Fossil fuel as an alternate source of energy with recent developments:

Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, primarily coal, fuel oil or natural gas, formed from the remains of dead plants and animals. In common dialogue, the term fossil fuel also includes hydrocarbon-containing natural resources that are not derived from animal or plant sources. These are sometimes known instead as mineral fuels. The utilization of fossil fuels has enabled large-scale industrial development and largely supplanted water-driven mills, as well as the combustion of wood or peat for heat.

Fossil fuel as an alternate source of energy with recent developments:

• Corn Plants Used To Monitor Carbon Dioxide Levels From Fossil Fuels: Scientists at UC Irvine have mapped fossil fuel air pollution in the United States by analyzing corn collected from nearly 70 locations nationwide.[1]
• Alternative Fossil Fuels Have Economic Potential, Study Shows: Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered, according to a new study.[2]
• New Process Makes Diesel Fuel And Industrial Chemicals From Simple Sugar: James Dumesic, a University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineering professor, reports in the June 30 issue of the journal Science on a better way to make a chemical intermediate called HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) from fructose - fruit sugar. HMF can be converted into plastics, diesel-fuel additive, or even diesel fuel itself, but is seldom used because it is costly to make.[3]
• Plastic That Grows On Trees? Fuel, Polyester And Other Chemicals From Biomass: It has been an elusive goal for the legion of chemists trying to pull it off: Replace crude oil as the root source for plastic, fuels and scores of other industrial and household chemicals with inexpensive, nonpolluting renewable plant matter.[4]
• Bio-crude Turns Cheap Waste Into Valuable Fuel: Scientists have developed a chemical process that turns green waste into a stable bio-crude oil. The bio-crude oil can be used to produce high value chemicals and biofuels, including both petrol and diesel replacement fuels.[5]
• Engineers Develop Higher-energy Liquid Transportation Fuel From Sugar: Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and combine it with water molecules and sunshine to make carbohydrate or sugar. Chemical and biological engineers now describe a two-stage process for turning biomass-derived sugar into a liquid transportation fuel with 40 percent greater energy density than ethanol.[6]