Natural Gas

Natural Gas

Subject – Environment

Context – Vedanta makes gas discovery in Gujarat.

Concept –

• Natural gas is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting of methane and commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium.
• It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years.
• The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas.
• Natural gas is a fossil fuel.
• Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation. It is also used as a fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.
• It is found in the same geological structure where petroleum is found.
• Sometimes, the pressure of natural gas forces oils up to the surface. Such natural gas is known as associated gas or wet gas.
• Some reservoirs contain gas and no oil. This gas is termed non-associated gas or dry gas.
• Often natural gases contain substantial quantities of hydrogen sulfide or other organic sulfur compounds. In this case, the gas is known as “sour gas.”
• Coalbed methane is called ‘sweet gas’ because of its lack of hydrogen sulfide.
• On the market, natural gas is usually bought and sold not by volume but by calorific value.
• Natural gas is odorless and colorless. The slightly sour smell that we associate with the gas coming from a stovetop is due to an odorization process (for safety and leak detection) which adds mercaptan compounds to the end-use gas.