Gas Fired Power Generation

Gas has come a long way from when it was first discovered in 1609. Today it plays a major role in Australian industry and business as a source of energy used in our homes for cooking, heating and hot water.

Gas has supplied energy in Queensland for more than one hundred years. Over that time the source and properties of the gas have changed. Originally coal was burned to make coal gas. Later natural gas was located at Roma and used. Coal seam gas is now a possible option and biogas from bagasse and landfill also contribute to the alternative energy sources available to power generators.

In 2004–05, Queensland’s mining and petroleum industries produced commodities worth more than $12 billion.

Queensland’s mining and petroleum industries directly employ 24 000 Queenslanders and indirectly generate another 68 000 jobs in Queensland.

Natural Gas

Natural gas is a fossil fuel consisting mainly of methane CH4, which is the simplest hydrocarbon (that is, a particle made of hydrogen and carbon atoms). It is formed over hundreds of millions of years from plankton, decomposing vegetable matter and other simple life forms that were buried by sediment during that time. Eventually, large quantities of gas were trapped underground.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a different chemical compound to natural gas even though they are both hydrocarbons. LPG consists of propane and/or butane. Propane (C3H8) contains three carbon atoms and eight hydrogen atoms. Butane (C4H10) contains four carbon atoms and ten hydrogen atoms. By comparison methane is a much lighter gas than propane or butane. Although gaseous under normal atmospheric conditions, LPG (propane) is stored under modest pressures in liquid form. In this way LPG can be transported and stored in a concentrated form to provide a source of high-energy fuel.

Other characteristics of LPG include:

• A high heating value ("calorific value")
• A virtual absence of sulphur, leading to cleaner burning
• A consistent quality ensuring reliability, particularly in applications such as gas engines. Examples of specialist applications include: forklifts and burners on boilers. LPG is also the perfect choice for cooking, heating and hot water in the home.

LPG comes from the oil refining process and some is also extracted during the natural gas production process. Because of its high calorific value, LPG is ideally suited for use in industrial, commercial, agricultural, horticultural and residential applications for heating, lighting, powering vehicles, metal cutting and cogeneration.

For homes and businesses that are not connected to the natural gas underground mains network, LPG is a cost effective alternative energy source because it is easy to transport and store.

Getting gas to your place

Natural gas is supplied from the Bowen - Surat, Cooper - Eromanga and Adavale Basins, along with some coal seam methane in the Bowen Surat Basin.



A serious of steps occur to deliver gas to places of use.



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1. Gas fields, gas processing - where natural gas is extracted from underground and impurities are stripped from the gas. The natural gas is then pressurised and 'pushed' into the transmission pipelines using gas compressors.
2. Transmission pipelines - the producers introduce the gas into the transmission pipelines which are used to carry the gas from the gas fields to local distribution companies. As the natural gas travels down the pipeline it loses pressure and may require repressurising. This is carried out at compressor stations.
3. Gate station - the natural gas is received from the transmission pipeline at gate stations. At the gate stations the gas pressure is reduced so that it is safe to be distributed through underground pipes. The purchased volume of natural gas is also measured at these stations using gas meters with temperature and pressure measuring devices.
4. High pressure distribution network - the network of pipes which takes natural gas to large industrial and commercial gas users. These pipes are all underground.
5. Industrial and commercial customers - these companies use gas at higher pressures than small commercial and domestic customers because of the larger volumes of gas required for specialised equipment. These customers have meter stations to effectively control the gas pressure and volume. They measure the amount of gas required for specialised equipment, such as industrial ovens to bake bread, etc.
6. Domestic customers - just before the gas enters your home it passes through a meter set on the wall outside the house.
   
7. Domestic customers - just before the gas enters your home it passes through a meter set on the wall outside the house. This tells ENERGEX how much gas you have used.

History of gas

The following is a sequence of important dates and events in the history of the gas industry.

• 1609 John Baptist van Helmont of Brussels discovered gas. In writing of his experiments, he said: "This spirit, up to the present time unknown, not susceptible of being confined to vessels, or capable of being produced in a visible body, I CALL BY THE NAME OF GAS."
• 1667 Gas was discovered in various parts of England.
• 1792 First practical manufacture of town’s gas was made by William Murdoch, an engineer working for James Watt, who is famous for the steam engine. He rapidly improved his process and became known as the "Father of the Gas Industry".
• 1804 Fredrick Albert Winsor obtained the first English patent for gas manufacturing.
• 1807 The first public street lighting by gas in Pall Mall, London.
• 1812 The first gas company in the world was the London and Westminster Gas & Light Company Limited.
• 1816 The first use of gas energy in the United States when gas lights illuminated the streets of Baltimore.
• 1837 The first authority to manufacture gas in Australia was the Australian Gas and Light Company of Sydney NSW, established in 1837.
• 1855 Invention of the Bunsen burner, by von Bunsen - an invention that broadened the applications of gas as a source of energy, particularly in the areas of heating and cooking.
• 1856 The first gas works in Victoria opened.
• 1865 Gas was first supplied to Brisbane in November.
• 1885 Von Welsbach, a student of von Bunsen, accidentally discovered the Incandescent Gas Mantle. This was an important step in reducing the cost of producing gas, as it was no longer necessary to produce gas with high illuminating properties. The invention of the gas engine in 1876 exploited the explosive properties of gas. The development of the gas engine paved the way for the development of the petrol engine, which in turn led to the development of the motor vehicle and the aeroplane.
• 1885 was also the year the South Brisbane Gas and Light Co Ltd (now ENERGEX) was established.
• 1899 Australia's first discovery of natural gas was in Roma, Queensland.
• 1914 During the first (and second) world war the by-products of gas production were used in the manufacture of explosives. In fact, the majority of high explosives manufactured in England during the first World War were made from raw materials supplied by the gas industry. The peace time applications of gas production yielded many by-products such as refrigerants, fertilisers, tar oils, motor petrol and many more.
• 1920s The commercial distribution of LPG was developed in the US. Up until this time LPG had been a waste product from the oil refining process.
• 1930s The first LPG cylinders were imported into Australia in the late 1930s.
• 1969 Allgas was the first Australian company to supply natural gas to a capital city. Today natural gas plays a major role in the energy market. Its share of the world's commercially marketed fuels consumed is estimated at 24%. In Australia, natural gas is expected to be the fastest growing energy source - currently accounting for 17.7% of primary energy use.

Today natural gas plays a major role in the energy market. Its share of the world's commercially marketed fuels consumed is estimated at 24%. In Australia, natural gas is expected to be the fastest growing energy source - currently accounting for 17.7% of primary energy use.

Gas terms

AGA - Australian Gas Association

ALPGA - Australian Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association

Atmospheric pressure - the pressure exerted by the weight of the atmosphere acting over the earth's surface (101.325 kPa at sea level).

Bullets - the large storage vessels used to hold LPG. These are seen at LPG terminals. Pressures are typically greater than 700 kPa (Kilopascals).

Burner - a device that controls a flame in a desired position by delivering gas and air to that location so that continuous ignition is achieved. You will see gas burners on a gas cook top or inside a barbecue.

Butane - has the chemical formula C4H10. Butane occurs in natural gas, petroleum and refinery gases. It shows little chemical reactivity at ordinary temperatures but burns readily when ignited in air or oxygen. Butane is sometimes added to propane to be marketed as automotive LPG.

Biomass - is one of the most plentiful and well-utilised sources of renewable energy in the world. Broadly speaking, it is organic material produced by photosynthesis. The chemical materials (organic compounds of carbons) are stored and can then be used to generate energy. The most common biomass used for energy is wood from trees.

Calorific value (CV) - this refers to the heating value of the gas.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) - liquid methane gas.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) - consists of propane or butane gas.

Methane - the lightest of all the hydrocarbons with a chemical compound of CH4.

Natural Gas - methane gas.

Propane - a hydrocarbon with the chemical compound of (C3H8).