In this article we made an introduction of natural gas and furthermore discussed on the different sources where they can be gotten.
Natural gas is a vital component of the global energy mix, offering a cleaner-burning alternative to coal and oil. It is a hydrocarbon gas mixture primarily composed of methane, with small amounts of other hydrocarbons and impurities. Natural gas is formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals subjected to high temperatures and pressures over millions of years.
Like other fossil fuels such as coal and oil, natural gas forms from the plants, animals, and microorganisms that lived millions of years ago. There are several different theories to explain how fossil fuels are formed. The most prevalent theory is that they form underground, under intense conditions.
Here are different sources of natural gas:
Shale gas
Shale gas 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 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 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 m3 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.
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Town gas
Town gas 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 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 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.
Crystallized natural gas – clathrates
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.
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Other sources of natural gas include:
– Coalbed methane:
Coalbed methane obtained from coal seams, or beds, contributes to the U.S. natural gas supply.
– Offshore natural gas:
Although most U.S. natural gas and oil wells are on land, some wells are drilled into the ocean floor in waters off the coasts of the United States.
– Tight natural gas:
Tight natural gas was first identified as a separate category of natural gas production with the passage of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 (NGPA). The NGPA established tight natural gas as a separate wellhead natural gas pricing category that could sell at unregulated market-determined prices.
-Biogas : Biogas is a type of gas that is produced when organic matter decomposes without oxygen being present. This process is called anaerobic decomposition, and it takes place in landfills or where organic material such as animal waste, sewage, or industrial byproducts are decomposing.
– Geo pressurized zones:
Geo pressurized zones form 3,000-7,600 meters (10,000-25,000 feet) below Earth’s surface. These zones form when layers of clay rapidly accumulate and compact on top of material that is more porous, such as sand or silt. Because the natural gas is forced out of the compressed clay, it is deposited under very high pressure into the sand, silt, or other absorbent material below.
– Methane hydrates:
Methane hydrates are another type of unconventional natural gas. Methane hydrates were discovered only recently in ocean sediments and permafrost areas of the Arctic. Methane hydrates form at low temperatures (around 0°C, or 32°F) and under high pressure. When environmental conditions change, methane hydrates are released into the atmosphere.