Thermal Mass Flowmeters for "Green Completions" in Oil & Gas Production

Thermal Mass Flowmeter
(Courtesy of Fox ThermalInstruments)

When a natural gas well site is drilled and developed, there is often an excess of natural gas which escapes into the atmosphere or is burned off in a flaring process.  As the EPA continues to tighten regulatory restrictions on gas production emissions, the Oil & Gas Industry is moving to the EPA recommended "Reduced Emissions Completions (RECs)" or “Green Completion” technology.  This technology captures escaping methane and other hydrocarbons at the well head. Instead of releasing or flaring it, green completion introduces equipment that provides a closed-loop systems that captures this gas, separates the gas from oil, water, mud in the flowback stream, and produces a clean ready to use new gas stream that would normally be lost.

Not only is this technology good for the environment, it is also provides economic benefits to the operators. Whereas open pits release a significant amount of combustion emissions and VOCs into the atmosphere, and flaring produces significant amounts of combustion emissions, green completion technology uses closed storage and vapor recovery. The methane and hydrocarbons are recovered and fed back into the system as a product for sale, or are recovered to power equipment and machinery on-site for additional cost savings.

Thermal mass flow meter applications are abundant. Used primarily to measure the flow of gases from the outlet of the separator tanks or to monitor fuel gas usage, there are also additional applications on the various pieces of well-site equipment.

For more information on applying thermal mass flowmeters in oil and gas applications, contact:

Power Specialties, Inc.
9118 E. 72nd Terrace
Raytown, MO 64133
Toll Free: (800) 432-6550
Phone: (816) 353-6550
www.powerspecialties.com