Interesting facts about natural gas Is a great opportunity to learn more about natural resources. Today gas is actively used both for industrial and domestic purposes. It is an environmentally friendly fuel that does not harm the environment.
So, here are the most interesting facts about natural gas.
- Natural gas mostly contains methane - 70-98%.
- Natural gas can occur both separately and with oil. In the latter case, it often forms a kind of gas cap over oil deposits.
- Did you know that natural gas is colorless and odorless?
- A smelling substance (odorant) is specially added to the gas so that in the event of a leak, a person can notice it.
- When natural gas leaks, it collects in the upper part of the room, since it is almost 2 times lighter than air (see interesting facts about air).
- Natural gas ignites spontaneously at a temperature of 650 ° C.
- The Urengoyskoye gas field (Russia) is the largest on the planet. It is curious that the Russian company Gazprom possesses 17% of the world's natural gas reserves.
- Since 1971, the gas crater Darvaza, better known as the "Gates of the Underworld", has been continuously blazing in Turkmenistan. Then the geologists decided to set fire to natural gas, mistakenly assuming that it would soon burn out and die out. Nevertheless, the fire continues to burn there today.
- An interesting fact is that methane is considered the third most common gas, after helium and hydrogen, in the entire universe.
- Natural gas is extracted at a depth of more than 1 km, while in some cases the depth can reach 6 km!
- Humanity produces over 3.5 trillion m³ of natural gas every year.
- In some cities in the United States, a substance with a rotten smell is added to natural gas. Vultures-scavengers keenly smell it and flock to the place of leakage, thinking that there is prey there. Thanks to this, employees can understand where the accident occurred.
- The transportation of natural gas is mainly carried out through the gas pipeline. However, gas is also often delivered to the desired sites using rail tank cars.
- People used natural gas about 2 millennia ago. For example, one of the rulers of Ancient Persia ordered to build a kitchen in the place where a gas jet came out of the ground. They set it on fire, after which the fire burned continuously in the kitchen for many years.
- The total length of gas pipelines laid on the territory of the Russian Federation exceeds 870,000 km. If all these gas pipelines were combined into one line, then it would have rounded the Earth's equator 21 times.
- In gas fields, gas is not always in its pure form. It is often dissolved in oil or water.
- In terms of ecology, natural gas is the cleanest type of fossil fuel.
