85-518: In general, "burning spring(s)" refers to any water-fed spring that percolates natural gas that may be set afire. Burning Springs may refer to: Natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas, methane gas , or simply gas ) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane (95%) in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes . Traces of carbon dioxide , nitrogen , hydrogen sulfide , and helium are also usually present. Methane
170-633: A consignment of LNG from Lake Charles, Louisiana , US, to a new LNG terminal on Canvey Island , in the Thames estuary in Essex, England. A 212-mile (341 km) long high-pressure trunk pipeline was built from Canvey Island to Bradford. The pipeline and its branches provided Area Gas Boards with natural gas for use in reforming processes to make town gas. A large-scale LNG reception plant was commissioned on Canvey in 1964, which received LNG from Algeria in two dedicated tankers, each of 12,000 tonnes. The slow decline of
255-476: A density 0.5539 times that of air (0.678 kg per standard cubic meter). In the early 1800s, natural gas became known as "natural" to distinguish it from the dominant gas fuel at the time, coal gas . Unlike coal gas, which is manufactured by heating coal, natural gas can be extracted from the ground in its native gaseous form. When the use of natural gas overtook the use of coal gas in English speaking countries in
340-406: A feedstock to chemical reactions that produce gas. The first process used was the carbonization and partial pyrolysis of coal . The off gases liberated in the high-temperature carbonization ( coking ) of coal in coke ovens were collected, scrubbed and used as fuel. Depending on the goal of the plant, the desired product was either a high quality coke for metallurgical use, with the gas being
425-496: A feedstock to manufacture town gas. These facilities utilised the chemical reaction processes described above. The rise of oil as a feedstock to manufacture town gas is shown on the graph below. The peak usage in 1968/9 and subsequent decline coincides with the availability of North Sea gas which, over the next few years, displaced town gas as a primary fuel and led to the decline of oil as a feedstock for gas making, as shown. Oil-based town gas production, millions of therms By
510-477: A major source of natural gas in the United States and Canada. Because of increased shale gas production the United States was in 2014 the number one natural gas producer in the world. The production of shale gas in the United States has been described as a "shale gas revolution" and as "one of the landmark events in the 21st century." Following the increased production in the United States, shale gas exploration
595-406: A producer (generator), carburettor and a super heater connected in series with gas pipes and valves. During a make run, steam would be passed through the generator to make blue water gas. From the generator the hot water gas would pass into the top of the carburettor where light petroleum oils would be injected into the gas stream. The light oils would be thermocracked as they came in contact with
680-400: A side product, or the production of a high quality gas, with coke being the side product. Coke plants are typically associated with metallurgical facilities such as smelters or blast furnaces , while gas works typically served urban areas. A facility used to manufacture coal gas, carburetted water gas (CWG), and oil gas is today generally referred to as a manufactured gas plant (MGP). In
765-538: A synthetic crude that can be further refined into finished products, while MTG can produce synthetic gasoline from natural gas. STG+ can produce drop-in gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and aromatic chemicals directly from natural gas via a single-loop process. In 2011, Royal Dutch Shell's 140,000 barrels (22,000 m ) per day F–T plant went into operation in Qatar . Natural gas can be "associated" (found in oil fields ), or "non-associated" (isolated in natural gas fields ), and
850-400: A wide variety of feedstocks in some mixture of air, oxygen, or steam, to reduce the latter to hydrogen and carbon monoxide although some destructive distillation may also occur. Manufactured gas can be made by two processes: carbonization or gasification . Carbonization refers to the devolatilization of an organic feedstock to yield gas and char . Gasification is the process of subjecting
935-493: Is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal . It contains a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen , carbon monoxide , methane , and other volatile hydrocarbons , together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen , and was used in a similar way to natural gas. This is a historical technology and is not usually economically competitive with other sources of fuel gas today. Most town "gashouses" located in
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#17328726510091020-458: Is a schematic block flow diagram of a typical natural gas processing plant. It shows the various unit processes used to convert raw natural gas into sales gas pipelined to the end user markets. The block flow diagram also shows how processing of the raw natural gas yields byproduct sulfur, byproduct ethane, and natural gas liquids (NGL) propane, butanes and natural gasoline (denoted as pentanes +). As of mid-2020, natural gas production in
1105-399: Is also found in coal beds (as coalbed methane ). It sometimes contains a significant amount of ethane , propane , butane , and pentane —heavier hydrocarbons removed for commercial use prior to the methane being sold as a consumer fuel or chemical plant feedstock. Non-hydrocarbons such as carbon dioxide , nitrogen , helium (rarely), and hydrogen sulfide must also be removed before
1190-616: Is beginning in countries such as Poland, China, and South Africa. Chinese geologists have identified the Sichuan Basin as a promising target for shale gas drilling, because of the similarity of shales to those that have proven productive in the United States. Production from the Wei-201 well is between 10,000 and 20,000 m per day. In late 2020, China National Petroleum Corporation claimed daily production of 20 million cubic meters of gas from its Changning-Weiyuan demonstration zone. Town gas
1275-556: Is colorless and odorless, and the second largest greenhouse gas contributor to global climate change after carbon dioxide. Because natural gas is odorless, odorizers such as mercaptan (which smells like rotten eggs ) are commonly added to it for safety so that leaks can be readily detected. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is formed when layers of organic matter (primarily marine microorganisms) decompose under anaerobic conditions and are subjected to intense heat and pressure underground over millions of years. The energy that
1360-481: Is demonstrated in this graph. Coal-based town gas production, millions of therms New technologies for manufacturing coal gas using oil, refinery tail gases, and light distillates were developed. Processes included the Lurgi Process , catalytic reforming , the catalytic rich gas process, steam reforming of rich gas, and the gas recycle hydrogenator process. The catalytic rich gas process used natural gas as
1445-537: Is estimated to have 51,000 cubic kilometers (12,000 cu mi) of natural gas and 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensates . Because natural gas is not a pure product, as the reservoir pressure drops when non-associated gas is extracted from a field under supercritical (pressure/temperature) conditions, the higher molecular weight components may partially condense upon isothermic depressurizing—an effect called retrograde condensation . The liquid thus formed may get trapped as
1530-694: Is heated and compressed deep underground. Methanogenic organisms produce methane from a variety of sources, principally carbon dioxide. During petroleum production, natural gas is sometimes flared rather than being collected and used. Before natural gas can be burned as a fuel or used in manufacturing processes, it almost always has to be processed to remove impurities such as water. The byproducts of this processing include ethane , propane , butanes , pentanes , and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. Hydrogen sulfide (which may be converted into pure sulfur ), carbon dioxide , water vapor , and sometimes helium and nitrogen must also be removed. Natural gas
1615-474: Is highly toxic . Other compositions contain additional calorific gases such as methane , produced by the Fischer–Tropsch process , and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen . Prior to the development of natural gas supply and transmission—during the 1940s and 1950s in the United States and during the late 1960s and 1970s in
1700-403: Is natural gas produced from shale . Because shale's matrix permeability is too low to allow gas to flow in economical quantities, shale gas wells depend on fractures to allow the gas to flow. Early shale gas wells depended on natural fractures through which gas flowed; almost all shale gas wells today require fractures artificially created by hydraulic fracturing . Since 2000, shale gas has become
1785-449: Is now a restored gasworks museum). The Portadown site has been cleared and is now the subject of a long-term experiment into the use of bacteria for the purpose of cleaning up contaminated industrial land. As well as requiring little processing before use, natural gas is non-toxic; the carbon monoxide (CO) in town gas made it extremely poisonous, accidental poisoning and suicide by gas being commonplace. Poisoning from natural gas appliances
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#17328726510091870-406: Is often stored underground [references about geological storage needed]inside depleted gas reservoirs from previous gas wells, salt domes , or in tanks as liquefied natural gas. The gas is injected in a time of low demand and extracted when demand picks up. Storage nearby end users helps to meet volatile demands, but such storage may not always be practicable. With 15 countries accounting for 84% of
1955-505: Is only due to incomplete combustion, which creates CO, and flue leaks to living accommodation. As with town gas, a small amount of foul-smelling substance ( mercaptan ) is added to the gas to indicate to the user that there is a leak or an unlit burner, the gas having no odour of its own. The organisation of the British gas industry adapted to these changes, first, by the Gas Act 1965 by empowering
2040-452: Is preparing to export natural gas. Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) is an innovative technology designed to enable the development of offshore gas resources that would otherwise remain untapped due to environmental or economic factors which currently make them impractical to develop via a land-based LNG operation. FLNG technology also provides a number of environmental and economic advantages: Many gas and oil companies are considering
2125-545: Is primarily dependent on proximity to markets (pipelines), and regulatory restrictions. Natural gas can be indirectly exported through the absorption in other physical output. The expansion of shale gas production in the US has caused prices to drop relative to other countries. This has caused a boom in energy intensive manufacturing sector exports, whereby the average dollar unit of US manufacturing exports has almost tripled its energy content between 1996 and 2012. A "master gas system"
2210-429: Is primarily used in the northern hemisphere. North America and Europe are major consumers. Often well head gases require removal of various hydrocarbon molecules contained within the gas. Some of these gases include heptane , pentane , propane and other hydrocarbons with molecular weights above methane ( CH 4 ). The natural gas transmission lines extend to the natural gas processing plant or unit which removes
2295-502: Is shown in the graph below. Until 1968 this was from supplies of LNG from Algeria, until North Sea gas was available from 1968. Natural gas available, millions of therms The exploitation of the North Sea gas reserves , entailing landing gas at Easington , Bacton and St Fergus made viable the building of a national distribution grid, of over 3,000 miles (4,800 km), consisting of two parallel and interconnected pipelines running
2380-709: Is sometimes informally referred to simply as "gas", especially when it is being compared to other energy sources, such as oil, coal or renewables. However, it is not to be confused with gasoline , which is also shortened in colloquial usage to "gas", especially in North America. Natural gas is measured in standard cubic meters or standard cubic feet . The density compared to air ranges from 0.58 (16.8 g/mole, 0.71 kg per standard cubic meter) to as high as 0.79 (22.9 g/mole, 0.97 kg per scm), but generally less than 0.64 (18.5 g/mole, 0.78 kg per scm). For comparison, pure methane (16.0425 g/mole) has
2465-604: Is traded on a "dry gas" basis and is required to be commercially free from objectionable odours, materials, and dust or other solid or liquid matter, waxes, gums and gum forming constituents, which might damage or adversely affect operation of equipment downstream of the custody transfer point. LNG carrier ships transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) across oceans, while tank trucks can carry LNG or compressed natural gas (CNG) over shorter distances. Sea transport using CNG carrier ships that are now under development may be competitive with LNG transport in specific conditions. Gas
2550-409: Is transported at high pressure, typically above 200 bars (20,000 kPa; 2,900 psi). Compressors and decompression equipment are less capital intensive and may be economical in smaller unit sizes than liquefaction/regasification plants. Natural gas trucks and carriers may transport natural gas directly to end-users, or to distribution points such as pipelines. In the past, the natural gas which
2635-416: Is turned into liquid at a liquefaction plant, and is returned to gas form at regasification plant at the terminal . Shipborne regasification equipment is also used. LNG is the preferred form for long distance, high volume transportation of natural gas, whereas pipeline is preferred for transport for distances up to 4,000 km (2,500 mi) over land and approximately half that distance offshore. CNG
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2720-427: The supply chain can result in natural gas having a similar carbon footprint to other fossil fuels overall. Natural gas can be found in underground geological formations , often alongside other fossil fuels like coal and oil (petroleum). Most natural gas has been created through either biogenic or thermogenic processes. Thermogenic gas takes a much longer period of time to form and is created when organic matter
2805-399: The 1850s by Sir William Siemens . The incandescent fuel bed would be alternately blasted with air followed by steam. The air reactions during the blow cycle are exothermic, heating up the bed, while the steam reactions during the make cycle, are endothermic and cool down the bed. The products from the air cycle contain non-calorific nitrogen and are exhausted out the stack while the products of
2890-432: The 1860s. Gas oil (an early form of gasoline) was the flammable waste product from kerosene refining, made from the lightest and most volatile fractions (tops) of crude oil. In 1875 Thaddeus S. C. Lowe invented the carburetted water gas process. This process revolutionized the manufactured gas industry and was the standard technology until the end of manufactured gas era. A CWG generating set consisted of three elements;
2975-428: The 1960s, manufactured gas, compared with its main rival in the energy market, electricity, was considered "nasty, smelly, dirty and dangerous" (to quote market research of the time) and seemed doomed to lose market share still further, except for cooking where its controllability gave it marked advantages over both electricity and solid fuel. The development of more efficient gas fires assisted gas to resist competition in
3060-548: The 19th century, natural gas was primarily obtained as a by-product of producing oil . The small, light gas carbon chains came out of solution as the extracted fluids underwent pressure reduction from the reservoir to the surface, similar to uncapping a soft drink bottle where the carbon dioxide effervesces . The gas was often viewed as a by-product, a hazard, and a disposal problem in active oil fields. The large volumes produced could not be used until relatively expensive pipeline and storage facilities were constructed to deliver
3145-406: The 20th century, it was increasingly referred to as simply "gas." In order to highlight its role in exacerbating the climate crisis , however, many organizations have criticized the continued use of the word "natural" in referring to the gas. These advocates prefer the term "fossil gas" or "methane gas" as better conveying to the public its climate threat. A 2020 study of Americans' perceptions of
3230-619: The Gas Council to acquire and supply gas to the twelve area gas boards . Then, the Gas Act 1972 formed the British Gas Corporation as a single commercial entity, embracing all the twelve area gas boards, allowing them to acquire, distribute and market gas and gas appliances to industrial commercial and domestic customers throughout the UK. In 1986, British Gas was privatised and the government no longer has any direct control over it. During
3315-484: The LNG plant on Canvey. The Fuel Policy White Paper of 1967 (Cmd. 3438) pointed the industry in the direction of building up the use of natural gas speedily to 'enable the country to benefit as soon as possible from the advantages of this new indigenous energy source'. As a result, there was a 'rush to gas' for use in peak load electricity generation and in low grade uses in industry. The growth in availability of natural gas
3400-476: The Second World War as petroleum shortages forced Nazi Germany to develop the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to produce synthetic fuel for aircraft and tanks. The by-products of coal gas manufacture included coke , coal tar , sulfur and ammonia and these were all useful products. Dyes, medicines such as sulfa drugs , saccharine , and dozens of organic compounds are made from coal tar. The coal used, and
3485-432: The US had peaked three times, with current levels exceeding both previous peaks. It reached 24.1 trillion cubic feet per year in 1973, followed by a decline, and reached 24.5 trillion cubic feet in 2001. After a brief drop, withdrawals increased nearly every year since 2006 (owing to the shale gas boom ), with 2017 production at 33.4 trillion cubic feet and 2019 production at 40.7 trillion cubic feet. After
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3570-427: The US, over one-third of households (>40 million homes) cook with gas. Natural gas dispensed in a residential setting can generate temperatures in excess of 1,100 °C (2,000 °F) making it a powerful domestic cooking and heating fuel. Stanford scientists estimated that gas stoves emit 0.8–1.3% of the gas they use as unburned methane and that total U.S. stove emissions are 28.1 gigagrams of methane. In much of
3655-470: The United Kingdom and Australia—almost all gas for fuel and lighting was manufactured from coal. Town gas was supplied to households via municipally owned piped distribution systems. Sometimes, this was called syn gas , in contrast to natural gas. At the time, a frequent method of committing suicide was the inhalation of gas from an unlit oven. With the head and upper body placed inside the appliance,
3740-515: The United States begins with localized use. In the seventeenth century, French missionaries witnessed the American Indians setting fire to natural gas seeps around lake Erie, and scattered observations of these seeps were made by European-descended settlers throughout the eastern seaboard through the 1700s. In 1821, William Hart dug the first commercial natural gas well in the United States at Fredonia, New York , United States, which led in 1858 to
3825-697: The bottoms of the gashouse ovens was often used for roofing and other waterproofing purposes, and when mixed with sand and gravel was used for paving streets. Huge quantities of natural gas (primarily methane) exist in the form of clathrates under sediment on offshore continental shelves and on land in arctic regions that experience permafrost , such as those in Siberia . Hydrates require a combination of high pressure and low temperature to form. In 2013, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) announced that they had recovered commercially relevant quantities of natural gas from methane hydrate. The image below
3910-616: The coal gas, but would leave behind a crumbly, low-quality coke not suitable for metallurgical processes. Coal or coke oven gas typically had a calorific value between 10 and 20 megajoules per cubic metre (270 and 540 Btu/cu ft); with values around 20 MJ/m (540 Btu/cu ft) being typical. The advent of electric lighting forced utilities to search for other markets for manufactured gas. MGPs that once almost exclusively produced lighting gas shifted their efforts towards supplying gas for heating and cooking, and even refrigeration and cooling. Fuel gas for industrial use
3995-498: The concentrated carbon monoxide would kill quickly. Sylvia Plath famously ended her life with this method. Originally created as a by-product of the coking process, its use developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries tracking the Industrial Revolution and urbanization . By-products from the production process included coal tars and ammonia , which were important raw materials (or "chemical feedstock ") for
4080-654: The decayed organisms originally obtained from the sun via photosynthesis is stored as chemical energy within the molecules of methane and other hydrocarbons. Natural gas can be burned for heating, cooking, and electricity generation . Consisting mainly of methane, natural gas is rarely used as a chemical feedstock . The extraction and consumption of natural gas is a major industry. When burned for heat or electricity , natural gas emits fewer toxic air pollutants, less carbon dioxide, and almost no particulate matter compared to other fossil and biomass fuels. However, gas venting and unintended fugitive emissions throughout
4165-448: The developed world it is supplied through pipes to homes, where it is used for many purposes including ranges and ovens, heating / cooling , outdoor and portable grills , and central heating . Heaters in homes and other buildings may include boilers, furnaces , and water heaters . Both North America and Europe are major consumers of natural gas. Coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to
4250-470: The dye and chemical industry with a wide range of artificial dyes being made from coal gas and coal tar. Facilities where the gas was produced were often known as a manufactured gas plant (MGP) or a gasworks . In the United Kingdom the discovery of large reserves of natural gas, or sea gas as it was known colloquially, in the Southern North Sea off the coasts of Norfolk and Yorkshire in 1965 led to
4335-459: The early years of MGP operations, the goal of a utility gas works was to produce the greatest amount of illuminating gas. The illuminating power of a gas was related to amount of soot -forming hydrocarbons ("illuminants") dissolved in it. These hydrocarbons gave the gas flame its characteristic bright yellow color. Gas works would typically use oily bituminous coals as feedstock. These coals would give off large amounts of volatile hydrocarbons into
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#17328726510094420-446: The eastern US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were simple by-product coke ovens that heated bituminous coal in air-tight chambers. The gas driven off from the coal was collected and distributed through networks of pipes to residences and other buildings where it was used for cooking and lighting. (Gas heating did not come into widespread use until the last half of the 20th century.) The coal tar (or asphalt ) that collected in
4505-446: The economic and environmental benefits of floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG). There are currently projects underway to construct five FLNG facilities. Petronas is close to completion on their FLNG-1 at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and are underway on their FLNG-2 project at Samsung Heavy Industries . Shell Prelude is due to start production 2017. The Browse LNG project will commence FEED in 2019. Natural gas
4590-474: The era of North Sea gas , many of the original cast iron gas pipes installed in towns and cities for town gas were replaced by plastic . As reported in the DTI Energy Review 'Our Energy Challenge' January 2006 North Sea gas resources have been depleted at a faster rate than had been anticipated and gas supplies for the UK are being sought from remote sources, a strategy made possible by developments in
4675-659: The expensive conversion or replacement of most of Britain's gas cookers and gas heaters, from the late 1960s onwards, the process being completed by the late 1970s. Any residual gas lighting found in homes being converted was either capped off at the meter or, more usually, removed altogether. As of 2023, some gas street lighting still remains, mainly in central London and the Royal Parks. The production process differs from other methods used to generate gaseous fuels known variously as manufactured gas , syngas , Dowson gas, and producer gas . These gases are made by partial combustion of
4760-486: The formation of the Fredonia Gas Light Company . Further such ventures followed near wells in other states, until technological innovations allowed the growth of major long distance pipelines from the 1920s onward. By 2009, 66,000 km (16,000 cu mi) (or 8%) had been used out of the total 850,000 km (200,000 cu mi) of estimated remaining recoverable reserves of natural gas. In
4845-461: The fuel found that, across political identifications, the term "methane gas" led to better estimates of its harms and risks. Natural gas can come out of the ground and cause a long-burning fire. In ancient Greece , the gas flames at Mount Chimaera contributed to the legend of the fire-breathing creature Chimera . In ancient China , gas resulting from the drilling for brines was first used by about 400 BC. The Chinese transported gas seeping from
4930-430: The fuel gas by enriching it with CO and hydrogen (H 2 ) produced by water gas reactions. Producer gas has a very low calorific value of 3.7 to 5.6 MJ/m (99 to 150 Btu/cu ft); because the calorific gases CO/H 2 are diluted with much inert nitrogen (from air) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (from combustion) The problem of nitrogen dilution was overcome by the blue water gas (BWG) process, developed in
5015-435: The gas needs to be cooled down and compressed, as the friction in the pipeline causes the gas to heat up. Many existing pipelines in the US are close to reaching their capacity, prompting some politicians representing northern states to speak of potential shortages. The large trade cost implies that natural gas markets are globally much less integrated, causing significant price differences across countries. In Western Europe ,
5100-512: The gas pipeline network is already dense. New pipelines are planned or under construction between Western Europe and the Near East or Northern Africa . Whenever gas is bought or sold at custody transfer points, rules and agreements are made regarding the gas quality. These may include the maximum allowable concentration of CO 2 , H 2 S and H 2 O . Usually sales quality gas that has been treated to remove contamination
5185-896: The gas to consumer markets. Until the early part of the 20th century, most natural gas associated with oil was either simply released or burned off at oil fields. Gas venting and production flaring are still practised in modern times, but efforts are ongoing around the world to retire them, and to replace them with other commercially viable and useful alternatives. In addition to transporting gas via pipelines for use in power generation, other end uses for natural gas include export as liquefied natural gas (LNG) or conversion of natural gas into other liquid products via gas to liquids (GTL) technologies. GTL technologies can convert natural gas into liquids products such as gasoline, diesel or jet fuel. A variety of GTL technologies have been developed, including Fischer–Tropsch (F–T), methanol to gasoline (MTG) and syngas to gasoline plus (STG+). F–T produces
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#17328726510095270-489: The gas-using equipment of almost thirteen million domestic, four hundred thousand commercial, and sixty thousand industrial customers were converted. Many dangerous appliances were discovered in this exercise and were taken out of service. The UK town gas industry ended in 1987 when operations ceased at the last town gas manufacturing plants in Northern Ireland (Belfast, Portadown and Carrickfergus; Carrickfergus gas works
5355-518: The ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to boil salt water to extract the salt in the Ziliujing District of Sichuan . Natural gas was not widely used before the development of long distance pipelines in the early twentieth century. Before that, most use was near to the source of the well, and the predominant gas for fuel and lighting during the industrial revolution was manufactured coal gas. The history of natural gas in
5440-442: The higher-molecular weight hydrocarbons to produce natural gas with energy content between 35–39 megajoules per cubic metre (950–1,050 British thermal units per cubic foot). The processed natural gas may then be used for residential, commercial and industrial uses. Natural gas flowing in the distribution lines is called mid-stream natural gas and is often used to power engines which rotate compressors. These compressors are required in
5525-609: The industry produced) to marketing management (meeting the needs and desires of customers) and the lifting of an early moratorium preventing nationalised industries from using television advertising , saved the gas industry for long enough to provide a viable market for what was to come. In 1959 the Gas Council in Great Britain demonstrated that liquid natural gas (LNG) could be transported safely, efficiently and economically over long distances by sea. The Methane Pioneer shipped
5610-594: The largest proven gas reserves. Sources that consider that Russia has by far the largest proven reserves include the US Central Intelligence Agency (47,600 km ) and Energy Information Administration (47,800 km ), as well as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (48,700 km ). Contrarily, BP credits Russia with only 32,900 km , which would place it in second, slightly behind Iran (33,100 to 33,800 km , depending on
5695-486: The length of the country. This became the National Transmission System . All gas equipment in Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland) was converted (by the fitting of different-sized burner jets to give the correct gas/air mixture) from town gas to natural gas (mainly methane ) over the period from 1967 to 1977 at a cost of about £100 million, including writing off redundant town gas manufacturing plants. All
5780-410: The market for room heating. Concurrently a new market for whole house central heating by hot water was being developed by the oil industry and the gas industry followed suit. Gas warm air heating found a market niche in new local authority housing where low installation costs gave it an advantage. These developments, the realignment of managerial thinking away from commercial management (selling what
5865-433: The natural gas can be transported. Natural gas extracted from oil wells is called casinghead gas (whether or not truly produced up the annulus and through a casinghead outlet) or associated gas. The natural gas industry is extracting an increasing quantity of gas from challenging, unconventional resource types : sour gas , tight gas , shale gas , and coalbed methane . There is some disagreement on which country has
5950-441: The pores of the gas reservoir get depleted. One method to deal with this problem is to re-inject dried gas free of condensate to maintain the underground pressure and to allow re-evaporation and extraction of condensates. More frequently, the liquid condenses at the surface, and one of the tasks of the gas plant is to collect this condensate. The resulting liquid is called natural gas liquid (NGL) and has commercial value. Shale gas
6035-543: The source). It is estimated that there are about 900,000 km of "unconventional" gas such as shale gas, of which 180,000 km may be recoverable. In turn, many studies from MIT , Black & Veatch and the US Department of Energy predict that natural gas will account for a larger portion of electricity generation and heat in the future. The world's largest gas field is the offshore South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field , shared between Iran and Qatar. It
6120-473: The steam cycle are kept as blue water gas. This gas is composed almost entirely of CO and H 2 , and burns with a pale blue flame similar to natural gas. BWG has a calorific value of 11 MJ/m (300 BTU/cu ft). Blue water gas lacked illuminants; it would not burn with a luminous flame in a simple fishtail gas jet as existed prior to the invention of the gas mantle in the 1890s. Various attempts were made to enrich BWG with illuminants from gas oil in
6205-449: The technologies of pipelaying that enable the transmission of gas over land and under sea across and between continents . Natural gas is now a world commodity . Such sources of supply are exposed to all the risks of any import. Monty Python parodied the conversion from coal to North Sea gas, and the jumping through hoops some encountered, in their "New Cooker Sketch," as part of the episode that began its second series in 1970. Coal gas
6290-640: The third peak in December 2019, extraction continued to fall from March onward due to decreased demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the US . The 2021 global energy crisis was driven by a global surge in demand as the world quit the economic recession caused by COVID-19, particularly due to strong energy demand in Asia. Because of its low density, it is not easy to store natural gas or to transport it by vehicle. Natural gas pipelines are impractical across oceans, since
6375-403: The town gas and by-products produced, by the major three gas companies of London are summarised in the table. Coke is used as a smokeless fuel and for the manufacture of water gas and producer gas . Coal tar was subjected to fractional distillation to recover various products, including Used in the manufacture of sulfuric acid Used in the manufacture of fertilisers Coal gas
6460-535: The town gas industry in the UK was driven by the discovery of natural gas by the drilling rig Sea Gem , on 17 September 1965, some forty miles off Grimsby , over 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below the seabed. Subsequently, the North Sea was found to have many substantial gas fields on both sides of the median line defining which nations should have rights over the reserves. In a pilot scheme customers on Canvey Island were converted from town gas to natural gas supplied from
6545-412: The transmission line to pressurize and repressurize the mid-stream natural gas as the gas travels. Typically, natural gas powered engines require 35–39 MJ/m (950–1,050 BTU/cu ft) natural gas to operate at the rotational name plate specifications. Several methods are used to remove these higher molecular weighted gases for use by the natural gas engine. A few technologies are as follows: In
6630-447: The user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities. The original coal gas was produced by the coal gasification reaction, and the burnable component consisted of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in roughly equal quantities by volume. Thus, coal gas
6715-399: The white hot checkerwork fire bricks inside the carburettor. The hot enriched gas would then flow into the superheater, where the gas would be further cracked by more hot fire bricks. Following the Second World War the slow recovery of the British coal mining industry led to shortages of coal and high prices. The decline of coal as a feedstock for town gas production using carbonisation
6800-498: The worldwide extraction, access to natural gas has become an important issue in international politics, and countries vie for control of pipelines. In the first decade of the 21st century, Gazprom , the state-owned energy company in Russia, engaged in disputes with Ukraine and Belarus over the price of natural gas, which have created concerns that gas deliveries to parts of Europe could be cut off for political reasons. The United States
6885-455: Was initially manufactured by independent companies but in the United Kingdom many of these later became municipal services . In 1948 there was a total of 1,062 gas undertakings. Both the private companies, about two-thirds of the total, and the municipal gas undertakings, about one-third, were nationalised under the Gas Act 1948 . Further restructuring took place under the Gas Act 1972 . For further details see British Gas plc . Apart from in
6970-488: Was invented in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s, ending any necessity for flaring. Satellite and nearby infra-red camera observations, however, shows that flaring and venting are still happening in some countries. Natural gas is used to generate electricity and heat for desalination . Similarly, some landfills that also discharge methane gases have been set up to capture the methane and generate electricity. Natural gas
7055-414: Was made using producer gas technology. Producer gas is made by blowing air through an incandescent fuel bed (commonly coke or coal ) in a gas producer. The reaction of fuel with insufficient air for total combustion produces carbon monoxide (CO); this reaction is exothermic and self-sustaining. It was discovered that adding steam to the input air of a gas producer would increase the calorific value of
7140-567: Was recovered in the course of recovering petroleum could not be profitably sold, and was simply burned at the oil field in a process known as flaring . Flaring is now illegal in many countries. Additionally, higher demand in the last 20–30 years has made production of gas associated with oil economically viable. As a further option, the gas is now sometimes re- injected into the formation for enhanced oil recovery by pressure maintenance as well as miscible or immiscible flooding. Conservation, re-injection, or flaring of natural gas associated with oil
7225-469: Was used to power several historic balloon ascents in the 19th century (see The Aeronauts ). In many ways, Germany took the lead in coal gas research and carbon chemistry. With the labours of August Wilhelm von Hofmann , the whole German chemical industry emerged. Using the coal gas waste as feedstock, researchers developed new processes and synthesized natural organic compounds such as Vitamin C and aspirin . The German economy relied on coal gas during
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