I propose that we call natural gas ‘methane’. People think ‘natural gas’ is substantially less harmful to the environment than oil or coal. This is pure greenwashing by the oil and gas industry and their political supporters. The reality is that natural gas is a fossil fuel that is mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
What is ‘natural gas’?
In addition to 70-90% methane, natural gas contains smaller amounts of hydrocarbon gas liquids and nonhydrocarbon gases such as carbon dioxide.
Millions of years ago, the remains of plants and animals formed layers that were buried and subjected to pressure that transformed these materials into coal, oil and methane. Methane is found in spaces between layers of rock or in tiny pores in sedimentary rock formations. Methane is also associated with oil and coal deposits.
How is the methane extracted?
In conventional wells, the methane flows easily to the surface. With fracking (hydraulic fracturing) methane is produced by forcing water, chemicals and sand under high pressure to break down the shale or other types of sedimentary rock formations. In both cases, the methane is collected in pipelines and sent to processing plants. Where necessary, water vapour and nonhydrocarbon gases are removed in processing plants.
LNG
Liquified natural gas (LNG) is methane with some ethane that has been cooled to liquid form for easy storage or transport. The technology for producing and transporting liquified methane has matured in the last couple of decades.
What is methane used for?
Methane is burned as fuel and used to make various materials and chemicals. When used as fuel, methane is used to generate electricity, heat buildings and in transportation. It is also a popular choice for cooking.
Problems with methane
I’ll provide more detail on the problems with the use of methane in a later post. For now, I’ll just mention the most obvious and biggest problem with methane — it is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming.
Burning methane may be ‘less dirty’ than burning oil or coal, but it is still a fossil fuel. Less bad is still not good.
Image and terminology
The oil and gas industry and their political supporters have been very successful in convincing the public that natural gas is a ‘clean’ fuel. Anything ‘natural’ must be good, right?
One way we can begin to set the record straight is to change the label for this dangerous and damaging fossil fuel to ‘methane’. Are you with me? Methane is methane, not ‘natural gas’.
About 15,000 Canadians die from air pollution every year.