Oklahoma company sets sights on ending flaring in Bakken

[misterhighwasted]

This has some promise as a step in the right direction to end flaring & how it harms the atmosphere.
I am rather impressed by the method to achieve a goal & that the results may be indeed feesable.
I found this interesting and though further questions remain, I believe it at least creates a viable purpose for the waste through well flaring.
I read that both the Bakken Field in NDakota & in the Permian of Texas will be first in line for trials.
Interesting approach to simplifying flaring waste.
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http://bakken.com/news/id/233752/oklahoma-company-sets-sights-on-ending-flaring-in-bakken/

Oklahoma company sets sights on ending flaring in Bakken

(snip) B&A Global Energy, a small company based in Tulsa, Okla., has acquired the rights to the Energy Capturing Operating System (ECOS), a portable refinery able to be placed at a well site. The ECOS captures and processes methane gas produced in the hydraulic fracturing process into liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“This is a game-changing technology to the oil and gas business,” said Kelley, B&A Global’s president and CEO and a 25-year veteran of the energy industry who is also a retired U.S. Air Force pilot and a licensed architect.

B&A Global wants to bring its ECOS technology to the U.S. — specifically to North Dakota’s Bakken and Texas’ Eagle Ford shale formations — after witnessing the technology work in Asia.

(snip) B&A Global’s plan is to bring the portable refineries to well sites where natural gas is being flared. The ECOS unit captures methane gas released by the well, and then separates, compresses and refrigerates it to minus-261 degrees, converting the methane into LNG fuel without it ever leaving the well site. The process, B&A Global’s representatives say, eliminates the need to flare gas released in the drilling process.

LNG would be stored into specialized tank batteries and trucked away from the site in cryogenic tankers. When a well site is no longer flaring enough gas to be economically viable, the system can be moved — like an oil rig — to the next well pad.

(snip) “The oil and gas operator that’s flaring wins because they get money for what they’re wasting, and the government wins,” Bennett said. “The environmental people are happy. The economic people are happy.”

etc.....

[BlueStreak]

1. Another alternative is to generate electricity instead of flaring

Companies like Capstone Turbine make small systems that can efficiently generate electricity from any excess gas. These turbines are extremely flexible in the fuel they can burn. All you really need is the ability to dump that juice onto the grid.

This still burns the gas and emits CO2, but the electricity produced would reduce the amount of coal or gas that would be burned elsewhere on the grid, so it is definitely a net plus for the environment.

[misterhighwasted]

2. Thanks I will research Capstone Turbine.

Interesting topic that creates full use & efficiency of a currently wasted precious resource.
Perhaps there is hope as technology moves these along to a fully functioning system.
Its a good start nonetheless.

[BlueStreak]

3. Not necessarily a great investment

They have been near profitability for several years but never seem to make it over the top. Part of their problems is that their primary market is oil and gas field drillers. Those guys have never been a very good credit risk -- and they are worse now.

In addition, there is a real possibility that fuel cells will overtake the turbines.

One of their interesting markets is hospitals. Hospitals need uninterrupted power, so they usually have backup Diesel generators. With a Capstone system, you can run them continuously because they are very low maintenance, so hospitals can generate the majority of their power in-house, which is no more polluting than having the utility burn natural gas to make the electricity -- adn a lot cleaner than coal. And the bonus is that the Capstone system captures residual heat for hot water, and hospitals use lots of hot water.