Natural gas

Natural gas, also called gas, methane gas, or fossil gas, is a type of fossil fuel found deep underground. It is mostly made of a gas called methane, with small amounts of other gases. Because natural gas has no smell, special chemicals are added so people can detect leaks easily.

This gas is formed over millions of years from old plants and tiny sea creatures that were buried and changed by heat and pressure. We get natural gas from the ground, often near places where we find oil and coal. Burning natural gas gives us heat and electricity with fewer harmful smells and less dirt compared to other fuels, but it still affects our climate.

Processing the gas before we use it helps remove unwanted things like water and other gases. Natural gas can travel through big pipelines, and it can also be turned into a liquid for easier storage and transport. Understanding natural gas helps us see how we get energy and how it impacts our world.

Name

In the early 1800s, people started calling this fuel "natural gas" to make it clear that it came from the ground, unlike coal gas which was made by heating coal. Over time, especially in the 20th century, it became known simply as "gas." But remember, this is different from gasoline, which people sometimes also call "gas."

Some groups think calling it "natural" isn’t right because it doesn’t show the danger it can cause to our climate. They suggest using "fossil gas" or "methane gas" instead, as these names better explain the risks it poses to the environment.

History

Natural gas can sometimes come out of the ground and burn for a very long time. In ancient Greece, gas flames at Mount Chimaera helped create the story of a fire-breathing creature called the Chimera. In ancient China, people used gas from drilling for salty water around 400 BC. They moved the gas through bamboo pipes to places where it was used to clean and purify salt water.

Natural gas wasn’t used much until the early 1900s when long pipelines were built. Before that, people mostly used gas only near where it came out of the ground. In the United States, people first noticed natural gas around Lake Erie in the 1600s. In 1821, a man named William Hart dug the first commercial natural gas well in Fredonia, New York, which led to the creation of the Fredonia Gas Light Company in 1858. More wells were dug in other states, and then big pipelines started to be built in the 1920s.

By 2010, people had used about 66,000 km³ of natural gas out of the estimated 850,000 km³ that was left.