Posted on 05/23/2013 5:37:19 AM PDT by thackney
An energy company has received approval to start construction of a new natural gas processing plant in northwestern North Dakota.
The Oneok company says the plant will cost $160 million and be able to process 100 million cubic feet of natural gas each day. Oneok is based in Tulsa, Okla.
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
These plants have been popping up around the country. The industry is quite busy producing them for the new gas production locations.
They plants vary in units but remove "impurities" to produce pipeline quality gas that can be used by consumers. It may remove water, CO2, H2S and more valuable Natural Gas liquids like Ethane, Propane, Butane, etc.
This type of activity is our country’s best and maybe last hope to survive the debt we have been burdened with.
Thackney, who makes the plants? Is is a “traded” firm(s) and if so what is their stock symbol(s)
It maybe low BTU, but these small turbines don't care, it could be cow farts and it would still run.
Now you have Electrical Generation to send back to the Grid, or use it on site....
A penny for your thoughts...
But what about the squirrels that will perish during construction? We are becoming a cruel nation. /s
There are quite a few. Some hold specific process licenses but most of these are basic systems combined together. A company like Ref-Chem or Exterran may design the process systems and fabricate the major vessels or sub out the fabrication. Often another company is hired to engineer/design the site, connections, utilities and balance of plant. That company may include construction, or construction management, or simple produce a Issued for Construction drawing and document package.
Sometimes a larger owner will have their own process engineers and do the main system engineering and hire someone else to implement the construction package.
There are a lot of folks in the business, not all of them are doing it well. Sometimes this midstream work is so fast paced that way too many corners are cut. There is some scary junk being built today in this industry. There is also some good quality plants, usually the case in bigger companies with broadly recognized names.
I’ve seen some simple plants held together with worn-out duct tape and so many code violation it was scary. Just because a company is in the business, doesn’t make them a good investment, even in this climate. And I am understand the industry, that doesn’t make me a good source for understanding the business/money side.
OffGas doesn’t mean low BTU. The lowest BTU of this stream is likely the final finished product, methane with as much of the heavier stuff stripped out.
It is more like corrosive and non-combustibles in varying supply.
Note, that tail gas probably also includes some very low pressure stuff that is combustible. Sending it to a small flare is often cheaper than cleaning it up and pressurizing it up to be used in a turbine or sending it to a pipeline.
The whole purpose of these plants is to squeeze ever dollar out of the raw gas. They are not throwing away money at the flare. Methane is cheap. Handling low volume, low pressure amounts can be more expensive than the product.
Had to look Capstone up, we have a interesting situation here. We own the land, the minerals and all the production, scattered over 42 square miles. Producing our own elec is very appealing.
Muncipalities with dumps producing copious amounts of like gas are finding these Capstone type units appealing, see post 10, this gent thinks it might be a go...
Will reply privately later, got to get some things done...
I have designed Trash Gas facilities. I have done analysis of Capstone for use at several sites. I can say with confidently they are better at marketing than long-term operations. There is a reason their web site focus on the “Green” aspect of the application over the cost.
say with confidently...
in English, that would read:
say with confidence...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.