Natural gas: Adding green power to industrial development

A competitive fuel

"Gas is the fuel of the future of the world." Says Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

The main component of natural gas is methane, which is more than 99%. Methane has high thermal stability and calorific value equivalent, compared with coal, oil and other energy, natural gas has the advantages of safe use, high calorific value, clean and so on.

Data show that for heating or industry, the carbon dioxide emissions of natural gas with the same calorific value are 25-30% less than oil and 40-50% less than coal; Used to generate electricity, it emits about 60% less carbon dioxide than coal.

As some important infrastructure construction projects of natural gas in the world are put into use, natural gas can be transported to a wider range of regions in large quantities, and the consumption of natural gas in some countries is growing rapidly, so that the share of natural gas in the energy consumption structure is gradually expanding.

At present, many countries in the world choose natural gas as a fuel for electricity generation, including countries rich in coal and hydropower resources, such as the United States and India.

Natural gas power generation can alleviate energy shortage, reduce the proportion of coal-fired power generation, reduce environmental pollution. In addition, from the perspective of economic benefits, the unit installed capacity of natural gas power generation requires less investment, short construction period, low on-grid electricity price, and has strong competitiveness. Internationally, the economic benefits of gas turbines, especially combined cycle power generation have been confirmed by a large number of facts, according to the power generation cost of coal desulfurization steam engine technology, the fuel gas price of natural gas combined cycle power generation technology can reach 4 US dollars /MBtu (equivalent to RMB 1180 yuan/thousand cubic meters).

In the chemical industry, natural gas is also the best raw material, is the best raw material for the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer, with less investment, low cost, less pollution and other characteristics.

Because of these advantages, natural gas has become a highly competitive fuel in the fight against global climate change.

Of course, the development of the natural gas industry must first have an adequate resource base for protection.

The development of China's natural gas industry started late, but Qiu Zhongjian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the exploration field of natural gas is more extensive and more abundant than oil, such as petrochina has formed four major gas areas. China's recoverable conventional natural gas resources are 22 trillion cubic meters, and China's natural gas exploration is still in the early stage, and reserves can maintain a high level of rapid growth for a long time. In addition, China's tight sandstone gas, coal bed gas, shale gas and other unconventional natural gas, with the progress and improvement of relevant exploration technology, will play a positive role in promoting the rapid development of natural gas, improving the energy structure, and realizing the development of low-carbon economy.

Technological advances have also made it relatively easy to access natural gas, including advances in conventional drilling techniques, improvements in long-distance pipeline capacity, and expansion of liquefied natural gas operations.

According to the feasibility study report, while accelerating the exploration and development of domestic conventional and unconventional natural gas resources and increasing the introduction of foreign natural gas resources, it is reliable to make scientific, reasonable and effective use of natural gas resources and realize the resource base of stable gas supply for 30 years.

At the same time, with the rapid development of the natural gas industry in recent years, nearly 40,000 kilometers of natural gas pipeline networks have been laid underground. The first line of West-East gas transmission, second-line West-East gas transmission, first-line Shan-Beijing, second-line Shan-Beijing, third-line Shan-Beijing, Sichuan-East gas transmission, Shibuninglan and other long-distance backbone gas transmission networks and related supporting facilities have been completed and put into operation, and the "capillaries" of various provinces and cities are also being accelerated. The natural gas pipeline network extending in all directions will open a high-speed channel for the development of the natural gas industry.

An important bridge for the transition of the low-carbon era

Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental Protection, said at the 2013 Annual meeting of the Guiyang International Forum on Ecological Civilization recently held that the prevention and control of PM2.5 is the top priority of environmental protection work in the next five years, and the action plan on air pollution prevention and control will be announced by the end of July and early August.

On July 10, Tao Detian, spokesman for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that the plan, called the "strictest" air control plan in history, would cost 1.7 trillion yuan.