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107 comments on US Natural Gas: The Role of Unconventional Gas

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Gail the Actuary on May 18, 2008 - 2:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I understand that one cannot just import any LNG and expect to use it, because of differences in gas around the world. Our appliances in the US are tuned for one specification. Different ones are used some other places.

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plucky underdog on May 18, 2008 - 2:17pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Typing natural gas pipeline specification into Google led me to this interesting paper - see Page 4 http://www.beg.utexas.edu/energyecon/lng/documents/CEE_Interstate_Natura...

It mentions gas turbines as one end use that is sensitive to changes in fuel specification, for example with LNG. This is because GT burners run a lot hotter and therefore nearer to the thermal creep limit than most end uses of natural gas.

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Joseph Somsel on May 18, 2008 - 4:06pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Natural gas, being a natural product, has a variety of compositions.

Mostly it is methane (CH4) but can have various amounts of propane, butane, and ethane (2CH3 + XCh2) plus non-combustibles like N2, CO2, and He that cost various amounts to remove.

Trying to meet market specifications can doom a gas field economically. Nitrogen is especially expensive to remove with little co-product value, unlike helium.

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107 comments on US Natural Gas: The Role of Unconventional Gas

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