Natural Gas
Natural gas is the generic term used for the mixture of vapors that result from the decomposition of plant and animal materials over millions of years. Natural gas, along with oil and coal, is a fossil fuel and, similar to oil and coal, is found in underground reservoirs located in several areas of North America. The primary component of natural gas is methane, a hydrocarbon. Natural gas is the cleanest of all the fossil fuels.
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Natural gas, like other fossil-based fuels, is limited and is therefore not a renewable resource. The combustion of natural gas produces only a fraction of the nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions of oil and coal, and also results in essentially no particulate matter or sulfur dioxide emissions.
Natural gas therefore becomes an attractive "transition" fuel, as the energy supply moves away from polluting sources such as coal and nuclear sources and towards cleaner, renewable technologies. Natural gas can be used as a fuel in conventional steam boiler generators, like other fossil fuels. However, new technologies using natural gas as their primary fuel are far more efficient than older combustion technologies. New state of the art combined cycle plants reduce fossil fuel use by as much as 40 percent.
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Combustion turbines are based on jet engines. With the combustion turbine technology, the natural gas is burned, creating super heated gas, which is then pressurized in pipes and used to drive the turbine. Combined cycle technology is really the coupling of two electric generation technologies, and boosts efficiency by using the same fuel to generate electricity twice. Natural gas may also be used in fuel cell technologies that rely upon chemical reactions to create electricity at much higher levels of efficiency than can be obtained from fossil fuel combustion.
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