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Dead_Parrot

(14,478 posts)
Tue Mar 20, 2012, 02:11 PM Mar 2012

Coal Seam Gas and fugitive emissions

At the point of combustion, natural gas is the least dirty fossil fuel of all; not only does it produce more heat per kilogram of CO2 produced than any other fossil fuel, power stations burning gas use that heat more efficiently. Electricity generated using a modern combined-cycle gas-fired power plant results in the emission of roughly one-third less CO2 than even a modern coal-fired power station. For this reason, there are many who view natural gas as a “transition fuel” between our current coal-fired global economy, and a future driven by renewable energy.

Recent research, however, casts doubt on this rosy picture. Anti-CSG activist group Lock the Gate points to recent research that suggests that gas from unconventional sources, including CSG, may actually have a bigger climate impact than coal. The culprit? Fugitive emissions – the gas that escapes into the atmosphere during the process of extraction, transport and processing.

In absolute terms, the amount of gas involved in fugitive emissions pales into insignificance compared to the CO2 released at combustion. The problem is that the unburned coal seam gas that is released is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 – but how much more potent is a complex question.

A problem of equivalence

As noted in my earlier article, the vast majority of unburned natural gas is made up of methane. Like CO2, methane is a greenhouse gas, acting as a blanket to trap some of the heat escaping from the Earth’s surface. Methane is an even more effective blanket than CO2 – but it’s not a long-lived one. Natural processes covert methane in the atmosphere to carbon dioxide and water over a timespan of less than a decade, on average. Carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere is far more persistent; according to a widely cited scientific paper by Archer et al, it will take centuries, even millennia, for the atmosphere to reach its previous state when a large amount of extra CO2 is added.


more: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/the-wellhead/2012/03/19/coal-seam-gas-and-fugitive-emissions/


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Coal Seam Gas and fugitive emissions (Original Post) Dead_Parrot Mar 2012 OP
"Coal Seam Gas" (CGS) sounds so much more benign than "fracking gas" ... eppur_se_muova Mar 2012 #1
YMMV - Sounds dirtier to me. Dead_Parrot Mar 2012 #2
Thats exactly whats going on too madokie Mar 2012 #4
That is why I don't understand why they didn't use gasifiers and combined cycle for our coal plants madokie Mar 2012 #3

eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
1. "Coal Seam Gas" (CGS) sounds so much more benign than "fracking gas" ...
Tue Mar 20, 2012, 04:49 PM
Mar 2012

don't let them frame the debate !!

madokie

(51,076 posts)
3. That is why I don't understand why they didn't use gasifiers and combined cycle for our coal plants
Tue Mar 20, 2012, 06:20 PM
Mar 2012

to begin with. Gasify that coal and its a lot cleaner to burn. When coal is gasified the main combustible gas is hydrogen an even cleaner burning gas than methane.

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