Perpetual Innovation

Category: fracking

  • Mysteries of Methane Leak in Florida and Not-So-Clean Fossil Fuels

    There’s a BIG NatGas leak (Methane) in Florida. The source of
    which is not being owned up to. There’s no oil/gas drilling in the area.
    And, until about a year ago, most such leaks might go totally unnoticed. Read
    the Bloomberg article No
    One is Owning Up to Releasing Cloud of Methane in Florida    .
    Oil Flaring at Night in North America (Bakken)
    First Methane. The largest component of natural gas (NatGas) is methane (EIA).
    Various oil formations of fossil fuels are oil, mostly gas, or a combination.
    Even in coal formations there is methane, which has made coal mining especially
    dangerous for explosions and fires.
    When you see the flame stacks burning above oil wells and
    refineries, this is natural gas being flared off. Flaring is far preferred then
    just releasing it, venting, because methane is a wicked greenhouse gas (GHG) at
    82 times the global warming capacity as CO2 in the first 20 years (about 30
    times as potent over 100 years).
    Estimates by industry experts are that as much methane is
    flared (and vented) as used in the USA. If the US consumes about 22% of the
    world’s natural gas (0.8 trillion cubic meters per year of 3.9Tm3 worldwide)
    then it flares/vents the same amount again. The US accounts for twice as much
    NatGas consumption as the entire EU (or Russia). Texas and North Dakota (Permian
    & Bakken) account for 10 to 20 times as much flaring as any other state (Se
    EIA
    2019 report on flaring    ).
    NatGas is Cleaner than… Because of an abundance of NatGas in the US, and it burns massively cleaner than coal in terms of pollutants (air and ash), the US has made a major shift to NatGas for power generation. NatGas has taken the place of coal in many power plants to represent 38.4% of the the US electrical power generation while the other categories are almost on parity with coal (23.5%), nuclear (19.7%) and renewables (17.9%).  NatGas was believed to have only half the greenhouse gas impact as coal as well. But, when all things are considered, this big advantage of NatGas has evaporated into thin air (vented and flared)!. And methane has soared to all time highs, even during the pandemic slowdown. More people, and more people eating higher on the food chain (cows) is a massive methane producer as well. Now the arctic heat wave(s) are starting to thaw permafrost where huge amounts of methane are sequestered. Ouch! 
    Here’s a great visualization from NASA related to sources of methane and other greenhouse gasses. 
    Value
    of NatGas    ? You ask the wise questions, “Isn’t NatGas valuable? Why would
    any sane person or company, flare it into thin air?” First answer is, No.
    NatGas is not valuable unless you can transport it easily to where it could be processes
    (remove impurities) and consumed. For NatGas, a gas pipeline is pretty much the
    only option. Once NatGas reaches a refinery it can be processed into a liquid form (LNG) and even into gasoline or diesel.  Oil is easier to transport via oil tankers (truck or train or
    barge) or via pipelines. So, in the cases of wet gas, the oil (and other
    particulates) can be pumped and profitably sold if the gas can be flared away. In
    this case, NatGas is a byproduct of oil production. In many cases it cost more
    to try to distribute and process the NatGas then the market value once it
    reaches a distribution center and can be sold.
    The government, Federal and/or State,  could and should regulate flaring. In Texas, the
    railroad authority regulates flaring, and they have never refused a flaring request, even
    when a pipeline is readily available. In Russia and Nigeria, 95% of all NatGas
    has to be recovered, not flared. But the influence (and corruption) in the
    extractive industries results in a free pass for friends and family, and only selective enforcement.
    From space, you can now get beautiful nighttime pictures of
    flaring around the world. Check out
    Geology.com    . Wow! But couldn’t a company can simply vent the methane and,
    although far worse in every way, it might go undetected? Actually, not so much
    any more. Newer satellite imagery can detect the methane in the atmosphere and
    methane plumes from natural (swamps) and unnatural sources. This brings us back
    to Florida.
    Bluefield
    Technologies Inc.     analyzes data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite. See image showing more than 300 metric tons of methane released near Gainesville and spreading through Jacksonville area. 
    There are only a couple possibly leak sources of such a massive amount of methane (or NatGas). No one has owned up to it. No one seems to be busy trying to find the source. This might be a common practice for pipelines or power plants? Even if there are no fines, it would be good to know. Don’t ya know?
    #CleanEnergy #NatGas #Flaring #Fracking #Methane

  • Oh Frack… Ain't no such thang clean oil n gas!

    You’ve heard that there ain’t no such thing as “Clean” Coal. Maybe scrubbing some of the sulpher and removing some of the heavly metals. But certainly not clean. And then there’s the dirty little secret of Coal Ash!.
    But this article sums up the current research related to fracking. Ouch. Evidense keeps mounting about the down-side of oil fracking. This article really sums it up. 
    Link to the Ecologist article on Fracking.
    Of course, our argument here at SustainZine, is focused around the sustainability nature of fossil fuels in general. It’s okay, kinda, to use fossil fuels, but only do so when you have a long term plan that is sustainable, and this is the bridge to the future.

  • FPL gets approval to charge customers for fracking investment… The Real Story.

    FPL gets approval to charge customers for fracking investment | Tampa Bay Times:

    I was astounded to here that FPL is getting into the Fracking business. There’s this baloney about trying to save some money for their investors. FPL Customers pay, in advance, to drill Nat Gas wells in Alabama, and then reap some of the benefits of the wells, if any, in the form of low NatGas prices in the future.


    It sounds too good to be true. And leaves you shaking your head as to why a publicly regulated power utility would wonder off the path into the woods looking for firewood and NatGas.


    So the Fla PSC rubber stamped the deal. As they always do. (Although the PSC turned down a petition to pay for Federal Lobbying, an obvious red herring in the mix.)

    Comes to find out that NextEra, the parent company of FPL, already has oil drilling interests… 


    There are many reasons why a power company might want to get into the drilling business, but the one given seems like the very last on the list.

    Water, maybe. Fracking takes huge amount of water, as does power generation.

    Pipe lines. Power companies already have massive right-of-ways related to power lines. This seems like a perfect fit: run power through the line and gas through the ground.

    The one I like best would be to capture the NatGas that is flared in oilfields, produce power and send the power off to the grid through wire. We currently flare half of all NatGas produced in the USA. Nobody really wants to talk about it, but probably more than half. (Better to flare it, then release the methane, but still a very ugly and wasteful business).

    Here seems to be the answer: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) through pipelines to markets, domestic and abroad. We in the US pay only bout 1/3 of what the rest of the world pays for NatGas. At about $3.50 per unit for us, and maybe $10-$12 for most other countries. Liquidification and shipping LNG is in the works on many fronts. Cheniere Energy, Inc.
    (trading symbol LNG) is coming on board with export terminals with a vengeance. 

    Imagine what it will look like when our mountains of NatGas start to look like mountains of dollars.

    So what does this mean in the next era of power utilities? I don’t really know. It should take some time to understand the maze and the interlinking parts. 

    Here is discussion about Spectra Energy (drilling and such) and FPL and the pipeline in existence and/or planned. LAKE.org article. There’s a pipeline through the Gulf…

    So very interesting.

    And, of course, it has to be mentioned: NatGas is far better than that other major fuel (not mentioning any names, like Coal), but it is still not a renewable resources. Non-sustainable, by any other name, is still a broken business model… It’s just a mater of time.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • A Shrinking U.S. Trade Deficit—Brought to You by Fracking – Businessweek

    A Shrinking U.S. Trade Deficit—Brought to You by Fracking – Businessweek:

    US trade deficit is shrinking. Rapidly.


    The reason is the import of oil is a very expensive commodity. By the end of this decade, North America should be trade neutral on energy and then move to a surplus thereafter. At peak, the US trade deficit was about 6% of GDP. That is, our GDP would be reduced by the oil that is not produced domestically, but produced afar.


    For a country such as Saudi Arabia, with only about $30 to $40 costs associated with producing a barrel of oil, that leaves about $60 of profits. All of that money per barrel leaves the US and goes to foreign governments and foreign companies (or Multi-national companies).


    With all the new found oil at home, the GDP jumps by a couple percent. The trade deficit — as it pertains to energy — will shift form a percent or two deficit to  becoming a surplus within 10 years.


    Economically, this is a beautiful think. If the US were a developing country this would be called economic development utilizing import substitution. Here is a blog on US Energy  that discusses the US Energy Outlook Report for 2013. Want to look at forecasts of the future, go to US Energy Information Administration Annual Energy Outlook 2013.


    As we drop from 10M barrels per day of oil-type imports to zero we will drop more than $300B in trade deficits (more than 2% of GDP). (See http://www.eia.gov/.)

    National security improves.


    Of course there is one small caveat. Oil, gas, coal and Nat Gas are non-renewable resources. That means that they must be phased out, sooner or later.


    Beautiful thing economically, but with a few clouds surrounding it.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Study: Natural gas industry can cut fracking emissions

    Study: Natural gas industry can cut fracking emissions:

    This would be great to minimize the methane from the fracking of wells.

    Since NatGas is soooo much cleaner than coal (and gasoline). It is a slam-dunk decision as a way to start moving away from coal.

    Of course, it is not a sustainable solution for the looong term. NatGas could be a bridge fuel to a clean and renewable future.

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