How Can Natural Gas Be Used To Generate Power With Lower Emissions?
Natural gas has been under fire for its role in global warming as of late, but it’s also been touted as an important part of developing renewable power sources, such as wind and solar power. However, if natural gas is so versatile and powerful, why hasn’t it taken the world by storm? In this article, I explore how natural gas can be used to generate power with fewer emissions and less controversy than we currently see in today’s society.
The growing need for natural gas
Global demand for natural gas is rising at a rapid pace, and it is expected to increase by an annual average of 3.3 percent through 2022, according to projections from Lux Research. Much of that growth is occurring in China and India, where emissions policies are more lax than in North America and Europe. As a result, these countries are turning to natural gas—particularly coal-to-gas switching—as an energy source that generates fewer carbon emissions than other fossil fuels.
Less dirty methods of creating power
While natural gas burns cleanly, without producing as much pollution as other fossil fuels, it’s still a greenhouse gas. But there are still ways of creating power from natural gas that produce less emissions than others. Some utilities have started to use so-called cleaner-burning or low-emission fuel supplies for their plants. These facilities run on methane produced by landfills and manure management systems, among other sources.
Cost and profit are important factors
Until recently, using natural gas as a primary energy source for electric power generation was mostly out of reach. The cost-to-efficiency ratio just didn’t make sense. But in recent years, technological advances have made natural gas much more competitive with other traditional energy sources like coal and oil. And even though burning natural gas produces fewer greenhouse emissions than coal or oil, its still has an impact on climate change and atmospheric chemistry.
There’s a learning curve
Burning natural gas produces fewer emissions than burning coal or oil. Unfortunately, methane is a potent greenhouse gas in its own right and leaks often occur from oil and gas wells. This means that burning natural gas isn’t necessarily better for climate change than burning coal or oil—it simply depends on where it comes from and how much leakage there is. Until more research has been done, we can’t know exactly how bad natural gas will be for global warming in years to come.
A lot of equipment and knowledge required
If you’re considering switching to natural gas power generation in your facility, then you’re probably aware of what a great alternative it is to oil and coal. Many companies are switching from using conventional fossil fuels to using natural gas due to its many benefits. One of which is that it produces much lower emissions than other fossil fuels.