Natural gas
Theresa, Josh, Sabrina, Hannah, and Alyssa
History
· Gas we are using today is millions of years old
· mystery to man: “strange fires coming from the earth” fuelled by natural gas
· Around 500 B.C., the Chinese began to see potential in gas
à formed pipelines out of bamboo shoots to transport gas to heat water
· Used for street lamps, cooking, heating
· Today's transportation infrastructure has made natural gas easy to obtain à increasingly popular form of energy.
The future of Natural gas
The future of the Natural Gas industry is only going to increase even though we seeing a change in efficient energy resources. Until we are completely out of Natural Gas, it will be used to it’s full potential for everything. Only when we run out will true Green Energy emerge to the point we don’t need to rely on Natural Gas, because when there is a need for something, someone somewhere comes up with it.
Effects on our environment
Air Emissions:
At the power plant, the burning of natural gas produces nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. >Methane, a primary component of natural gas and a greenhouse gas, can also be emitted into the air when natural gas is not burned completely. Similarly, methane can be emitted as the result of leaks and losses during transportation. Emissions of sulfur dioxide and mercury compounds from burning natural gas are negligible.
Water Resource Use:
The burning of natural gas in combustion turbines requires very little water. However, natural gas-fired boiler and combined cycle systems do require water for cooling purposes. When power plants remove water from a lake or river, fish and other aquatic life can be killed, affecting animals and people who depend on these aquatic resources.
Water Discharges:
Combustion turbines do not produce any water discharges. However, pollutants and heat build up in the water used in natural gas boilers and combined cycle systems. When these pollutants and heat reach certain levels, the water is often discharged into lakes or rivers. This discharge usually requires a permit and is monitored.
Solid Waste Generation:
The use of natural gas to create electricity does not produce substantial amounts of solid waste.
Land Resource Use:
The extraction of natural gas and the construction of natural gas power plants can destroy natural habitat for animals and plants. Possible land resource impacts include erosion, loss of soil productivity, and landslides.
Major Consequences?
The oil and gas industry is rapidly expanding production across the nation, as new technology makes it easier to extract oil or gas from previously inaccessible sites. Hundreds of of thousands of new wells all across the country have been drilled. The sector's growth is spurred by the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which often-dangerous chemicals are mixed with large quantities of water (or other base fluid) and sand and injected into wells at extremely high pressure. Unconventional development using advanced fracking methods poses threats to water, air, land, and the health of communities. Studies have shown dangerous levels of toxic air pollution near fracking sites; and oil and gas extraction have caused smog in rural areas at levels worse than downtown Los Angeles. Oil and gas production have been linked to increased risk of cancer and birth defects in neighboring areas; as well as to a risk of increased seismic activity. The millions of gallons of water used in fracking operations not only strain water resources, but end up as vast amounts of contaminated wastewater. Fracking has been reported as a suspect in polluted drinking water around the country.
Extraction
· Locate a natural gas deposit
· digging down and drilling to where the natural gas exists
· stabilizes the wall of the well bore
· Number of innovations and techniques that decrease the cost and increase the efficiency of drilling for natural gas
Converting
· freeze the natural gas to make it liquid
· natural gas is now usable energy because the gas can be used in home, buildings, factories, etc.
Common Uses
· 28 % of U.S. energy demand
· Heats 51 % of U.S. households
· cools homes, provides fuel for cooking.
· Natural gas-powered cars, trucks, buses
Fun Facts
Besides the use of a heating tool it can also be used as a cooling device (Ice hockey)
if all the natural gas pipe lines the US were connected to each other they would stretch to and from the moon almost 3 times
approximately 4 million americans employed are either directly or indirectly by natural gases