64 Introduction to Renewable Biomaterials
of the abundant energy supply on how our societies function in broader context. Our
modern life is fundamentally connected to the energy use. Availability of abundant
energy that can be used on demand is a primary factor shaping our modern world.
Since Industrial Revolution, the development of fossil fuel conversion technologies
allowed unprecedented growth of world economy, population, and life quality that
even aristocracy of pre-industrial times could not have dreamed of. Energy is not
only required to increase the comfort of our life: cook our food, keep us warm in
winter or provide entertainment. Most importantly, energy provides cheap physical
work what translates to unparalleled productivity of mechanised processes over those
performed by humans or animals. Mechanisation not only resulted in huge increases
in productivity, what is equally important is that it made physical work of humans
expensive, inefficient, and ultimately unnecessary. To put this into numerical context,
1 l of diesel oil is equivalent to about 38 MJ of energy. A worker consuming 3000 kcal
of food (12.6 MJ) is capable of producing about 3.5 MJ of useful energy per day [1].
This simple calculation shows that every litre of diesel that the economies use is in
energy sense equivalent to the work of additional ten workers for one day. Based on
the recently collected data of energy use [2] an average US citizen uses 7.08 tons of
oil equivalents (toe) per year (additional 232 workers per day), EU citizen 3.29 toe
(additional 108 workers per day) and Chinese citizen 2.06 (additional 68 workers for
per day). To achieve current levels of productivity, the technology has moved from
low efficiency work provided by humans or animals to mechanised work powered by
chemical energy of fossil fuels. This shift had huge impact on social landscape of the
world. Abundance of cheap energy from fossil fuels made social systems based on
slavery or serfdom obsolete, and machine work was much more effective in providing
useful work than any of the servants ever would. Consequently, these social systems
quickly disappeared in industrialised parts of the world. Additionally, industrialisation
made most of time-consuming activities easier, relieving people from physical work. As
a result, entire masses of societies were given chance to raise their social status and/or
develop in science, arts or philosophy, the disciplines that have been previously reserved
for the elite at the very top of the social ladder. Since the beginning of the industrial age,
world economy fuelled by fossil resources has experienced unprecedented exponential
growth, which in turn exponentially increased the consumption of fossil resources.
3.2.2 Black Treasure Chest
Considering the importance of energy supply for both economic and social aspects of
our modern civilisation, the existence of fossil fuels can be paralleled to a treasure chest.
The treasure chest of fossil fuels contains a finite content of different riches (coal, crude
oil and natural gas) that have has been hidden underground for millions of years. This
chest has been opened with the beginning of Industrial Revolution, and ever since the
content of the chest is being depleted.
All fossil fuel resources such as crude oil, natural gas and coal were produced over
millions of years and as such considered non-renewable. These compounds were formed
through partial decomposition of organic matter at high pressure and temperature and
low availability of oxygen. Under these conditions, a part of carbon from the carbon cycle
has been removed and stored underground for millions of years. With the start of the
Industrial Revolution, humans started to utilise these long-stored compounds – initially
