Article one of a four-part series, discussing the growth in the demand for gas power generation around the world.

As the world population continues to grow, so too does the demand for energy. A world population of around six billion in 2000 has grown to almost eight billion today. Forecasts suggest this figure could grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050 and surpass 11 billion by the end of the century.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the continuing growth in the population, along with increasing living standards, is driving the demand for energy across the world.

The drive to reduce emission levels, as well as the availability of alternative fuel solutions, is leading to changes in how energy is produced. The use of non-fossil fuels for energy production is increasing, including renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy. The use of fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, however, is still forecast to account for more than 60% of the mix by 2030.

While ongoing discussions center around countries reducing their use of higher polluting coal and oil, there is a growing demand for cleaner-burning natural gas. It is believed 85% of the world’s resources of this fossil fuel are still untapped, with enough to supply current global demand for more than 200 years. It is forecast that natural gas will account for almost one quarter of the energy mix by 2030, and one quarter of the global power added in the next 10 years will be gas power.

Available across all regions of the world, natural gas is increasingly being favored against its coal and oil fossil fuel counterparts as it offers advantages of fewer emissions, ready availability and lower capital costs.

In Asia, China is actively looking at natural gas, as well as other alternatives, as it looks to move away from coal. In Latin America Argentina has potentially larger reserves of natural gas than North America and is just at the early stages of utilizing natural gas reserves. Countries such as Bolivia and Mexico have also started to acknowledge the fuel as a source that can be utilized.

Transportation of natural gas is also being seen internationally, with the exporting of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from North America to Europe, as well as Australia being a key supplier to Japan and other areas.

Natural gas is increasingly being used across many industries and applications, and touching many parts of the economy: 

• In the electric power sector, the use of coal for energy generation is slowly being replaced with the use of natural gas. 
• In the industrial sector, natural gas is used as raw material, or feedstock, for process heating to produce chemicals, fertilizers, and hydrogen. 
• In the residential sector, natural gas is used to heat buildings and water, as fuel for cooking and as a heat source when drying clothes.
• In the commercial sector, natural gas is used for combined heat and power generation in buildings such as hospitals, schools, hotels, and airports.
• In the transportation sector, passenger and commercial vehicles are running on natural gas such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or LNG, as an alternative to gasoline and diesel fuels.

Our View

While the use of renewable fuels is increasing to cater for our energy demands, it is not at a sufficient scale to remove our requirement for fossil fuels. Natural gas is a cleaner-burning, lower emission fossil fuel with many years of untapped reserves across the world, offering benefits over coal and oil.

As well as natural gas, alternative gas fuels are increasingly being used for energy production with each having their own unique chemical composition and technical considerations.

In our second article of four, we discuss more about different gas fuels and the process undertaken from their extraction to end use.

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