Last year I had amazing opportunity to work with Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and be part in some of the projects. Some of the projects includes exploitation of natural gas, uses of natural gas for example Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) to start using natural gas on the next intake of the importation of their rapid transit buses  and establishment of fertilizer industry which uses natural gas as a raw material. Before continuing further firstly we should know what is natural gas and benefits to environment over other energy.

Natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, is a highly efficient form of energy. It is composed chiefly of methane the simple chemical composition of natural gas is a molecule of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms (CH₄). When methane is burned completely, the principal products of combustion are carbon dioxide and water vapor.

Natural gas advantages over other fuels include the following: it has fewer impurities, it is less chemically complex, and its combustion generally results in less pollution. In most applications, using natural gas produces less of the following substances than oil or coal: carbon dioxide (CO₂),which is the primary greenhouse gas sulfur dioxide, which is the primary precursor of acid rain nitrogen oxides, which is the primary precursor of smog and particulate matter, which can affect health and visibility than oil or coal. Technological progress allows cleaner energy production than ever for all fuels, although the inherent cleanliness of gas means that environmental controls on gas equipment, if required, tend to be far less expensive than those for other fuels.

Using natural gas to replace less environmentally benign fuels can help address simultaneously a number of environmental concerns, such as smog, acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions.

Natural gas is highly efficient. About 90 percent of the natural gas produced is delivered to customers as useful energy. In contrast, only about 30 percent of the energy converted to electricity in conventional generating facilities reaches consumers.

    Comparison of Air Emissions from Fossil Fuels 

(Pounds of air emissions produced per billion Btu of energy)

 

   

After we have seen the benefits and comparisons next time I will come up with more explanations about Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) and natural gas.

In Developed country like America Natural gas also helps to develop clean alternative energy sources in various ways, such as

  Reference

 

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