About Natural Gas
- The Chinese were the first to actively figure how to use natural gas. Like most ancient peoples, they had seen fires when lightning struck the ground and ignited natural gas. In 500 BC, they figured out that they could transport the gas through crude pipelines made from bamboo shoots and use it to boil seawater and and remove the salt. Ancient Greeks thought the fires were of divine origin and built temples around them. Great Britain was the first to commercialize the use of natural gas. Around 1785, natural gas produced from coal was being used to not only light street lamps, but homes as well. In the Americas, natural gas was identified in 1626 when French explorers found Indians igniting natural gas that was seeping from the ground around and into Lake Erie. It was in this area that the commercial usage of natural gas got its start in the United States. The first well was dug by Colonel Edwin Drake in this area in 1859--he hit oil and natural gas 69 feet down. However, the first well dug for the purpose of capturing natural gas was accomplished in 1821 in Fredonia, N.Y., by William Hart, who noticed gas bubbles rising to the surface of a local creek. Eventually, the Fredonia Gas Light Company was founded, the very first American natural gas company.
- Transportation and storage are the main problems with natural gas because it has such a low density. Many gas pipelines in the United States are reaching their capacity, and some politicians say that we may soon experience shortages. One solution to this problem is the LNG Carrier, a ship specially built and designed to carry liquefied natural gas across the ocean. There are also tank trucks that can carry compressed natural gas over shorter distances. However, these cost more and require additional facilities for liquefaction, compression and then gasification or decompression at a facility or into a pipeline.
- The main use of natural gas is electricity generation. This is done with the use of gas and steam turbines. In fact, it is when these two types of turbines are combined that the most efficiency is recognized. Natural gas is also used in homes for cooking, drying clothes and central heating. Natural gas can also power boilers, furnaces, and water heaters. In addition, there are some uses of natural gas that are not piped in to a home, such as natural gas-powered vehicles, and natural gas grills. Natural gas is a key component in the production of ammonia by the Haber Process, which is used to make fertilizer. Finally, natural gas is used to make fabrics, glass, plastics, paint and steel.
- While natural gas is touted as being the cleanest burning fossil fuel available, it does contribute significantly to emissions. In 2004, natural gas made 5,300 Mt/yr of carbon dioxide emissions, which is about half as much as was made by coal and oil. However, as natural gas becomes more popular and our population grows, it predicted that, by 2030, it will be making 11,000 Mt/yr in carbon dioxide emissions, with coal at 8,400 and oil at 17,200. Also, natural gas is much more potent as a greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide. When natural gas is drilled in the U.S., the carbon dioxide released is not counted with the carbon dioxide created when natural gas is burned, so the percentage emissions released could actually be higher.
- Odorants began being added to natural gas after 1937, because of a gas leak that caused an explosion at the New London School in New London, Texas, killing 295 students and teachers. To prevent that from happening again, odorants such as t-butyl mercaptan and thiophane, which have a rotten cabbage and rotten egg smell, respectively, were added to natural gas so that leaks could be detected before an explosion took place. The risk of using natural gas is relatively low because of the odorants being added. While occasionally natural gas does gather in high enough quantities to cause a deadly explosion, it is rare. Look out for a malfunction in a gas heating system that causes an odorless gas, carbon monoxide, to be released. This is why it is important to have detectors in homes that use gas heating. Carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of death with natural gas-powered heating systems in the United States.