Definition Of Natural Gas
Natural gas is a fossil fuel formed when layers of buried plants and animals are exposed to intense heat and pressure over thousands of years
More About Natural Gas
- The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in natural gas
- Natural gas is a nonrenewable resource because it cannot be replenished on a human time frame
- Natural gas is a hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly includes varying amounts of other higher alkanes and even a lesser percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and hydrogen sulfide
- Natural gas is an energy source often used for heating, cooking, and electricity generation
- It is also used as fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals
- It is used in transport vehicles because it is less polluting
- It is a cleaner fuel. It can be used directly for burning in homes and factories where it is supplied through pipes
- Natural gas is used as a starting material for various chemicals and fertilizers
- India has vast reserves of natural gas
- It is found in Tripura, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and in Krishna Godavari delta
- Natural gas is found in deep underground rock formations or associated with other hydrocarbon reservoirs in coal beds and as methane clathrates
- Most natural gas was created over time by two mechanisms: biogenic and thermogenic
- Biogenic gas is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, landfills, and shallow sediments
- Deeper in the earth, at greater temperature and pressure, thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material
- Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, it must undergo processing to remove impurities, including water
- Natural gas is often informally referred to simply as gas
Uses:
- Natural gas is a major source of electricity generation through the use of cogeneration, gas turbines and steam turbines.
- Natural gas is also well suited for a combined use in association with renewable energy sources such as wind or solar
- Most grid peaking power plants and some off-grid engine-generators use natural gas.
- For an equivalent amount of heat, burning natural gas produces about 30 per cent less carbon dioxide than burning petroleum and about 45 per cent less than burning coal
- Using natural gas is currently the cleanest available source of power using hydrocarbon fuels
