How the CAP3 & 5 air package are making a difference in GHG emmsions in the Oil and Gas industry.
A common practise in the oil and gas industry is to use wellhead gas to run instrumentation
The CAP3 package uses a maintenance free power generator producing 120/240 Volt grid quality power to operate an air compressor to mitigate natural gas venting from Pneumatics at off-grid well sites.
Pneumatic Controllers means an automated instrument used for maintaining a process condition such as liquid level, pressure, pressure difference and temperature. Based on the source of power, two types of pneumatic controllers are
Natural gas-driven pneumatic controller means a pneumatic controller powered by pressurized natural gas. x Non-natural gas-driven pneumatic controller means an instrument that is actuated using other sources of power than pressurized natural gas; examples include solar, electric, and instrument air.
Natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers come in a variety of designs for a variety of uses.
Pneumatic pumps are devices that use gas pressure to drive a fluid by raising or reducing the pressure of the fluid by means of a positive displacement, a piston or set of rotating impellers. Pneumatic pumps are generally used at oil and natural gas production sites where electricity is not readily available The supply gas for these pumps can be compressed air, but most often these pumps use natural gas from the production stream
Pneumatic Controllers Pneumatic controllers are automated instruments used for maintaining a process condition such as liquid level, pressure, pressure differential, and temperature. In many situations, across all segments of the oil and gas industry, pneumatic controllers make use of the available high-pressure natural gas to operate control of a valve. In these natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers, natural gas is released with every actuation of the valve, i.e., valve movement. In some designs, natural gas is also released continuously from the valve control pilot. The rate at which the continuous release occurs is referred to as the bleed rate. Bleed rates are dependent on the design and operating characteristics of the device. Similar designs will have similar steady-state rates when operated under similar conditions. There are three basic designs of natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers: (1) continuous bleed controllers are used to modulate flow, liquid level, or pressure, and gas is vented continuously at a rate that may vary over time; (2) intermittent controllers release gas only when they open or close a valve or as they throttle the gas flow; and (3) zero bleed controllers, which are self-contained devices that release gas to a downstream pipeline instead of to the atmosphere (EPA, 2011a). As noted above, intermittent controllers are devices that only emit gas during actuation and do not have a continuous bleed rate. Thus, the actual amount of emissions from an intermittent controller is dependent on the amount of natural gas vented per actuation and how often it is actuated. Continuous bleed controllers also vent an additional volume of gas during actual emissions from a continuous bleed device also depend, in part, on the frequency of activation and the amount of gas vented during activation.
