[Gondring]

Good! It’s much smarter to use natural gas to produce ethylene than it is to just burn it.

[thackney]

Natural Gas, as used in peoples homes and business, is mostly methane.

What this article is referencing is the “richer” natural gas fields such as Eagle Ford that contain more of the heavier molecules like Ethane that need to be removed or at least significantly reduced before the natural gas is sent to the pipelines for distribution.

It is more of a by-product of the typical natural gas market, rather than a substitution.

A small amount of ethane can exist in Natural Gas without problems, but if it is too great, then the BTU content will be too high for the burner nozzles of most equipment.

[thackney]

Related info if any are interested in more detail about ethane in natural gas:

Shale gas revolution in the US presents regulatory and infrastructure challenges
http://www.icis.com/Articles/2011/01/10/9423607/shale-gas-revolution-in-the-us-presents-regulatory-and-infrastructure.html

Processing Natural Gas
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/processing_ng.asp

[thackney]

One more article for those interested in ethane in natural gas. This article is more specific to ethane and details the issues related to the Marcellus field.

Infrastructure Projects Connect Marcellus Shale To Ethane, NGL Markets
http://www.aogr.com/index.php/magazine/cover_story_archives/march_2011_cover_story1/