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. In the oceans, there is a continuous "snow" of prokaryotic films and some other organic matter which settles on the bottom sediments.

Fossil fuel development starts the moment organic matter is buried even before it can be oxidized to carbon dioxide by microorganisms.

Photo Courtsey: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Twentymile_Underground_Coal_Mine.png#

When organic matter is buried deeply and subjected to rising temperature under anaerobic conditions, petroleum and coal are usually formed. The quantities involved in these types of techniques are actually huge. It has indeed been estimated that the earth contains about 100,000,000,000,000,000 (100 quadrillion) tons of carbon in its sediments.

There is increasing evidence that much of the organic component in sediments is microbial in origin. About 90% of this material is in the form of insoluble kerogen, an organic precursor of fossil fuel.

Photo Courtsey: https://commons.wikimedia.org/

However, the hopanoid (bacteriohopanetetrol) was isolated from kerogen, and evidence is accumulating that kerogen arises from microbial action. We might possibly owe our supply of fossil fuels largely to microbes that serve as the final degraders of the organic material in dead matters.

It has been estimated that the overall mass of hopanoids in debris is around millions of tons, approximately as much as the overall mass of organic carbon in all living organisms. Hopanoids may be one of the most abundant biomolecules on our planet.

Let's Thank Microbes for the Natural Resources and Fuels that We are using Today......It's all due to their untiring efforts, isn't it?

Would like to know your opinion in comments.