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Well natural gas (mostly methane) is already available in most houses in Germany. It contains an additional component, so that you can smell it easily, because

Well natural gas (mostly methane) is already available in most houses in Germany. It contains an additional component, so that you can smell it easily, because a gas leak near the open fire in the heater is obviously very dangerous. Yet I can remember two or three leaks, that were covered in the media. Nothing in 40 years in my circle of neigbhours, friends, or family. Therefore, I am convinced it possible to create natural gas distribution systems without considerable leaking. Perhaps, that depend on the organisational maturity of the country we are talking about. But it seems to be possible.

PaulHoule 6y ago
Roughly you have to keep methane losses well under 1% from wellhead to burner to realize the potential of methane as a low-carbon fuel compared to liquid hydrocarbons. A methane pipeline passes within a few miles of my house and there is a compression station where I've occasionally seen a giant flame burning. In case they are not able to send the gas they are receiving onward, or the gas cannot be received at the next station, they will burn the gas to prevent a dangerous situation in terms of fire. (The old "synthesis gas" from the age of gaslight was 50% or more Carbon Monoxide as was immediately toxic to life.) The system is resilient and pretty easy to manage because at worst you have a small hole in a large volume of pipe. The loss can be contained by closing a valve upstream of the leak; the sealed pipe is a huge volume and can accommodate a lot of gas just by pressuring up, giving the upstream time to stop pumping. The spacing of the shut off valves is usually set by safety concerns in residential areas that the pipeline passes through. If you are pumping Carbon Dioxide back into the ground you have to install more shut off valves because the gas sinks and can asphyxiate people in nearby low spots. In deep rural areas the shut off valves could be far apart and the network not well maintained -- it would not destroy the economics of a natural gas network to lose 2-3% of the gas that way. === Accidents are a real thing: neighborhoods around Boston were blew up (pressure wave first then fire) by the residential methane network a few years ago; earlier Time Warner Cable blew up a block of downtown Kansas City when their fiber optic excavator hit a gas line; uninigited gas leaks from a malfunctioning methane network have been a problem in Southern California. Look for trouble at the well-head too. In many places people want liquid hydrocarbons and have no market for the methane and are tempted to burn it right there rather than face immediate or eventual calamity from venting it.

PaulHoule 6y ago

Roughly you have to keep methane losses well under 1% from wellhead to burner to realize the potential of methane as a low-carbon fuel compared to liquid hydrocarbons. A methane pipeline passes within a few miles of my house and there is a compression station where I've occasionally seen a giant flame burning. In case they are not able to send the gas they are receiving onward, or the gas cannot be received at the next station, they will burn the gas to prevent a dangerous situation in terms of fire. (The old "synthesis gas" from the age of gaslight was 50% or more Carbon Monoxide as was immediately toxic to life.) The system is resilient and pretty easy to manage because at worst you have a small hole in a large volume of pipe. The loss can be contained by closing a valve upstream of the leak; the sealed pipe is a huge volume and can accommodate a lot of gas just by pressuring up, giving the upstream time to stop pumping. The spacing of the shut off valves is usually set by safety concerns in residential areas that the pipeline passes through. If you are pumping Carbon Dioxide back into the ground you have to install more shut off valves because the gas sinks and can asphyxiate people in nearby low spots. In deep rural areas the shut off valves could be far apart and the network not well maintained -- it would not destroy the economics of a natural gas network to lose 2-3% of the gas that way. === Accidents are a real thing: neighborhoods around Boston were blew up (pressure wave first then fire) by the residential methane network a few years ago; earlier Time Warner Cable blew up a block of downtown Kansas City when their fiber optic excavator hit a gas line; uninigited gas leaks from a malfunctioning methane network have been a problem in Southern California. Look for trouble at the well-head too. In many places people want liquid hydrocarbons and have no market for the methane and are tempted to burn it right there rather than face immediate or eventual calamity from venting it.