Benefits of Natural Gas in the Petroleum Industry
Introduction
As the economies of the world develop, the demand for energy continues to increase. Owing to this escalating demand, there has been a tremendous pressure on the conventional sources of energy like coal. Ongoing development coupled with human greed has also raised fears about sustainable development. All stakeholders have realized that there is a need to procure and use alternative sources of energy for the greater benefit of all humankind.
Benefits of Natural Gas
Natural gas is not a new source of energy. The commercial use of natural gas began hundreds of years back. However, the versatile nature of the fuel and the numerous benefits that accrue to the society at large due to its usage has made the world sit up and take notice of natural gas.
Natural gas is an ideal fossil fuel that has numerous applications. There is evidence to suggest that natural gas is abundant in supply and that it can continue to serve as a clean source of energy for a pretty long time, even at the current production rates.
Therefore, there exists a case to increase the usage of natural gas in our daily lives. The importance of natural gas can be gauged from the fact that it is a necessary chemical component for numerous products. Transportation and electrical generation are some of the other applications of natural gas.
Natural gas emits 65 percent fewer emissions than coal and 25 percent fewer emissions than oil. Danker (1994) suggests that if natural gas is used in automobiles instead of gasoline and diesel, the emissions result in lesser air pollution as natural gas has fewer impurities and is chemically less complex. The use of natural gas thus helps in preservation of the environment, which has been plundered, to say the least, due to industrialization and other development activities.
Another advantage of natural gas is that its usage can help in the conservation of other fuels like petroleum which is fast depleting. Natural gas also enables the production of alternative sources of energy. There are numerous electric utilities that use this fuel to generate clean power. The gas is also a raw material for manufacturing solar panels and energy-efficient materials.
The aforesaid discussion establishes that natural gas has numerous benefits in the petroleum industry. It therefore transpires that the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel is a wise choice.