Gaseous fuels

Natural gas
1. It is mainly composed of CH4, methane (95%) with
small amounts of propane and ethane. It is a fossil
fuel. It is the cleanest fossil fuel and can be easily
transported through pipelines.
2. It has high calorific value of 8000-14000 kcal/m3 and
burns without any smoke.
3. Russia has maximum reserves (40%) followed by
Iran (14%0 and USA (7%). Natural Gas reserves are
found in association with all the oil fields in India.
4. Natural gas is used as a domestic fuel in thermal
power plants for generating electricity. It is used as a
source of hydrogen gas in fertilizer industry and as a
source of carbon in tyre industry.
LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)
1. It is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases. It may
be primarily propane, mixes of primarily butane or may
be propane and butane mixed. They can be liquefied at
high pressures but remain as gases at atm pressures.
2. LPG is synthesized by refining petroleum or wet natural
gas and is derived from fossil fuel sources. LPG has a
typical specific calorific value of 25,000 kcal/m3.
3. At normal temp. LPG will evaporate. Therefore it is
supplied in pressurized steel bottles. In order to allow
for thermal expansion of the contained liquid, these
bottles are not filled completely, typically they are filled
between 80-85% of their capacity.
5. LPG in domestic gas cylinders has a foul smell due to
ethyl mercaptan(C2H5SH) which is added to LPG so as
to detect any leakage from the LPG cylinder.

6. It burns completely forming only non-hazardous CO2

and water vapour and is environmentally safe.
 Compressed natural gas(CNG)
It is used as an alternative for petrol and diesel as
transportation fuel. CNG is produced by compressing natural
gas and is primarily used for the transport sector.

CNG has all the characteristics of a good fuel.

1. Compressed Natural Gas is quite beneficial for the
environment or more often referred as the green fuel. The
gas does not contain harmful elements like lead and sulphur
and so none of these elements are released in the
environment as by products. Thus, use of CNG helps to
reduce harmful emissions in the atmosphere. The gas is
non-corrosive in nature and thus increases the durability of
spark plugs. CNG is free from lead and benzene and keeps
the environment free from their fatal compounds.
2. CNG is has a very high ignition temperature of about 5400C.
Thus even on hot surface there are very few chances of the
fuel being auto ignited and cause loss to life and property.
3. What is great about CNG is that is the cost. The operational
expenditure of vehicles that run on CNG is quite low as
compared to those running on fuels like petrol and diesel.
Substitute Natural gas (SNG)
It is a connecting link between a fossil fuel and
substituted natural gas. Also called as Syn Gas or
synthesis gas. The main components of syngas are
carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. It
can be obtained by from waste materials or sewage
sludge that would otherwise need to be discarded.
Another method for producing syngas is the
pyrolysis of glycerol.
The feedstocks are also a promising source to syngas
to produce fuel. Another syngas generation method
can be gasification of plant biomass. Virtually any
carbon-based material can be gasified to produce
syngas.

Each of these components can be converted to

valuable products. While multiple pathways exist for
the transformation of these products, most of the
conversions are performed by microbial or
thermochemical processes.
Currently, the most desirable product that
can be formed from syngas is ethanol. Ethanol
is already in use as a biofuel.

Hydrogen can be obtained from syngas through the

use of the bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum. R.
rubrum is a photosynthetic proteo-bacterium that
converts syngas to hydrogen.