Is Natural Gas the Answer?. What is natural gas?
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Transcript of Is Natural Gas the Answer?. What is natural gas?
Is Natural Gas the Answer?
What is natural gas?
• Made of a mixture of METHANE (CH4) and other gasses.
• Conventional Natural gas forms with oil wells or coal beds
• Natural Gas production has increased by 25% in the last 6 years
What is Natural Gas?
Formation of Unconventional Natural Gas
• Devonian shales (formed in inland seas during the Devonian Period – 350 million years ago)
Where is natural gas found in large concentrations?
• Domestic Supplies
Top 5 natural gas reserves:
1. Texas2. Louisiana3. Wyoming4. Oklahoma5. Pennsylvania
Where is natural gas found in large concentrations?
• Global Supplies
Top 5 natural gas reserves:
1. Russia2. Iran3. Qatar4. Turkmenistan5. United States
How do we extract it from the ground?
• Conventional Natural Gas
Drill down into layers of rock with domes of natural gas
Gas flows to surface, normally pressurized to increase gas flow
How do we extract it from the ground?
• Non-Conventional Natural Gas – “FRACKING”
High pressure liquid is forced into shale layers to crack the rocks
Sand is inserted to hold the cracks open
Methane flows to the surface
What are the environmental problems with extracting Natural Gas?
• Air pollution• Groundwater pollution• Land disruption• Explosions• Fires
What do we use natural gas
for besides electricity?
1. Heating2. Cooking fuel3. Vehicle Fuel (public busses)
What are the environmental problems with burning natural gas?
• Methane leaks are worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas
• Added carbon dioxide
• Burned off as waste
GasLand
Natural GasAdvantages
- Ample supplies- High Net Energy Yield- Low Cost- Less air pollution than other
fossil fuels- Lower carbon dioxide emissions
than other fossil fuels- Easily transported by pipeline- Low land use- Good fuel for fuel cells and gas
turbines
Disadvantages- Non-renewable resource- Releases carbon dioxide when burned- Government subsidies- Environmental costs not included in
market prices- Methane (greenhouse gas) can leak
from pipelines- Difficult to transfer from one country
to another- Can be shipped across ocean only as
LNG – highly explosive- Sometimes burned off and wasted at
wells because of low price or lack of pipeline