How the CAP3 F, M and Nano air packages reduce emissions in the oil and gas industry
A common practice in the oil and gas industry is to use wellhead gas to run instrumentation. The CAP3 package uses a maintenance-free power generator producing 120/240 Volt grid-quality power to operate an air compressor to mitigate natural gas venting from Pneumatics at off-grid well sites.
Pneumatics automate process controls such as liquid level, pressure, pressure difference and temperature control operation.
Natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers can be changed to air-driven reliably and in the process, the change from methane to gas, the impact on the GHG effect is reduced 20-30 fold.
Pneumatic Pumps and Controllers
Pneumatic pumps are devices that use gas pressure to drive a fluid by raising or reducing the pressure of the fluid by means of a positive displacement, a piston or set of rotating impellers. Pneumatic pumps are generally used at oil and natural gas production sites where electricity is not readily available. The supply gas for these pumps can be any compressed gas.
Pneumatic Controllers are automated instruments used for maintaining a process condition such as liquid level, pressure, pressure differential, and temperature. In many situations, across all segments of the oil and gas industry, pneumatic controllers make use of the available high-pressure natural gas to operate control of a valve. In these natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers, natural gas is released with every actuation of the valve, i.e. valve movement.
In some designs, natural gas is also released continuously from the valve control pilot. The rate at which the continuous release occurs is referred to as the bleed rate. Bleed rates are dependent on the design and operating characteristics of the device. Similar designs will have similar steady-state rates when operated under similar conditions.
The pneumatic controls industry has made marked advances recently allowing reliable switching from high to low-bleed instrumentation.
Although some producers chose to maintain their natural gas as prime energy source, it quickly became apparent that some controls were prone to faulin. Impurities found in raw, high energy ga caused problems such as liquids or wax formation in pneumatics, problemsn previously not an issue in high-bleeed controls. Those issues can all be eliminated with high-quality air pneumatics which can be freely vented to atmosphere without a GHG impact.
Natural Gas Pneumatic Controller Designs
There are three basic designs of natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers:
(1) Continuous bleed controllers are used to modulate flow, liquid level, or pressure, and gas is vented continuously at a rate that may vary over time;
(2) Intermittent controllers release gas only when they open or close a valve or as they throttle the gas flow; and
(3) Zero bleed controllers, which are self-contained devices that release gas to a downstream pipeline instead of to the atmosphere (EPA, 2011a).
As noted above, intermittent controllers are devices that only emit gas during actuation and do not have a continuous bleed rate. Thus, the actual amount of emissions from an intermittent controller is dependent on the amount of natural gas vented per actuation and how often it is actuated. Continuous bleed controllers also vent an additional volume of gas during actual emissions from a continuous bleed device also depend, in part, on the frequency of activation and the amount of gas vented during activation.
How OilPro can Assist:
We provide power solutions to anyone requiring critical remote power solutions in response to AEP (Alberta Environment and Parks) regulations to create offsets usable under CCIR (Carbon Competitiveness Incentive Regulation) for advanced environmental compliance.
Our energy efficient PowerGen series helps producers comply with costly California Energy Commission-administered LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard) in advance of Canadian implementation. Please click this link for a complete comparison of the CAP3 Nano, M and F models!
How does PowerGen fuel consumption compare to traditional remote power sources?
Answer:
A 1200 Watt Powergen consumes approximately 1/3 the amount (fewer than 27 liters) of propane than a 500 Watt TEG, which uses about 76 liters (20 Gal/day). This is a great advantage to installations reliant on propane supply such as telecommunications, signals or sour wellsites. We can tune our PowerGens to load-follow between 4,300 and 600W for applications where fuelling and fuel conservation are important.
One additional feature is the recoverable heat from the glycol cooling systems. This “free” recovered heat can be used to keep enclosures with electronics and batteries in a more efficient temperature range. We provide between 2.5 and 3.5x electricity generated as warm glycol heat is available to your installation with the GHT option. Less frequent propane delivery and reduced UPS battery capacity will provide accelerated project economics but also decrease the environmental impact of your installation.
Who said it had to be a choice?
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