What kind of gas is "natural gas"?

Factual Questions
1

I’m a bit confused about what natural gas is. I always thought it had some relation to the gas we pump, that is, a petroleum product. I have heard conflicting reports saying that is or is not true. When you think about it, even oxygen is a “natural gas”. So I am turning to the teeming millions for the straight dope. What type of gas is used to heat homes?

2

Yes, oxygen is a natural gas, in the sense that it is in a gaseous state under the conditions in which we normally encounter it. As are several other elements. The term “natural gas” as an energy source for heating homes is most commonly used to refer to the hydrocarbon methane and its nearest hydrocarbon neighbors. This is not the “gas” (gasoline) we pump at the filling station.

3

Is it really that hard to type “natural gas” into a search engine and get your answer?

http://www.energy.ca.gov/education/story/story-html/chapter05.html

4

And just in case you needed even more vaguely-related trivia:

Methane (CH[sub]4[/sub]), by itself, is odorless. The natural gas you get from the Gas Company has an odor-causing compound added to it, so you can smell it if there’s a gas leak.

In this way, natural gas (as distributed to homes) is like a fart. It’s mostly methane with a few foul-smelling chemicals added. :wink:

5

That nasty smell they add is a chemical called mercaptan. A town nearby had an accident with a tank truck carrying mercaptan to a distribution facility whereby the tank leaked. The local fire department was receiving calls for natural gas leaks all over town, only it wasn’t natural gas, it was the mercaptan leaking. People just (rightly) associated the smell of the mercaptan with the smell of the natural gas.

6

Natural gas was talked about here recently & probably better at howstuffworks.com I have a dictionary, a very handy tool, e.g. websters:
1 : gas issuing from the earth’s crust through natural openings or bored wells; especially : a combustible mixture of methane and higher hydrocarbons used chiefly as a fuel and raw material
2 : gas manufactured from organic matter (as coal)