For supply and environmental reasons, many utilities choose to produce electricity from gas rather than coal.

Advocates of electricity from gas emphasize the significant reduction in harmful emissions and by products associated with natural gas combustion. Opponents site higher cost of natural gas power plants and note that both processes depend upon non-renewable inputs to generate electricity. Natural gas is a fossil fuel, created by layers of plant and animal remains that have been exposed to intense heat and pressure over thousands of years. Plants and animals store energy from the sun in the form of carbon yielding natural gas. Natural gas is considered a non-renewable fuel because it cannot be replenished during a human lifetime. When natural gas is combusted, the stored energy within the plant and animal remains can be converted to usable power in the form of electricity. Natural gas is extracted from the ground using wells, then processing plants purify the gas and remove unusable by products such as hydrogen sulphide, helium, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon and moisture. The purified natural gas is transported to power plans, where combustion occurs to operate turbines and yield electricity, which is then sent via power lines to end users. Two primary methods are used to create electricity from gas. The first method burns natural gas in a boiler, which creates steam that turns a steam turbine and creates electricity. The more common process is to burn gas in a combustion turbine, which creates electricity in a more direct process. A newer technology, referred to as combined cycle processing, combines both methods. Natural gas is burned in a combustion turbine to create electricity, but the hot, combusted turbine exhaust is converted to steam. The steam by product is used to feed a steam turbine that also generates electricity. The combined cycle process is more efficient because it uses the same fuel source twice. All power plants are regulated by federal and state emissions guidelines, but the process of creating electricity from gas is associated with a variety of environmental impacts. The most significant benefits of natural gas electricity are realized in comparison to the greenhouse gas emissions created by coal or oil power plants. Natural-gas powered electricity generation produces half as much carbon dioxide, one-third of the nitrogen oxides, and one percent of the sulphur oxides of coal-powered generation. This does not account for emissions created from the process of extracting, purifying and delivering the natural gas to the power plant, during which additional emissions are released. Steam Generation Units Natural gas can be used to generate electricity in a variety of ways. The most basic natural gas-fired electric generation consists of a steam generation unit, where fossil fuels are burned in a boiler to heat water and produce steam that then turns a turbine to generate electricity. Natural gas may be used for this process, although these basic steam units are more typical of large coal or nuclear generation facilities. These basic steam generation units have fairly low energy efficiency. Typically, only 33 to 35 percent of the thermal energy used to generate the steam is converted into electrical energy in these types of units. Centralized Gas Turbines Gas turbines and combustion engines are also used to generate electricity. In these types of units, instead of heating steam to turn a turbine, hot gases from burning fossil fuels (particularly natural gas) are used to turn the turbine and generate electricity. Gas turbine and combustion engine plants are traditionally used primarily for peak-load demands, as it is possible to quickly and easily turn them on. These plants have increased in popularity due to advances in technology and the availability of natural gas. However, they are still traditionally slightly less efficient than large steam-driven power plants. Combined Cycle Units Many of the new natural gas fired power plants are known as 'combined-cycle' units. In these types of generating facilities, there is both a gas turbine and a steam unit, all in one. The gas turbine operates in much the same way as a normal gas turbine, using the hot gases released from burning natural gas to turn

a turbine and generate electricity. In combined-cycle plants, the waste heat from the gas-turbine process is directed toward generating steam, which is then used to generate electricity much like a steam unit. Because of this efficient use of the heat energy released from the natural gas, combined-cycle plants are much more efficient than steam units or gas turbines alone. In fact, combined-cycle plants can achieve thermal efficiencies of up to 50 to 60 percent.

Process Electricity Generation from Fossil Fuels Conventional Electrical Energy Generation Over 65% of the world's electrical energy used today is generated by steam turbine generators burning fossil fuels such as natural gas as their source of energy and large scale fossil fuelled plants provide most of the world's base load generating capacity. The electricity generation process is described in detail in the section about steam turbines.

The Energy Conversion Processes Electrical energy generation using steam turbines involves three energy conversions, i. extracting thermal energy from the fuel and using it to raise steam, ii. converting the thermal energy of the steam into kinetic energy in the turbine and iii. using a rotary generator to convert the turbine's mechanical energy into electrical energy. Raising steam (Thermal Sources) Steam is mostly raised from fossil fuel sources, three of which are shown in the above diagram but any convenient source of heat can be used. Chemical Transformation In fossil fuelled plants steam is raised by burning fuel, oil and gas in a combustion chamber. Recently these fuels have been supplemented by limited amounts of renewable biofuels and agricultural waste. The chemical process of burning the fuel releases heat by the chemical transformation (oxidation) of the fuel. This can never be perfect. There will be losses due to impurities in the fuel, incomplete combustion and heat and pressure losses in the combustion chamber and boiler. Typically these losses would amount to about 10% of the available energy in the fuel. The Steam Turbine (Prime Mover) Working Principles High pressure steam is fed to the turbine and passes along the machine axis through multiple rows of alternately fixed and moving blades. From the steam inlet port of the turbine towards the exhaust point, the blades and the turbine cavity are progressively larger to allow for the expansion of the steam. The stationary blades act as nozzles in which the steam expands and emerges at an increased speed but lower pressure. (Bernoulli's conservation of energy principle - Kinetic energy increases as pressure energy falls).

As the steam impacts on the moving blades it imparts some of its kinetic energy to the moving blades. There are two basic steam turbine types, impulse turbines and reaction turbines, whose blades are designed control the speed, direction and pressure of the steam as is passes through the turbine. Impulse turbines The steam jets are directed at the turbine's bucket shaped rotor blades where the pressure exerted by the jets causes the rotor to rotate and the velocity of the steam to reduce as it imparts its kinetic energy to the blades. The blades in turn change change the direction of flow of the steam however its pressure remains constant as it passes through the rotor blades since the cross section of the chamber between the blades is constant. Impulse turbines are therefore also known as constant pressure turbines. The next series of fixed blades reverses the direction of the steam before it passes to the second row of moving blades. Reaction turbines The rotor blades of the reaction turbine are shaped more like aerofoils, arranged such that the cross section of the chambers formed between the fixed blades diminishes from the inlet side towards the exhaust side of the blades. The chambers between the rotor blades essentially form nozzles so that as the steam progresses through the chambers its velocity increases while at the same time its pressure decreases, just as in the nozzles formed by the fixed blades. Thus the pressure decreases in both the fixed and moving blades. As the steam emerges in a jet from between the rotor blades, it creates a reactive force on the blades which in turn creates the turning moment on the turbine rotor, just as in Hero's steam engine. (Newton's Third Law - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction)

The Condenser The exhaust steam from the low pressure turbine is condensed to water in the cooling tower extracting the latent heat of vaporization from the steam. The volume of the steam goes to zero in the condenser, reducing the pressure dramatically to near vacuum conditions thus increasing the pressure drop across the turbine which enables the maximum amount of energy to be extracted from the steam. The condensate is then pumped back into the boiler as feed-water to be used again. It goes without saying that condenser systems need a constant, ample supply of cooling water. Water vapour seen billowing from power plants is evaporating cooling water, not working fluid. Practical Machines Steam turbines come in many configurations. Large machines are usually built with multiple stages to maximise the energy transfer from the steam.

To reduce axial forces on the turbine rotor bearings the steam may be fed into the turbine at the mid point along the shaft so that it flows in opposite directions towards each end of the shaft thus balancing the axial load. The output steam is fed through a cooling tower through which cooling water is passed to condense the steam back to water.

Turbine power outputs of 1000MW or more are typical for electricity generating plants.