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Concept
Acid gas
Summary
Acid gas is a particular typology of natural gas or any other gas mixture containing significant quantities of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2), or similar acidic gases. A gas is determined to be acidic or not after it is mixed with water. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, anything above 7 is basic while anything below 7 is acidic. Water has a neutral pH of 7 so once a gas is mixed with water, if the resulting mixture has a pH of less than 7 that means it is an acidic gas.
The term/s acid gas and sour gas are often incorrectly treated as synonyms. Strictly speaking, a sour gas is any gas that specifically contains hydrogen sulfide in significant amounts; an acid gas is any gas that contains significant amounts of acidic gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or hydrogen sulfide. Thus, carbon dioxide by itself is an acid gas but not a sour gas.
Once a process burns a gas containing an acidic mixture, that acid gas is released into the atmosphere. This causes one of manufacturing's most detrimental effects on the environment, acid rain. The acidic gases burned from one power plant can travel hundreds of miles after the gas mixes with water molecules in the atmosphere. The compounds then fall to the earth again in different forms of precipitation (acid rain) and can cause respiratory health issues in humans, kill plants and wildlife, erode structures and buildings, and contaminate water sources.
Acid gases are also hazardous in other ways than polluting the environment. Acid gases can be extremely flammable and explosive under pressure so keep them away from heat, sparks, or open flames.
Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic gas, it can cause breathing problems and asphyxiation. It also is very corrosive to metals which restricts the materials that can be used for piping and other equipment for handling sour gas, as many metals are sensitive to sulfide stress cracking.
Carbon dioxide at concentrations of 7% to 10.1% causes dizziness, headache, visual and hearing dysfunction, and unconsciousness within a few minutes to an hour.
Official source
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