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A Global Game Changer? Background In 1825 William Hart sold shale gas (produced from a drill hole) to the village of Fredonia, to be used for lighting. Fredonia, Pennsylvania is in the United States, about 500 kilometres due west of New York City and 100 kilometres east of Cleveland.…
Some Recent Developments A Gas Glut The natural gas market will soon be flooded with new sources of gas. The US has already licensed the export of LNG (liquefied natural gas) as a result of the discovery of massive resources of shale gas. It has a distinct advantage as it…
Chemistry Carbon is the basis of all life on Earth. Carbon is also the basis of an enormous array of organic chemicals, such as hydrocarbons, and some important inorganic chemicals, such as carbon dioxide. Carbon can also bond with itself to form graphite, coal and diamonds. Graphite is comprised of…
Background “Coalification” is the transformation of plant matter into coal under particular conditions of pressure, temperature and time. Once coal has been formed, further molecular changes lead to the formation of vast quantities of thermogenic methane. This methane (natural gas) is variously known as Coal Bed Methane, Coal Seam Gas…
A bubble that will soon burst? Exhibit 1 below needs little commentary. In 2007 Spain’s construction industry consumed 1,300kg of cement per capita. That bubble burst, big time. “Our analysis indicates that such high cement consumption is unsustainable and all countries where cement consumption has exceeded 1000kg per capita for…
Natural Gas Production from Unconventional Plays Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is a key part in the process of drilling and preparing many natural gas wells for production. Fracking was first used in 1908 and, since that time, over one million gas wells have been fracked in the United States. Natural gas…