Major advantages of using natural gas.

Top advantages of natural gas

Because of several advantages of natural gas over other forms fossil fuels like coal and oil, natural gas has become the most widely used energy resource in the world for electricity generation and heating and cooking purposes. According to EIA (Energy Information Administration), in 2019, utility-scale electricity generation in U.S from natural gas-fired power plants was about 37% while generation from coal-fired plants was about 24%.

Here in this post I am going to discuss about the major advantages of using natural gas over other fossil fuels which have made this energy source an important energy commodity in the world. But before going into the benefits of natural gas let’s first look into what is natural gas, how it is formed and what are its uses.

What is natural gas?

Natural gas is a nonrenewable fossil fuel used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation. It is a naturally occurring mixture of gases rich in hydrocarbon. The gas mixture primarily consists of methane and includes varying amounts of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide or helium.

How is natural gas formed?

Natural gas is formed from the remains of tiny sea animals and plants that died millions of years ago. After these sea animals and plants died, they remained buried at the bottom of the ocean by layers of sedimentary rock which became thousands of feet thick over the years. The energy rich remains of plants (the energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun) and animals are subjected to huge pressure by these layers of sedimentary rock. Most scientists believe that this pressure, combined with the heat of the Earth, changed the above buried organic materials into petroleum and natural gas. Eventually, concentrations of natural gas became trapped in the rock layers, much like sponge traps water.

Raw natural gas is nothing but a mixture of different gases. The main ingredient of natural gas is methane, a natural compound that is formed whenever plant and animal matter decays.

Another source of natural gas is coal bed methane, which is found in the seams of coal.

Uses of natural gas

Primary uses of natural gas are cooking, heating, generating electricity and industrial use.

The industrial sector uses natural gas as a fuel for process heating and as a feed-stock to produce chemicals, fertilizers, and hydrogen.

The residential sector mainly uses natural gas for heating and cooking purposes. About 48 percent of all U.S. homes use natural gas as a source of fuel for heating and cooking purposes.

The uses of natural gas by the commercial sector are similar to its uses in residential sector such as space heating, water heating, air conditioning, etc. However, some consumers in the commercial sector also use this gas as a fuel to produce both heat and electricity simultaneously, a technology called ‘combined heat and power’.

The transport sector uses natural gas as a vehicle fuel in the form of compressed and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Now, more than 150,000 vehicles on US roads and more than 5 million worldwide are powered by natural gas. Let’s now look into the major advantages of natural gas over other fossil fuels.

It is true that there are both advantages and disadvantages of natural gas. Nevertheless, despite all the disadvantages of natural gas, many notable advantages of using natural gas over other fossil fuels have made this energy resource most valuable and a great asset to the global economy.

5 major advantages of natural gas

1. Environmental friendly

Natural gas is far more environmental friendly than other forms of fossil fuels like coal and oil. During the process of burning, natural gas emits lower levels of harmful emissions like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides. Natural gas burns much cleaner without keeping any left over residue or waste to get rid of. It also produces much less greenhouse gases than other fossil fuels. According to the International Gas Union, natural gas emits up to 50% less carbon dioxide than coal and 20 to 30% less than oil. It also emits less toxic chemicals like nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere and keep the air much cleaner.

In short, one of the main benefits of natural gas among other fossil fuels is its clean burning property. In fact, this clean burning property of natural gas is one of the reasons for its increasing use in the United States for electricity generation and as a transport fuel for vehicles.

2. Reliable source of energy

One of the major advantages of using natural gas is that it is a more dependable energy source as compared to other fossil fuels. Natural gas is delivered through underground pipelines that go directly to the residential buildings and industry, which ensures an absolute reliable delivery service.

During severe weather conditions it is not always possible to depend solely on electricity for running your important home appliances. But you can always use natural gas as an energy source any time regardless of the weather conditions. Its delivery via underground pipelines means that storms can’t disrupt the supply.

3. Easier to transport and store

Natural gas can be easily stored and transported as compared to other fossil fuels. Transporting natural gas through big pipelines and massive tankers over land and sea is relatively easy in the form Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).  The gas is cooled until it liquefies and transformed to LNG. The cooling process reduces the volume of the gas 600 times, making it easier and safer to store and transport in its liquid state. Once LNG reaches its destination, it is turned back into gas and delivered through underground pipelines direct to the homes and industries.

4. Abundant resource

Natural gas is relatively more abundant than other fossil fuels like coal and oil and available almost worldwide. This resource is so widely available now in LNG form that it helps to deal with short-term electricity supply disruptions in many countries.

According to a statistics, global natural gas production hit a record of more than 3.7 billion cubic meters in the year 2017. Many more natural gas producing sites are also waiting to be discovered in the coming years. There are over a trillion barrels of natural gas reserves in the US alone that have not been harvested yet. According to International Energy Agency (IEA) if consumption of natural gas remained at present levels, the recoverable natural gas would last more than 200 years.

5. Cheaper than other fossil fuels

One of the major advantages of natural gas is that it is relatively cheaper than other sources of energy. It provides a long-term price advantage over fossil fuels. For carrying out same tasks, natural gas is half as expensive as other fossil fuels like coal or oil. On top of this, the natural gas appliances often have much lower operating costs than the appliances that use other fossil fuels. In fact, use of natural gas instead of non-gas sources, could potentially save a significant amount on your utility bills on a long term basis.

However, despite all the above benefits of natural gas, the three main potential disadvantages of natural gas are mentioned below:,

1. Like all other fossil fuels, natural gas is also not a renewable energy source;

2. Natural gas, which is a combustible material, is required to be handled carefully;

3. While natural gas burns much cleaner than other fossil fuels, it also contributes to greenhouse gases, particularly methane, the main component of natural gas;

Before I conclude let me also reply to some of the related questions often asked by the people.

Is natural gas the energy of the future?

Under current de-carbonization policies, natural gas is going to play an important role in America’s energy use. USA homes will continue to rely on gas for domestic use over the coming decades.

What’s a disadvantage of natural gas?

One of the biggest disadvantages of natural gas is that it emits carbon dioxide into our atmosphere which leads to climate change and also global warming.

Is natural gas a clean energy?

Natural gas is a relatively clean energy. In order to produce an equal amount of energy, burning natural gas results in fewer emissions of air pollutants and carbon dioxide than coal or other fossil fuels.

You might also like to read this related post: Is Natural Gas Renewable or Nonrenewable?

Conclusion

It would be evident from the descriptions of the advantages of natural gas detailed in the post that natural gas is relatively cheap, plentiful and burns much cleaner than coal and other fossil fuels.

It is true that despite several advantages of using natural gas, the benefits of natural gas are not enough to support and play a long-term role in our carbon reduction goals or cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, natural gas is definitely going to play a significant near-term role to achieve a clean-energy environment by reducing our reliance on coal based electricity and helping transition to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.