Flaring
The flaring is the burning of combustible gases by means of a gas torch , a long tube which at the upper end of the torch head, a burner with an ignition device bear. Flaring is predominantly used in oil and gas production systems and to a lesser extent in oil refineries , chemical plants and filled landfills .
Areas of application
The flaring is used where another use for the flared gases according to the state of the art or according to market demand does not make sense or does not appear financially interesting. For example, substances are flared that are not continuously produced in fixed quantities or only in small quantities in industrial plants. Because of the rising energy prices, attempts are being made whenever possible to use such substances to generate usable energy (for example process steam , electricity or electricity and heat in block-type thermal power stations ).
The associated gas produced during oil production is flared if the costs for processing and transport exceed the expected proceeds. After evaluating current satellite data, the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) announced that 141 billion cubic meters (billion cubic meters) of associated gas had been flared worldwide in 2017, which is around 3.8 percent of global natural gas production this year (3680.4 Billion cubic meters). Compared to the previous year, flaring decreased for the first time since 2010, despite a slight increase in oil production. In the 1990s and 2000s, flaring was even higher at 150 to 170 billion cubic meters - corresponding to around 30% of the gas consumption in the European Union.
Furthermore, flare systems also serve as safety systems for the rapid expansion of chemical systems in the event of operational disruptions , in order to prevent, for example, hydrocarbons or other toxic substances from entering the atmosphere unburned.
In biogas plants , the flaring serves as an alternative gas consumer in the event of a combined heat and power plant failure.
Environmental impact
Greenhouse gas emissions
The open flaring of the gases (mostly volatile hydrocarbons ) that arise primarily from oil and gas production, contributes significantly to global warming without at least using the energy content of the gas. According to results from the analysis of data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program , in 2004 Russia and Nigeria topped the list of countries that flared the most gas unused. In Nigeria, despite a ban by the Federal High Court of Nigeria (2005), 43 percent of Nigeria's production was still flared in 2006. This has also been prohibited by law since 2008, but is still practiced.
However, the release of unburned gas by direct blowing is even more harmful to the climate than flaring. Thus, methane (CH 4 ) and other volatile hydrocarbons usually by flaring to carbon dioxide (CO 2 burnt) and water vapor. CO 2 is a well-known greenhouse gas , but the greenhouse effect of CH 4 is 25 times stronger.
Other emissions
Because untreated associated gas contains methane as well as heavy metals, hydrogen sulfide and other compounds, improper combustion results in CO 2 and water vapor, as well as large amounts of soot . This is considered to be carcinogenic and has an intensifying effect on the melting of ice in the Arctic. The acid rain that falls in the Niger Delta as a result of emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from gas flares is so aggressive that the corrugated iron roofs of huts in the region corrode unusually quickly.
The open flaring of gases that contain halogenated hydrocarbons , as can be the case with landfill gas (up to 1.3 g / m³ chloromethane ) , also carries a high risk . Incomplete combustion of such gases can produce harmful dioxins and furans .
Alternatives
Although many billions of cubic meters of fossil fuels are in fact destroyed every year by flaring in the course of oil and natural gas production, it was usually considered a more cost-effective alternative for energy companies: It was supposedly simply not profitable to collect and process associated gas in remote production regions or on offshore production platforms to liquefy it, for example (which would require building expensive liquefaction plants) and then transport it to potential end users. In the meantime, however, in many producing countries, especially in Russia, the amount of flared gas has been reduced significantly.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anselm Waldermann: Waste of natural gas - profit thinking beats environmental protection . In: Spiegel Online , September 6, 2007
- ↑ a b New Satellite Data Reveals Progress: Global Gas Flaring Declined in 2017. Press release on the World Bank website (worldbank.org), July 17, 2018 (accessed December 8, 2019)
- ↑ BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2018. BP plc, London 2018 ( PDF 6.5 MB), p. 28
- ↑ Nicola Armaroli, Vincenzo Balzani, Nick Serpone: Powering Planet Earth. Energy Solutions for the Future . Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-527-33409-4 , p. 36.
- ↑ Christopher D. Elvidge, Kimberly E. Baugh, Dee W. Pack, Christina Milesi, Edward H. Erwin: A Twelve Year Record of National and Global Gas Flaring Volumes Estimated Using Satellite Data. Technical report, World Bank, 2007 ( PDF 4.6 MB)
- ↑ Volker Mrasek: Energy has fizzled out - oil producers are flaring gas worth 40 billion dollars . In: Spiegel Online , September 6, 2007
- ↑ a b Gas torch promotes ice melt . In: taz , January 25, 2008.
- ↑ Flared - How the oil companies are killing our climate . Documentary, Germany 2011, 52 min ( table of contents and excerpt on globalfilm.de; complete film on YouTube)
- ↑ “There are more than 120 such mega gas flares in the Niger Delta. Most of them belong to Shell, the largest energy company in the world. ”Alexander Göbel: The" forgotten oil spill "in the Niger Delta. ( Memento from June 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: tagesschau.de , September 2, 2010.
- ↑ Susanne Donner: Natural gas - blown in the wind. In: Spiegel Online , September 22, 2012, accessed January 7, 2017
- ↑ entire paragraph according to: Environment Agency's National Landfill Gas Group: Guidance on Landfill Gas Flaring. Version 2.1. Environment Agency / Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Bristol / Stirling 2002 ( PDF 734 kB), pp. 18, 48 (Table A5.1)
