Benefits and Harms of hydrocarbons in agriculture

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 Benefits: 

  • Hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs) are adaptable products used in every end-use sector—residential, commercial, industrial (manufacturing and agriculture), transportation, and electric power. The chemical compositions of HGL purity products (HGL streams with a minimum of 90% of one type of HGL) are identical, but their uses vary.
  • There is a type of HGL that is called Propane, the fuel for space heating, water heating, cooking, drying, and transportation; petrochemical feedstock. On farms, for heating livestock housing and greenhouses, for drying crops, for pest and weed control, and for powering farm equipment and irrigation pumps. In businesses and industry, to power forklifts, electric welders, and other equipment.
  • One of the alternatives for Hydrocarbons includes Geothermal power. Geothermal energy taps into the heat that exists beneath the surface of the earth. The sources of heat are trapped inside stones and liquids underneath the surface as well as far down towards the earth's core. Geothermal energy is created by searching wells on the earth's surface to access the steam and hot water, which are used to power generators that produce electricity.


 Harms: 

  • There is a heavy environmental cost to using hydrocarbons as an immediate source of energy. Fossil fuel sources like crude oil, natural gas, and coal contain hydrogen and carbon. When they're steamed, they release greenhouse gasses into the air, specifically carbon dioxide. Releasing them into the air contributes to climate change.
  • Agricultural crops can be damaged when exposed to high concentrations of hydrocarbons which leads to shorter growth and yield premature death of plants. This leads to morphological, pigmented, chlorotic, and necrotic foliar patterns resulting from major physiological disturbances in plant cells. Hydrocarbons reduce soil fertility, nitrogen fixation, crop yield, and deposition of silt in tanks and reservoirs.
  • Soils polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons can affect soil health. And it can do so at much lower concentrations compared to the effects on human health. They can harm soil microorganisms, reducing their number and activity.








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