WHAT IS AMERICA'S NEW NATURAL GAS?
By fastfreta
My Curiosity
While watching TV one night, I paid attention to a commercial that I'm sure I've seen numerous times. The ad was on natural gas, according to the commercial, we have over 100 years of natural gas supply. I really don't know why I paid attention this time, but after rewinding the commercial twice, I wanted to know more. So I decided to do a little research and share my findings.
What Is Natural Gas
First, natural gas is primarily methane, which is associated with fossil fuels, fossil fuels are created by the remains of plants and animals,(methanogenesis), over many years. Natural gas is found in places like, marshes, bogs and landfills, and coal beds
Prior to natural gas being used as fuel, it undergoes extensive processing to remove all other materials, leaving only the methane. The byproducts that are removed during the processing procedure are, hydrocarbons, sulfur, helium, nitrogen, pentanes, butanes, propane, ethane. Interestingly natural gas was at one time considered as a useless byproduct of crude oil production. However, it now provides 23 percent of all energy consumed in the world, and the demand is on the rise.
More Interesting Facts About Natural Gas
Natural gas is cleaner than coal and oil, and the reason is, when natural gas is burned carbon dioxide and water vapor are released. However, because of the chemical complexity of coal and oil, when burned a variety of potentially harmful chemicals are released into the air.
Worldwide natural gas is found in around 50 countries. In the US natural gas is found in 33 states. We use about 2500 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually worldwide.
As stated earlier, it's believed, there is an abundance of natural gas at least 100 years worth, also it is believed to be, unrenewable, because, being natural it takes thousands and maybe even more years to form.
Some Pros And Cons Of Natural Gas
These facts about the natural gas pros and cons are taken from a question asked on Answers.com...WikiAnswers. The question was asked, what was the pros and cons of using natural gas as a fuel, and this was the answer. I like the answer so much I didn't bother to dissect and interpret it on my own.
Pros:
Methane:
- creates less carbon dioxide per BTU than any other carbon based fuel
- is easily transportable
- burns without soot or sulfur dioxide
- has available technology for use at all levels of consumption
- is cheap
- does not pollute soil or groundwater if released
- can be made from a variety of wastes
Cons:
Methane:
- has a greenhouse gas effect 21 times that of carbon dioxide
- is a limited natural resource
- It is very expensive to liquefy and transport. Offshore platforms in many parts of the country will burn natural gas because it is uneconomical to transport to external markets.
- It is better than oil or coal in terms of pollution, however burning of natural gas does emit CO2 and because so much of it is used, it contributes to global warming.
- Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) ports raises safety concerns, because of the possibility of accidents/ explosions. Whether this concern is valid is subjective. LNG ports (on the receiving end) are frequently located miles offshore.
Conclustion
I don't have any profound after thoughts, as I stated in the beginning, I just wanted to know more about NATURAL GAS, and now I do. I hope you have learned a little more than you knew before.
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Comments
Thank you Hello, hello, for your quick response. It took me days to write this, my curiosity got the better of me on this one. Thanks for stopping, see you soon.
This is really interesting, Freta, I know very little about natural gas. Appreciate the information.
Interesting Topic. It has lots of Pros but the Cons are quite a lot too. Over all, its nice to have more knowledge about it.
Thanks :)
FF, good research and good hub!
We don't have natural gas here in my neck of the woods. Very informative article. Thanks.
Thank you Suziecat, habee, Lady_E, and alekhouse. I too found this to be very interesting, mundane but interesting nevertheless. Thank you all for weighing in with your comments. Please come again soon.
Excellent fastfreta. I think it's so importatnat to know as much about a resource that we'll be running out of soon. 100 years is not really along time when you think about the generations we will be leaving behind. So we better get on the ball and figure out what we're going to do.
I totally agree Veronica with your assessment of the situation. Thanks for your comment and for stopping, see you again soon.
I was so pleased to see your name in my email this morning with a new Hub! This one does remind me of how lackadasical we can become with so much media in our lives-we rarely pay attention.
THANK YOU for educating me about natural gas, and opening up my world just a little bit more, ff.
Hi fastfreta, good hub if methane is a greenhouse then it should not be used. It will warm up the planet more resulting in melting of glaciers and rise of sea level.
Let's see what decisions the world leaders take at copenhagen for climate change .
Thank you
Thank you Cleanclover, very insightful, something I never thought of. Thanks.
Thanks Lorlie, I agree, sometimes TV commercials are totally lost on me. Thanks for your comment.
Thank you both for stopping by, please come back again soon.
Very interesting. I learned more about natural gas that I did not know. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks jimcain, so did I. Thank you for stopping, please stop again.
Very informative as usual. Very interesting. I learned something new today. Thanks!
You have pointed out serious cons to be aware of. We have far less than 100 years to clean up our act as the effects of greenhouse gas rapidly increase. Great job.
Thanks Tammy, I too learned something new.
Interesting observation uliveulearn, let's hope the powers that be look at it the same way as you do.
Thank you both for stopping, please stop again soon.
Informative Hub. Eventhough you had no conclusion your piece was quite informative. You revealed, briefly and clearly why other energy options are not feasible. Thanks for the excellent insight you did your homework.
Thanks pmccray, you're right I didn't have a conclusion, and after I neared the end I realized, there was no real reason for writing the piece, other than curiosity. Thanks for your comment, please stop again soon.
yeah,great
I'll keep your post
Very informative. Thanks for the hub. Thanks for dropping by my place too. Happy blogging!
Thanks xunlei and Micky Dee for stopping by, please stop over again. And thanks Micky Dee for the thanks, (smile).
Hello, hello, 2 years ago
Wow, you have definitely done your research and the result was very interesting. Thank you so much.