Natural Gas: What’s In It for Me?
If you are like most consumers, whenever you see a product of any type, you ask yourself what is in it for you? If there doesn’t seem to be a practical or readily available answer, you put it to the back of your mind. With broader services that you need as a citizen of the world, sometimes this thinking gets even more abstract. For example, when you think of natural gas, do you wonder how it is processed and transferred to you for your use? Maybe not. But perhaps it would be useful if you figured out some of the basics about something as ubiquitous as natural gas.
There will be many different ways you can look at this particular topic. For example, natural gas has industrial uses. If you read the news, you’ll note that there are a lot of concerns about fracking because of how it is used to get natural gas from the earth. Then there is the matter of investments in the future. A lot of political attention is paid to coal. But as far as the future goes, natural gas has a lot more to offer you as a consumer.
Industrial Use
Natural gas has many industrial uses. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of fuel different types of industrial machinery use, you go through the typical laundry list. There might be electricity from fossil fuel plants. There could be nitrogen in its purified form. There could be compressed liquids of other sorts pushing the machinery forward. Natural gas fits in there as well. You can go even further down that rabbit hole and note that there are natural gas dehydration technologies that allow some industrial projects to be completed more efficiently these days.
Fracking Concerns
If you paid any attention to the news in the last several years, you know that fracking gets a lot of publicity. Because it’s a relatively new technique and the consequences of industrial fracking aren’t completely understood yet, environmentalists want to slow down the process. Some reports suggest that fracking has created earthquakes. If the idea of human-made earthquakes feels offensive to you, then you know why people are up in arms about the use of this technology.
Investments in the Future
If you want to invest in the future, investing in natural gas is one way to do so. You aren’t going to invest in the substance itself. But you will be investing in the technology surrounding natural gas in its elemental form. Some people take the high road and invest in computer technology or artificial intelligence. Other people are more interested in raw materials and invest in precious metals or natural gas technology as they are comfortable.