Natural gas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Natural gas - Essay Example In natural gas reservoirs beneath the surface of the earth even the heavier hydrocarbons occur for the most part in gaseous form because of the higher pressures. These heavier hydrocarbons usually liquefy at the surface at normal atmospheric conditions and are produced separately as natural gas liquids (NGLs), either in field separators or in gas processing plants (Speight, 3). How it was discovered and when did they discover it? The discovery of natural gas dates back from ancient times in the Middle East. During that times, there was not any clear understanding about the existence of natural gas and its presence was somewhat of a mystery to man. Such mysteries were attributed to occasional incidents of sudden lightning strikes that would ignite natural gas escaping from under the earth’s crust resulting fire coming from the earth. The value of natural gas as an energy was first recognized in China about 900 BC. In 211 BC, Chinese drilled the first known natural gas well. Fur ther a step ahead they transported the crude gas through bamboo shoots to near sea shore, where it was used to distilled sea water to make it suitable for drinking. In early 1626, a French explorer first times discovered and identified natives igniting gases in America that were seeping into and around Lake Erie. In 1821 in Fredonia, United States, a massive escape of gas was observed in form of bubbles rising to the surface from a creek and an American industrialist and financier William Hart, considered as America’s â€Å"father of natural gas,† dug there the first natural gas well in North America. In Europe, natural gas was first come to known around 1659 when it was discovered in Great Britain. The last century technological development probed that major natural gas reservoirs are laying often in conjunction with crude oil, hence in recent times, major natural gas reservoirs were discovered as a result of searching for crude oil (Speight, 9). The usage of natural gas Since the discovery of natural gas as a heat source by the Chinese about two thousand years ago, the use of natural gas as an energy source has increased tremendously and presently, natural gas is about one quarter of the energy resources of the world (Speight, 21) as shown in fig. 1. Fig. 1 The main use of natural gas is combustion. The heat generated due to burning of gas is either directly or indirectly used for various energy purposes. In direct heating, natural gas is utilized both in residential  and  commercial  heating and cooking purposes. Indirectly the heat generated due to natural gas combustion is used to generate electricity by using gas fired generators, steam turbines, gas turbines and combined cycle power generation units. Another important indirect use of heat generated due to combustion of natural gas is its use as transportation fuel by compressing  natural  gas  (CNG) to less than 1% of its volume at standard atmospheric  pressure (Natural gas report, 3). Except these natural gas is used in many industrial applications including ore smelting, minerals processing, drying  and  dehumidification, glass smelting, food processing, waste treatment and incineration, and fueling industrial boilers. Also natural gas is an essential feedstock for number of for industrial products such as methanol, fertilizers,