Natural gas become particularly active in the fields of natural gas and natural gas infrastructure, a trend started in 2005 by the formation of Scotia Gas Networks in the UK by OMERS and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Another way to store natural gas is adsorbing it to the porous solids called sorbents. The best condition for methane storage is at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The used pressure can be up to 4 MPa (about 40 times atmospheric pressure) for having more storage capacity. The most common sorbent used for ANG is activated carbon (AC). Three main types of activated carbons for
Natural gas and shallow sediments. Deeper in the earth, at greater temperature and pressure, thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material. In petroleum production gas is often burnt as flare gas. The World Bank estimates that over 150 cubic kilometers of natural gas are flared or vented annually. Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, most, but not all, must be processed to remove impurities, including water, to meet the specifications of marketable natural gas. The by-products of this processing include: ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes, and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide (which may be converted into pure sulfur),