{"id":42077,"date":"2024-01-22T11:07:46","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T11:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=42077"},"modified":"2024-01-22T11:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T11:14:19","slug":"extracting-helium-from-flare-gas-novel-approach-for-diminishing-north-americas-helium-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/extracting-helium-from-flare-gas-novel-approach-for-diminishing-north-americas-helium-shortages\/42077\/","title":{"rendered":"Extracting helium from flare gas: A novel approach for diminishing North America\u2019s helium shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"
Play with these numbers: The oil and gas extraction business has existed approximately 18 times longer than the pure-play helium extraction business (160 years versus nine).<\/p>\n
With helium reaching as high as $800 per thousand cubic foot (Edelgas), elemental helium is now approaching 260 times the value of natural gas. This is unsustainable, considering North America\u2019s dependence on essential MRI machines and semiconductors<\/a>. Not to mention helium\u2019s pivotal (and irreplaceable) role in space travel\/satellites, quantum research, leak detection, welding, etc.<\/p>\n A decades-long adage in the oil patch states: \u201cIn the pursuit of economic oil deposits, go to where it\u2019s already been found\u201d. The same axiom holds today for nascent helium explorationists.<\/p>\n Stripping this vital commodity from established natural gas fields was a logical first step for several early-entry helium hunters. Noteworthy recent examples include Air Products\/Kinder Morgan (Doe Canyon, Co); NASCO (DBK, Az), GNG Partners (formerly Paradox Resources \u2212 Lisbon, Ut); and New Era Helium (Pecos Slope, TX).<\/p>\n These are meritorious undertakings, although it still comes down to economics. Purchasing a proven field is capital intensive, and be ready to open your wallet for a facility conversion or new build. On the other hand, the portal to opportunity can be enhanced when the world wakes up to the fact that helium is associated with discarded (i.e., free) flare gas.<\/p>\n Considering the United States alone flares ~320 billion cubic feet (nine billion cubic meters) of methane yearly, (World Bank, 2023) while another 21 billion cubic meters (BCM) is vented and leaked per year (IEA Methane Tracker, 2023), exploiting flare gas for associated helium and additional by-products could provide a straight flush in spades.<\/p>\n Although the Williston basin in North Dakota has been one of the most prolific oil basins in the United States over the past two decades, it has also had its drawbacks. An insufficient pipeline network has resulted in the flaring of over one billion cubic feet (28 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day (EERC, 2022). Multiple years of brain-mashing between legislative bodies and oil operators have not borne fruit, and well-funded environmental groups have the ears of many.<\/p>\n A novel approach to loosen this calamitous log jam, spearheaded by ML and Associates, is to utilise state-of-the-art processing techniques to simultaneously sequester carbon dioxide while harvesting numerous saleable by-products derived from the hydraulically fractured Middle Bakken Formation (Devonian-Mississippian).<\/p>\n By incorporating and utilising the processes described below, the practice of flaring gas from the Bakken in the Williston Basin could be substantially downgraded.<\/p>\n Additionally, with the sequential or simultaneous extraction of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He), LNG, NGLs, and high-purity carbon dioxide (CO2) can be captured and sold, or the CO2 can be sequestered (CCUS). Hydrogen sulphide and leftover methane, nitrogen, and by-gases will be removed.<\/p>\n There are two vastly different methods employed to extract hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen is harvested from the gas stream by physically reforming methane (CH4) through the application of a two-stage process: Either ATR (Autothermal Reforming plus Water Gas Shift reaction) or Methane Steam Reforming (MSR), both \u2018hot processes\u2019. They yield H2, plus carbon monoxide (CO) in the first phase (ATR), and further hydrogen with high-purity CO2 (carbon dioxide) after the second (SMR) and final stage. Diatomic (blue) hydrogen can then be utilised in fuel cells to generate electricity, ostensibly for various human transport programmes. There exists the great possibility of utilising hydrogen as a fuel for aviation in both piston-engine and turbine-powered vehicles as there is precedence for this today.<\/p>\n There are several methods commercially available to extract 99.995%+<\/sup> pure helium from gas streams where the helium concentration can be as low as 0.01%. These include the use of passive selectively semi-permeable membranes and Pressure Swing Adsorption. Cryogenic methods can also be employed.<\/p>\n Both the hydrogen and helium processes operate with modular \u2018off the shelf\u2019 technology, which is readily available in and for oil extraction, as well as other industries. The novelty here is the process of sequential extraction of the gases, closed-loop processes, as well as the gaseous by-products from flared surface gas, not the mechanics of the well-known, well-tested, and efficient extraction equipment.<\/p>\nAn example from North Dakota, USA<\/h3>\n
Pollution has no borders<\/h3>\n