what is Natural Gas?

           Natural gas is mainly methane  which burns to produce heat. The calorific value by mass (per kg) of natural gas is better than most of the conventional fuels being used, such as petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene, etc. However, in gaseous form natural gas has a very low energy density, which makes it difficult to store or transport. So it is either stored in compressed (CNG) form, which leads to a volume reduction of around 200 times, or in liquid form (LNG) at about -162^oC, which gives about 600 times volume reduction. Natural gas is transported to the consumer points either through gas pipeline networks, or in LNG form though specially designed ships and cryogenic road tankers. However, setting up of a LNG production plant is a very costly proposition. As a thumb rule, gas transport over land up to 4000 kms, and undersea up to 2000 kms is considered economical through pipelines, and beyond these distances shipment of LNG is a better option.

Ethanol can be blended with diesel

Those who are interested in alternate fuel related news will be excited to learn that Ethanol has been successfully blended with diesel in Karnataka. And this is being done since 2006.
Ofcourse an additive is needed to help matters. It is called Solubliser.

LNG - the fuel of future.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is the fuel of the future. Natural gas is a fossil fuel, like petroleum and coal, the  major sources of energy of the world today. Coal, petroleum and gas contribute almost equally to more than 90% energy needs of the world. Coal being a big pollutant of environment, has always been a less preferred choice of energy. Petroleum reserves of the world are expected to last for  about next 40-45 years. On the other hand, natural gas is a cleaner and cheaper fuel, having much more proven reserves than petroleum, and is known to  last much longer.

With the extraction of shale gas getting more economical with the advent of new technology, the future of this fuel is very rosy. The present reserves of natural gas are of more than 100 years and are expected to further increase with new finds. Thus, world-wide efforts are on to substitute petroleum and other fuels with gas based applications and in the time to come the major consumption of diesel/petrol of today will get substituted by gas.