In North America the first commercial application of a petroleum product was the utilization of natural gas from a shallow well in Fredonia, New York, in 1821. The gas was distributed through a small-bore lead pipe to consumers for lighting and cooking.
How Natural Gas Formed Natural gas often formed along with petroleum (oil) hundreds of millions of years ago. As plants and tiny animals died, their remains built up in many layers. Underground pressure and heat gradually changed the remains into gas and petroleum.
Natural gas - Fossil Fuel, Hydrocarbons, Methane: Natural gas is more ubiquitous than oil. It is derived from both land plants and aquatic organic matter and is generated above, throughout, and below the oil window. Thus, all source rocks have the potential for gas generation.
Producer gas, mixture of flammable gases (principally carbon monoxide and hydrogen) and nonflammable gases (mainly nitrogen and carbon dioxide) made by the partial combustion of carbonaceous substances, usually coal, in an atmosphere of air and steam.
Gas, one of the three fundamental states of matter, with distinctly different properties from the liquid and solid states. The remarkable feature of gases is that they appear to have no structure at all.
In addition to traditional diesel fuel refined from petroleum, it is possible to produce so-called synthetic diesel, or Fischer-Tropsch diesel, from natural gas, from synthesis gas derived from coal (see coal utilization), or from biogas obtained from biomass.
Spark-ignition engines also are used in the aeronautics industry; however, aircraft gas turbines have become the prime movers in this sector because of the emphasis of the aeronautics industry on range, speed, and passenger comfort.
Burning fuel made from petroleum releases harmful gases into the air. These gases can mix with moisture to create acid rain, a dangerous form of pollution. Burning petroleum also helps to trap extra heat in Earth’s atmosphere. Many scientists think that this extra heat has led to a steady rise in the average temperature of Earth’s surface.
The most widely accepted explanation for the origin of the universe is the big-bang theory, which proposes that the universe began approximately 13.8 billion years ago in an extremely hot, dense state and has been expanding and cooling ever since.
