What are the pros and cons of natural gas for our planet?

Pros:

• Natural gas (largely methane) burns more cleanly than the other fossil fuels (45% less carbon dioxide emitted than coal and 30% less than oil)
• It is easily transported via pipelines and fairly easily using tankers (land and sea)
• It can be piped into homes to provide heating and cooking and to run a variety of appliances.
• Where homes are not piped, it can be supplied in small tanks.
• It can be used as a fuel for vehicles (cars, trucks and jet engines) where it is cleaner than gasoline or diesel.
• It is used to produce ammonia for fertilizers, and hydrogen, as well as in the production of some plastics and paints.

Cons:

• Even though it is cleaner than coal and oil, it still contributes a large amount of carbon dioxide to greenhouse gases.
• By itself natural gas is mostly methane, which is 21 times more dangerous for greenhouse warming than carbon dioxide so any leakage of the gas (from animals, landfills, melting tundra, etc) contributes strongly to greenhouse emissions.

A:

First thing to note is that the question doesn't have any real meaning as it is stated. There are no pros or cons to natural gas. It just is. There are however pros and cons to USING natural gas, and those pros and cons depend a great deal on the intended purpose you want to use it for. So a better question would really be "What are the pros and cons of using natural gas for _____" (and fill in the blank with things like "heating your home" or "cooking food" or "making electricity at a power plant" or "powering your home in a remote rural location" or "powering your car or other vehicle," etc.) Obviously, the pros and cons of using natural gas are very different for cooking than for driving your car or making electricity!

Nonetheless, the answers below give some general characteristics of natural gas that are always important to take into account, such as delivery systems, safety, price, bi-products of combustion and environmental concerns.

A:

1. Natural gas use requires a separate and special plumbing system inside structures.

2. Natural gas is colorless, tasteless, AND IS ODORLESS IF IT IS NATURAL, requiring the addition of an odorant [one or more of several "Mercaptains"] to allow olfactory detection [smell] of leaks.

3. When gas from an underground leak travels great distances [underground], the odorant can be "scrubbed out" of the gas, thereby rendering it again ODORLESS, and therefore a severe explosion and fire hazard.

4. Being a fossil fuel, it is carbon based, and its byproducts of combustion include carbon compounds [such as carbon dioxide and/or monoxide] which contribute to the environmentally damaging "greenhouse effect."

A:

Pros of Natural Gas

• It's relatively abundant, clean burning and seems easy to distribute.
  
• It's also lighter than air, so if there is a leak it will tend to dissipate, unlike propane, which is heavier than air and pools into explosive pockets.
• It can be used for heating, cooking, hot water, clothes dryer, backup generator power, and so forth.
  
• Some places will supply it to your house by way of underground pipes.
  

Cons

• If your house is not properly insulated it can be very expensive.
  

A:

Pros:

• Natural gas is more economical,
  
• it is faster when used in cooking and water heating and most gas appliances are cheaper as opposed to electrical ones.
  
• Gas appliances also do not create unhealthy electrical fields in your house.
  
• Some electrical appliances require high voltage which is dangerous and costly to install.

A:

It can leak, potentially causing an explosion.

A:

One con is that burning it creates CO₂ emissions (although not as much as oil or coal), and CO₂ is a greenhouse gas. Natural gas itself is actually a very strong greenhouse gas also (much more than CO₂ in fact). Another disadvantage is that it can leak and cause fires and/or explosions.

First answer by ID1155356062. Last edit by Beelay. Contributor trust: 8 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 161 [recommend question]