Natural gas for oil refineries, and the fuel source in hydrogen vehicles. Protein rich animal and fish feed is produced by feeding natural gas to Methylococcus capsulatus bacteria on commercial scale. Natural gas is also used in the manufacture of fabrics, glass, steel, plastics, paint, and other products. Natural gas is mainly composed of methane. After release to the atmosphere it is removed by gradual oxidation to carbon dioxide and water by hydroxyl radicals () formed in the troposphere or stratosphere, giving the overall chemical reaction + 2 → + 2. While the lifetime of atmospheric methane is relatively short when compared
Natural gas The odor has been compared to the smell of rotten eggs, due to the added tert-Butylthiol (t-butyl mercaptan). Sometimes a related compound, thiophane, may be used in the mixture. Situations in which an odorant that is added to natural gas can be detected by analytical instrumentation, but cannot be properly detected by an observer with a normal sense of smell, have occurred in the natural gas industry. This is caused by odor masking, when one odorant overpowers the sensation of another. As of 2011, the industry is conducting research on the causes of odor masking. Explosions caused by natural gas