SD60MAC9500Though when domestic NG production increases I see the devisement of a system to capture and make economical use of waste NG. Micro-Scale Liquification could be that enabler to make it cost effective.
I think, though, that the smaller-scale recovery option of choice is going to involve a variant of BOG management with LN2 (which is relatively easily generated and can itself be boiled off with neither emissions nor carbon penalty from heat exchangers). Similar small-scale traps perhaps with modern-generation reliquefiers for the nitrogen are probably the best solution for LNG tank cars when those become fully 'homologated' in this country -- I don't really know why such a good idea has seen so much Government foot-dragging.
Convicted One SD60MAC9500 Imagine instead of flaring waste NG it could be recovered, then piped to a nearby liquificaton facilty for transport to any market.. Food for thought. Coal is dwindling and NG could just be the next boon for the rails. Sounds like a great idea. But as your linked story points out, the well operators often consider it "uneconomic" to do the right thing. So my guess is, so long as we allow "Harvey Hustlebuck" to make that decision, the real creativity will be expended in finding excuses and exemptions. Wonder if you could get reasonable capacity out or a recovery system that is completely rail borne? Making such a system that is semi portable would no doubt lessen the start up costs?
SD60MAC9500 Imagine instead of flaring waste NG it could be recovered, then piped to a nearby liquificaton facilty for transport to any market.. Food for thought. Coal is dwindling and NG could just be the next boon for the rails.
Sounds like a great idea. But as your linked story points out, the well operators often consider it "uneconomic" to do the right thing.
So my guess is, so long as we allow "Harvey Hustlebuck" to make that decision, the real creativity will be expended in finding excuses and exemptions.
Wonder if you could get reasonable capacity out or a recovery system that is completely rail borne? Making such a system that is semi portable would no doubt lessen the start up costs?
LNG containers exist, if this traffic would not prefer a tank car. We do have an exisiting IM system that could easily accomodate LNG cans. Though when domestic NG production increases I see the devisement of a system to capture and make economical use of waste NG. Micro-Scale Liquification could be that enabler to make it cost effective.
Convicted One Sounds like a great idea. But as your linked story points out, the well operators often consider it "uneconomic" to do the right thing.
This problem is solved by it not making it the well operators that would have to do the work, make it the refiners, were a lot of flaring takes place as already.
If I was a well operator I'd invest in storage facilities, a lot of storage facilities at the well farms. Enough to not have to flare excess NG, but that's just me(if you need a reason, simple, with storage you always have NG available for spikes in demand and can then fill in for those that don't have the capacity).
Convicted One. All the mindless waste back in the days of the Indiana Gas Boom...
I knew nothing about this until I first read Middletown (which for the uninitiated is a sociology treatment of Muncie, IN) in the '70s. In those pre-fracking days natural gas was an expen$ive premium fuel, so the accounts of the flaring and waste were much more striking.
Brings two things to mind. All the mindless waste back in the days of the Indiana Gas Boom,..... and those science fiction movies where aliens, after having depleted the resources of their own planets, come looking here for their needs.
At least Indiana got a couple of nice glass bottle and jar plants out of the bargain.
Note that the two 'preferred' alternatives being researched at the time were multifunctional catalytic conversion of the flared gas and what is presumably using some if the 'wasted' energy of flaring to perform pyrolysis to higher-value (presumably storable liquid in most cases) products.
I see little opportunity for a rail-borne solution to work effectively in almost any current flaring situation, even in initial delivery of self-contained rigs to the points needed. Likewise periodic collection of 'recovery' products is much better suited to trucks than trains in almost all cases, certainly well past where any manufacturer looking at economies of scale would consider it unless heavily or wholly subsidized, probably moreover for a guaranteed time. I do not expect to see that happening.
JPS1 As I understand it, based on my limited knowledge, liquified natural gas is gas that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. When it is being transported in a railway tank car, what steps are required to keep it in its liquid state?
DOT-113 tank cars like other vessels that carry, or store LNG, are heavily jacketed and insulated to keep the temp roughly -260F. Here's more detailed information. In addition to that here's a study on implementing a simple efficient form of transporting LNG stateside based on Japan's current LNG system of storage, and transport by rail.
As many know the DOT recently issued it's final rule on LNG transport in approved DOT-113 Cryo Tank Cars. This might just be the remedy to gas flaring. According to this reuters article last year alone(for more info on gas flaring check this link out). We vented 493.2 bcf of gas to the atmosphere. Flaring while expensive makes sense for mutliple reasons; lack of pipeline capcity, pressure relief, and maintenance procedures. Yet could this usher in a new traffic source? Imagine instead of flaring waste NG it could be recovered, then piped to a nearby liquificaton facilty for transport to any market.. Food for thought. Coal is dwindling and NG could just be the next boon for the rails.
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