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The benefits of natural gas over the other two fossil fuels – coal and crude – seem indisputable in terms of carbon emissions. Natural gas is a much less carbon intensive fuel, which is increasingly attracting it as an alternative to liquid petroleum fuels. However, a team of Chinese scientists said that there were some problems now.
Natural gas consists mainly of methane and propane. Methane is a stumbling block between industry and environmentalists because it is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon. But if this methane could be turned into fuel, it would be a win-win situation since the by-products of natural gas combustion are water vapor and carbon dioxide.
The treatment of natural gas in liquid fuel is tricky, Phys.org said in an article on the breakthrough of Chinese scientists. This treatment involves the introduction of oxygen-hydrogen compounds into the gas, which reorganizes its atoms. However, not all atoms react at the same rate with oxygen and hydrogen, which could destroy the resulting alcohol that would be used as fuel.
Chinese researchers have essentially strengthened their control over the conversion process, which allowed them to manipulate the rate at which carbon and hydrogen contained in methane and propane rearranged to create molecules. ;alcohol. According to the team, this would make the fuel derived from gas more economical to produce.
The potential of natural gas to replace gasoline and diesel should not be underestimated, especially given the current abundance of natural gas, particularly in the United States, through the shale revolution. Related: Why oil prices plummeted today
"Our conclusion is that natural gas as a transportation fuel has both sufficient abundance and cost advantages, making it a strong argument for technology to be considered a real driver of energy security. the United States. said Talking Memo Points, a media, seven years ago, a few months after the Obama administration's launch of a $ 30 million grant program for research aimed at making natural gas a more popular fuel for vehicles.
Since then, however, little progress has been made and part of the reason is this difficult conversion process. A simpler form of natural gas – compressed natural gas or CNG – is already used by public transit vehicles in some countries as well as by pbadenger cars, but it has not yet been a real competitor for gasoline and diesel. Less expensive and more efficient, CNG burns faster, but it requires a larger tank and generates less torque than gasoline and diesel.
This is the potential of liquefied natural gas fuels. In liquid form, natural gas would probably be more competitive than petroleum-derived fuels, but only after the difficulties badociated with its conversion to liquid have been overcome.
It's good that scientists are working on it. If the research succeeds, it could eventually prompt oil producers to look for ways to reduce gas flaring, which increased by 48% in the US last year as a result of the shale boom. This is a large amount of methane burned without any income while it could be captured and turned into fuel at some point in the future.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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