Perpetual Innovation

Category: NatGas

  • 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

  • Obama to Unveil Tougher Environmental Plan With His Legacy in Mind – The New York Times

    Obama to Unveil Tougher Environmental Plan With His Legacy in Mind – The New York Times:

    There’s some good and some bad about this.

    We really should have an energy policy in the country, but we don’t. And the congress should be doing that planning and guiding of long-term energy and economic development. But no.

    The video says saving on energy. That’s not true, it will cost more for energy, the massive savings will come from improved health. Coal causes huge health and environmental impacts.

    “The Clean Power Plan will ultimately save about $45 billion a year, the EPA says, by both shrinking Americans’ energy use and reducing health costs for asthma, lung cancer and other illnesses caused by air pollution. The EPA estimates the rule will also cut about $85 a year from the average American’s utility bill.”  via USA News.

    Expect that the costs at the meter will be more, especially since it is so easy for the power utilities to pass them on, given a good (or bad) excuses. However, the health savings are each and every year forever. These are massive savings. Probably far greater than the $45B or so estimated.

    The switch from coal is happening already without any such effort by the EPA. Clean(er) NatGas has been over-abundant and been the main gainer over the last 8 years. Also, we flair about half of the NatGas in the USA from fracking, why not figure out how to flair it into an electric generator and wire the energy back home?

    Two secrets of coal is that about 10,000 people die each year in mining accidents, mostly coal. That’s more than die in many years from natural disasters. The really dirty little secret of coal is coal ash. It has very high levels of heavy metals and such. It appears that we have no plan as to what to do with the ash, so it sits around in every state just waiting for disaster. Much like we have not plan for Nuclear waste.

    NatGas is far better than coal, but it is still not sustainable. Since power plant planning is 50 to 100 years forward thinking, it seems that we should be doing likewise. Wind only works when the wind blows. Solar only works with the sun signs.

    It seems that if we had a plan to be sustainable eventually, we would be better able to make decisions on the actions that a rational man (or woman) would make today.

    Sadly, the coal miners and coal economies are stuck in the middle of this ugly downturn to their livelihood way of life.

    Just saying…

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Inside the war on coal

    Inside the war on coal:

    Wow, this is a very thoughtful and well presented article on Coal.

    The real demise of coal is too fold: raising costs of trying to make coal a little cleaner (less dirty); and the increase of cheaper alternatives.

    Number 1 in all of this is the dirty cheap costs of NatGas which is a by-product of much oil production. We in the US flair about half of the NatGas we produce because it gets in the way of the valuable oil production process.

    NatGas is soooo much cleaner to burn and produces only half the CO2 emissions.

    As people and communities realize the real costs of burning (dirty) coal, the political will to back coal simply because it is cheap is seriously waning. As the externality costs start to mount, people are less inclined to have the plants in their back yard.

    But, the Sierra club can not take that much of the credit. Basic economics is ruling. The EPA wants cleaner coal, which makes it more expansive at the same time that NatGas, wind and solar are all getting better and cheaper.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Clean Power Plan | TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times

    Why I support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan | TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times:

    This July 28, 2014 article by Lynn Ringenberg (Professor Emeritus at USF) discusses the horrible health and wellness impacts of burning coal.

    “There is no such thing as clean coal.”

    The good news is that Natural Gas is so plentiful in the states and so very very cheap, that it is seriously supplanting coal in power plant production. NatGas is so plentiful and contain in oil, that 40% to 50% of all US NatGas produced is flared into the atmosphere as an oil byproduct.

    Of course the EPA is pushing this conversion along to NatGas. In the absence of an energy policy in the USA, the EPA is the very last stop in this decision process as to produce power, short term and long.

    But here is the BIG problem. As we cut back on energy and oil and coal usage in the USA, we move the coal power production to other countries. Our exports are way up. And other countries don’t use the same cleaning technologies as we (scrubbers and such).

    Here’s a great discussion of our coal usage and export-imports at The Energy Collective by Meredith Fowlie on July 29, 2014.

    No matter what you feel about the EPA stepping up and getting involved in coal power, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. The EPA is the last, and arguably the worst way to address energy policy, health issues from fossil fuel consumption and global warming.

    Some would argue, the EPA actions are better than doing nothing at all.

    The EPA is the wrench used to hammer the square nail. Coal has huge impact on health and wellness, so let’s export all we’ve got. We take make the green, they take the black.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Fuel cell cars from Toyota, Honda, Hyundai set to debut at auto shows – latimes.com

    Fuel cell cars from Toyota, Honda, Hyundai set to debut at auto shows – latimes.com:

    We’ve been waiting for decades (50 years?) for a fuel cell car.

    It looks like Toyota will come out fist with a Fuel Cell car next year.

    The fuel cell being announced this next week are coming from Honda and Hyundai.

    Unfortunately, it seems, these will be hydrogen fuel based.

    Other versions of Fuel Cell generators use liquid fuels, not straight hydrogen. Without fueling stations for hydrogen the technology is stuck where LP  and LNG was 10 years ago before Clean Energy (and others) started putting up liquid natgas stations along the trucking corridors.

    Let’s see what the announcement(s) bring.

    ‘via Blog this’