By ItsNotMagicItsScience

A combination of science and technology is making gas the go-to fuel of the future.

The last twenty years have seen the rapid development of countries across Asia, Africa and South America. China, India and Brazil have joined the ranks of the world’s major economies, while Southern Africa and nations like Vietnam and Cambodia are rapidly modernizing and industrializing.

With this enormous growth we see huge changes in the world’s demand for energy. As incomes in developing countries increase, and their middle classes grow, there is a surge in domestic demand as those nations begin to consume more as they buy motorbikes, cars, houses, domestic appliances, computers, cellphones, air conditioners and all the other hallmarks of the global economy.

Meeting this demand needs power. Electricity to run the factories that produce everything from steel to cutlery, air conditioners to wallpaper and paint. And many, like cars and microwaves, require more energy - electricity or liquid fuels - to keep them running.

Finding ways to provide that energy is not just the work of governments. Increasingly, it involves the work of specialized companies and agencies whose job it is to find the most efficient and sustainable methods to keep the lights on, the factories moving and the transport network flowing.

And more and more, governments are looking at gas as a way to secure that future. Independent institutions like Holland’s KEMA, which has been an industry leader since its inception in 1927, are at the forefront of pursuing technical and technological innovations to ensure the ‘availability, reliability, sustainability and profitability of energy products and processes’.

Doing it means looking at the way energy is produced from the moment we take it out of the ground. In the gas industry that has meant reducing the carbon footprint and emissions generated in removing and refining gas. The industry is a pioneer of new technologies, such as nano-membranes, that reduce waste and decrease the amount of energy required to get the gas out of the ground and into your home.

Finding solutions has also involved looking at processes to make gas more sustainable and renewable. This has included looking at ways to combine biogases or other elements, such as hydrogen, with natural gas. The area of biogases is especially exciting for those with an interest in renewable energy.

Biogas is a by-product of many industries, from sewage treatment to farming but many biogases are less efficient or well suited to energy generation as natural gas. However, combining these gases with natural gas (the exact combinations depend on the characteristics of the biogas in question) is one way to reuse these industrial by-products – rather than leaving them to contribute to global CO₂ and other emissions - and to extend the overall supply of fossil derived gas.

Of course, it’s at the end-use stage where gas efficiency can really be promoted. Increasingly, we are seeing the introduction of smart power grids, which can use a variety of different power inputs, from oil and gas to wind and other renewables, and can operate on a very localized basis to ensure that peak demand is always met.

KEMA is managing one such pilot project in Holland. Entitled PowerMatching City, the scheme groups together 25 houses outside Groningen which have been fitted with a variety of renewable (solar) and energy efficient management systems, including getting the residents to switch to electric vehicles. During off-peak periods, the group can sell its excess power back to a local grid, while during peak periods, gas supply is available to top up the system, ensuring stability.

Along with developments in pipeline and other transport systems, these are just a few ways that gas is racing with us into a more efficient, more sustainable and more renewable future.