Environmental impact of natural gas

Isn't it news natural gas is said to be the solution to our energy problems because of the quality it possesses, yet it is also a great threat to our environment today.

Although it emits less greenhouse gases than coal or oil. This does not mean that it is harmless to the environment, the point is that using natural gas in our environment is not safe because we still have to consider the issue of safety, which is very important.

So, in this article we will look at the impact of natural gas on the environment, both positive and negative impacts will be discussed here.

List of 7 environmental impacts of natural gas

Below is a list of 7 environmental impacts of natural gas, and we will discuss them one by one.

1. Air Pollution

This is one of the negative effects of natural gas on the environment. Industries that deal with natural gas have actually grown worldwide, making it a threat to the environment as these industries emit combustible organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. These chemicals flatten the formation of ground-level ozone, which increases vulnerability to respiratory infections and a number of lung diseases.

The rate at which diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory disease must increase. The outcome of pregnancy is very unfavorable, and the development of such as premature birth, fetal death and birth defects.

All of this happens as a result of air pollution, and our air is polluted with chemicals emitted by the plants that process this natural gas. The people affected by this gas mostly live near this gas well or industrial plants. More rapid action needs to be taken to ensure the safety of people's lives and the environment.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have found that gas appliances in our homes, such as clothes dryers, heaters and stoves, degrade indoor and outdoor air quality because of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides. formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter.

2. Water pollution

This is one of the negative impacts of natural gas on the environment. Most energy industries use large quantities of fresh water to frack a well, sometimes to extract natural gas from the well, chemicals are added to the water, pumped and drilled deep underground, resulting in a reduction in the flow of drinking water and getting rid of the background water cycle of the earth.

After going through this process, the water has been too polluted and cannot be treated, which eventually becomes sewage. This threatens sources of drinking water that are close by. This wastewater from fracking can be toxic, corrosive, radioactive, and harmful to wildlife and humans.

According to the NRDC report, The Fracking Awakening stated that nearly 29 chemical additives in fracking water have been found to be very dangerous and should be of serious concern to our health. Some of these additives are carcinogens.

It has also become abundantly clear that state and federal regulations in most localities have not supported measurable increases in fracking, and the method of scrutinizing groundwater contamination makes it nearly impossible to track its effects because of its complexity. Tests for contaminants in hydraulic fracturing are often not conducted in the laboratory.

3. Global warming emissions

This is also one of the negative impacts of natural gas on the environment. Natural gas does not emit much carbon dioxide (CO2), it is less than 50-60 percent, when it is burned in the newest running gas power plant, as emissions from a new coal-fired power plant, there is a difference.

Natural gas is also called fossil fuel global warming emissions from burning fossil fuels are less than those from oil and coal. Including exhaust emissions, fossil fuels also emit about 15 to 20 percent less heat than burning gasoline in modern cars.

Most of the time, drilling and extracting fossil fuels from a well and transporting them through pipelines leaks a primary component, such as fossil fuel methane, which is very strong compared to CO2 in trapping heat for 100 years and stronger for 20 years.

Studies and field measurements show that methane emissions are 1 to 9 percent of total life-cycle emissions.

The rate of leakage will determine whether fossil fuels have lower greenhouse gas emissions per life cycle compared to oil and coal. Potential methane global warming depending on timing, energy conversion regulation and other factors.

A recent study found that methane must be kept below 3.2 percent for natural gas-fired power plants to have a shorter life cycle than new coal-fired power plants over a short period of 20 years or less combustion of natural gas in vehicles. small benefits, methane losses must be kept below 1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively than gasoline, diesel and fuel. The availability of technologies to drastically reduce methane leakage should be considered.

4. Earth and wildlife

This is one of the negative impacts of natural gas on the environment. Natural gas alters land use for oil and gas construction and drilling, disturbing the land. it causes erosion, pattern of abandonment, and wildlife decay that destroys ecosystems.

Sites cleared for construction of wells and road pipelines by oil and gas operators end up causing harmful pollutants into streams that are nearby and erosion of mud and minerals that occur during construction.

A study of hydraulic fracturing impacts in Michigan found that the potential environmental impacts are "significant" and include sediment deposition, severe increased erosion and increased risk of water pollution from chemical spills or equipment runoff, habitat destruction and reduced surface water from. threatening groundwater levels.

5. Earthquakes

Natural gas can cause earthquakes, according to the study, hydraulic fracturing itself has been associated with groundbreaking low-magnitude activity of less than 2x magnitude (M) (the moment magnitude scale now restores the Richter scale), but such mild events usually cannot be detected at the surface.

However, the discharge of wastewater after fracking by feeding it at high pressure into deep Class II injection wells has been associated with stronger earthquakes in the United States.

Over the past decade in the United States, half of the most significant earthquakes that have occurred in the United States have occurred in areas of possible injection-induced foundations. There will be an incentive to attribute individual earthquakes to injection, in some cases support comes into association through event location and timing.

6. Acid rain

Acid rain is one of the positive effects of natural gas on the environment. Its effects are more pronounced in the eastern United States, destroying forests, crops, and wildlife populations, and causing respiratory and other diseases in people.

Acid rain is formed by the reaction of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide with water vapor and other chemicals in the presence of sunlight to form various acidic compounds in the atmosphere.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are the main source that causes acid rain, they run on coal. Because natural gas produces virtually no sulfur dioxide and nearly 80 percent fewer nitrogen oxides than burning coal, greater use of natural gas can provide fewer acid rain-causing emissions.

7. Emissions from industrial plants and power generation

Natural gas is becoming an increasingly important fuel for power generation. In addition to supplying efficient fuels at competitive prices for power generation, the mass use of natural gas improves the emissions profile of the electric power industry.

According to the National Environmental Trust (NET) in their 2002 publication, "Clearing the Air from America's Power Plants," power plants in the United States account for 67 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, 25 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions and 34 percent of mercury emissions.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of these types of emissions. In fact, only 1 percent of mercury emissions, 2 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions, 3 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions and 5 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from noncoal-fired power plants.

Conclusion

Mining poses the greatest threat to natural gas, it is a fracking process that consumes a lot of water from water supplies and ultimately pollutes our surface waters. This progression is very harmful to the environment. It releases some gaseous substances into the air, such as methane and carbon dioxide, although carbon dioxide emissions are small. the burning of natural gas releases methane, which has a negative impact on human health.