- Natural gas is mainly methane which is the simplest of the hydrocarbons. It's one part carbon to four parts hydrogen. When natural gas deposits are found, there usually are other more complex hydrocarbons, such as ethane, and other elements, including sulfur and helium, in the gas deposit. Those elements must be removed before the naturally-occurring gas can be used. If left in the gas, these compounds will not burn as clean as natural gas and cause more emissions into the environment.
- Even though natural gas is cleaner than oil, gasoline or coal, it does convert to CO2 when burned. In the combustion process, almost all of the carbon in the natural gas converts to CO2 as combustion adds oxygen to the methane. Due to impurities present during the natural gas refining process, traces of sulfur, nitrogen and other hydrocarbons are also emitted when natural gas is burned.
- There are simple ways to calculate how much CO2 is produced when burning natural gas. Look on your gas bill. Find how many cubic feet of natural gas you use in a time period. Multiply that by 11.117 to convert the cubic feet into kilowatt hours. Take that product and multiply by .18523 to figure the kilograms of CO2 created per kilowatt hour. In comparison, electricity from an electrical grid uses a multiplier of .54522 per kilowatt hour.
- Because of the efficiency of burning gas, the emissions from natural gas is 43 percent less than emissions from coal, and 30 percent less than emissions from oil. While greater usage of natural gas will help reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it is not the perfect fuel and scientists will continue work on reducing carbon dioxide emissions when burning natural gas.
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