Oil & Gas

In rural China, approximately 30 million households receive cooking fuel from super-small anaerobic underground digesters? China is just starting to look at industrial biogas upgrading in a serious manner. The market is in its’ infancy but we believe in five years it will be the biggest biogas market in the world. Incineration is not popular as it requires a lot of energy. Here we have many manure-based issues. Soil and water contamination in densely populated areas can lead towards anaerobic digester projects. Today there are very few projects although we are doing one right now in northern China.

Biogas is an extremely valuable energy source. Originating from biomass, sewage, plants and landfill sites, it is gaining ever-increasing worldwide recognition as a premium source of renewable energy. It is also making a major contribution to the global energy supply mix by replacing existing fossil-fuel sources such as coal, oil and conventional natural gas.

Sullair of Houston, one of the largest North American distributors of Sullair industrial and portable diesel compressors, loves a challenge. The company designs customized air compressor packages that fit the rough and rugged world outside the walls of an industrial plant. It builds air compressor solutions that operate efficiently in extreme, harsh environments around the globe. This includes offshore or marine environments, high or low ambient conditions—any environment where a standard air compressor will not operate safely or efficiently.

Triethylene glycol (TEG) dehydrators are the most prevalent technology for removing water vapor from natural gas . Molecular sieve dryers are also quite common in gas processing plants. Molecular sieve units have operating processes similar to industrial heat-regenerated compressed air dryers. Natural gas, however, often needs to be purified at the wellhead before reaching the processing plant. Deliquescent dehydrators are normally used, in remote locations where no power supply exists, to dry small gas volumes located between the wellhead and these main treatment plants. The most common applications are instrument gas, fuel gas, sales gas, and emissions mitigation.

When a submarine docks for maintenance, the Navy requires a high-pressure, dockside, pier-power air compressor ready to be used in an explosion-proof environment. We have technicians working on military ships and submarines worldwide. For this, both UAPC and some of our technicians have been prequalified and have different secrecy clearances depending upon the project. In addition to our rental air compressors, we also have a fleet of CNG compressors available for long-term rent for the CNG refueling market.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is an alternative fuel source (to diesel and gasoline) with far-reaching benefits to North America. Strategically important benefits include energy independence, improved air quality, job creation, and lower and more stable fuel prices. This article discusses natural gas desiccant dryer requirements in Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) refueling stations, compares deliquescent to desiccant dryers and reviews two on-site field gas upgrading examples in displacing diesel fuel.

When the Environmental Protection Agency was formed, in1970, it used its congressional mandate to issue all sorts of regulations regarding the discharge of contaminants into the land, water and air of this country. Over the years, air pollution has been one of the key areas where the Agency has put in place stringent requirements to control the emission of VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds. Today the mandates of this government agency require extensive steps be taken to curtail their release by all operators of tank farms, chemical plants, refineries, fermentation plants and landfill operations. As a result of these regulations the Bio-Mass utilization industry was born.

This chemical plant spent an estimated \$3,153,022 annually on energy (steam and electricity) to operate the compressed air system at their facility. The plant staff established their energy costs as 5.3 cents per kWh and \$9.00 /1,000 lbs of steam per hour. The set of projects implemented in this system assessment reduced energy costs by an estimated \$2,794,598 or 88% of current use. In addition, these projects reduce demand on the boiler systems and add reliability and back-up to the compressed air system.

Keeping an open mind is critical in all system assessments. Each client has different priorities and circumstances. In this case, the elimination of the “close-scrapes” with insufficient pressure was the priority. The energy and rental/maintenance savings realized were just an added bonus. In this article, we have focused on the supply-side of the system and how the centrifugal compressors could be made to supply the system reliably – without the need for rental air compressors.

Compressed Air Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Sid Van der Meer and Mr. Terry Nickel from Northwest Equipment Ltd in Airdrie, Canada.