Natural gas additives ??

EBEBRATT-Ed

They used to add propane to it in the cold weather. I am not sure if they still do that or not.

ED

Jason_15

Natural gas additives ??

I remeber seeing on the wall that in some parts of the new england area during peak heating season, the local gas utilities "cut" the gas with other things. I am just curious as to what they put in it. I am in wisconsin, and they don't do that around here, so I never heard of this before. I assume this is because they can't keep up with demand. What about during the summer? I am also assuming you must have at least a few natural gas fired power plants.

Tom Blackwell

The gas companies use a mixture of propane and air to supplement natural gas in periods of peak demand. They mix air with the propane (2500 btu/cu ft) to make the mixture 1000 btu/cu ft so it will burn with the same characteristics as natural gas. There are a lot of industrial plants that have their own propane/air systems for back-up in case of interruption of the ng service.

Constantin

However,

it is my understanding that the AGA testing standards allow the city gas companies a very wide latitude with respect to the stuff they actually inject. I seem to recall all sorts of fuels being permissible substitutes for methane, including butane. However, this is almost 10 years ago that I last dealt with all that stuff, so I'm likely to be wrong.

What I do remember rather vividly is the complicated gas-mixing rig that the water heater company had so that they could test out all the mixes that their burners and water heaters had to be able to endure w/o damage.

Unknown

Most gas companies

in New England use LNG for peak shaving (high demand periods). There are not too many using propane any more. The LNG is pretty close to actual natural gas BTU content, specific gravity etc. There are some discussions at GAMA and Batelle about high BTU content on imported LNG from some countries.

There are a number of electric companies using natural gas to make electricity.

bob young

nat. gas

they add garlic to nat. gas.

Rank

I cut gas all the time, winter or summer. Sometimes I light it.

Jason_15

Good answer

Rank, good answer. Just remember- if you are lighting it indoors make sure to measure your CO production.....

Plumdog_2

Gas and Matches

Don't ever check gas leaks with a match. Don't make me explain why.

S Milne

Rank

Don't try that with polyester pants.

Don't ask me how I know that, lets just say it was the 70's.

Scott

Constantin

Well, IIRC, you have reproduced successfully...

... so the damage couldn't have been that bad. :-)