Natural Gas, Consumption Of
Natural gas is a mixture of naturally-occurring methane (CH4) with other hydrocarbons and inert gases. The 2.3 trillion cubic meters (Tcm) or 81 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas marketed and consumed globally in 1997 accounted for about 24 percent of the world's primary energy, ranking third among fuels after petroleum liquids (40%) and coal (25%).
The modern natural-gas industry has its origins in the nineteenth century as urban "gas works" that distributed synthesis gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide made by the incomplete combustion of coal, oil, or organic wastes in the presence of steam). Gas works illuminated London streets even before 1800, and subsequentlyprovided lighting, cooking, water- and space-heating for homes, businesses and public buildings. By the late nineteenth century, gas light was common in the central districts of cities and larger towns throughout North America and Western Europe, and even in such places as Buenos Aires, Cairo, St. Petersburg, Shanghai, and Sydney.
Between the World Wars, consumption in North America switched rapidly from synthesis gas to natural gas which, lacking carbon monoxide, was nontoxic and contained three to four times as much energy as synthetic gas per unit of volume.
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