Consequences of Failure of Gas Network Infrastructure

Abstract

Ecology today is becoming increasingly important. Increasing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions make the search for such fuels which will not have such a negative effect on the environment as the fuel use currently -mainly coal. At present it seems that the substitute fuel can be gaseous fuels (propane-butane, methane). Their combustion is less harmful to the environment and their transport is relatively not very complicated. As it turns out, the use of gas is increasing in industry, automotive, heating systems (power plants that operate in the so-called cogeneration). The increase in demand carries continuous development of gas infrastructure, which in turn may increase probability of failure. As a conclusion of this article, taking into account all the construction disasters induced by the gas, the number of such failures is relatively small. It should be remembered, that the disaster caused by gas explosion may cause very large material and human losses. Not without significance is the impact of gas leakage, eg. of the pipeline on the environment. An example is the methane which is a greenhouse gas, less persistent in the air, but much more active than CO 2 . The article presents selected disasters associated with natural gas or propane-butane and the impact of these gases on the environment because these fuels are most commonly used in most sectors of the economy.