February 26, 2021 – DeSmog
Fossil Freeze: Deadly Texas Catastrophe Shows How Natural Gas Systems Can Fail when Demand Spikes
By Sharon Kelly
… At first glance, you might think it’d be nearly impossible for natural gas supplies to freeze off from a bit of cold weather. Natural gas is mostly methane, a molecule so resistant to reaching liquid form that it requires massive industrial plants to chill it into liquefied natural gas (LNG). It takes temperatures below -297 degrees Fahrenheit to freeze natural gas — temperatures more likely found in outer space than on Earth.
But what flows up from a gas well is never pure methane — it’s a blend that can also include propane, butane, crude oil, chemicals, salts, radioactive elements, and water.
A quirk of chemistry makes that blend a perfect recipe for gas pipes to ice shut. When water meets with methane at low temperatures and high pressure, the two can form into gas hydrates — tiny crystals in which water molecules trap lots of methane. Those hydrates are commonly found in cold places — think permafrost or ocean floors.
When hydrates form inside gas pipes, their diamond-like shapes let them jam into each other and lock up in dense formations. In practice, energy market consultancy RBN Energy explains, that means hydrates are “much harder to melt or dissolve than everyday ice-from-water.”
Read the full article here: https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/02/26/texas-catastrophe-natural-gas-fail-freeze-offs
