An overview of natural gas as an energy source for various purposes

Abstract

Energy is gaining great prominence and priority regarding improvement the level of prosperity by completing the economic development of countries. Natural gas is becoming one of the most important energy sources in the world because of the low level of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of natural gas. For that reason, natural gas consumption is increasing rapidly in the world. Natural gas, which is the main raw material of various chemical products, meets a significant part of the world energy consumption. It is an obvious fact that natural gas is the second most considerable non-renewable fossil fuel-based energy source, after crude oil. This study deals with reviewing natural gas systems considering each aspect. In this context, natural gas as an energy source along with its historical development was briefly given first. Then, status of world natural gas market with regard to geographical distribution of natural gas reserves, consumption, production, lifetime and storage are investigated in all parts of the world. After this exploration of natural gas as primary energy source, pollution caused by natural gas is reviewed since it is utilized in many areas like residential buildings, vehicles and industry. Beside all these, available pipelines delivering natural gas to consumers and planned pipeline projects to be constructed in the near future are reported. Lastly, the use of liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas as alternative energy source are discussed.