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People using flair gas from oil wells for example to power a generator. The alternative is just burning the gas.
by pmorici 4y ago
People using flair gas from oil wells for example to power a generator. The alternative is just burning the gas.
- foepys 4y agoWhy would is this energy go to waste now if it was so cheap?
- latchkey 4y agoBecause large scale electricity transmission is very very expensive and depending on how remote, sometimes impossible. If you can burn the gas in a generator (which is a lot more efficient and less environmentally damaging than flare burning it) and convert that into value directly, that seems like a better outcome.
- skybrian 4y agoOne reason is if it's "stranded" energy in some remote place. Building power lines or pipelines (for natural gas) can be expensive. Maybe they're at capacity, or still under construction. As a result, the power is only going to be useful if you can move whatever consumes it to that location.
- MarkMarine 4y agoI worked for a startup that tried to do this, compressing at the wellsite to capture the flared gas. It’s an extraordinary amount of gas just flared off in a year
- majewsky 4y agoThere are other useful things to do with "stranded energy" though. In Northern Germany, they're now building hydrolysis plants to convert excess offshore wind energy into hydrogen. And if we're talking about natural gas wells, you already have a pipeline infrastructure in place, so it's not that far of a stretch to add a hydrogen pipeline to that.