Natural Gas Flaring—Alternative Solutions

Abstract

Gas flaring is one of the major problems in the world. It consumes useful natural resources and produces harmful wastes, which have negative impacts on the society. It is one of the most tedious energy and environmental problems facing the world today. It is a multi-billion dollar waste, a local environmental catastrophe and environmental problem which has persisted for decades.From the year 1996-2010.25 million ft 3 of natural gas was flared (NNPC). This is equivalent to losing about 12,967.952 × 10 12 Btu of energy that would have been used to generate power or converted to other forms of energy. In 2015, the World Bank estimated that 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas produced with oil is flared annually, mostly in developing countries without gas processing infrastructures, or other means of utilizing the produced gas. It is widely known that flaring or even, venting of gas contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, with negative impacts on the environment. Thus, alternative solutions to reduce or utilize the quantity of gas flared are crucial issues. Therefore, the need to study and provide detailed understanding of these alternative solutions to gas flaring is important. This paperoutlined the harmful effects of gas flaring and the different possible alternatives to gas flaring. The proposed alternative solutions are gas for secondary oil recovery, feedstock for petrochemical plants, domestic uses, LNG & CNG, as well as energy conservation by storing as gas hydrate for future use or other purposes. Gas hydrate is stable above the freezing point of water and sufficiently high pressure. It is relatively stable under its saturation temperature and pressure and also much denser than normal ice. This property of gas hydrate can be experimentally investigated and capitalized on, to effectively store natural gas as hydrate for energy conservation instead of flaring the gas wastefully. The alternative solutions will convincingly reduce and in the nearest future stop gas flaring globally.

A Mixed Method Inquiry of Gas Flaring Consequences, Mitigation Strategies and Policy Implication for Environmental Sustainability in Nigeria

“…The studies found that over-exploration of oil and gas is contributing to the environmental degradation in Nigeria. Much was also said on the difficulty associated with gas flaring that is currently at the rate of 12% in Nigeria (NNPC, 2017;Aregbe, 2018). The inadequate infrastructures capable of reinjection of associated natural gas into the ground contribute to the major reasons for flaring gas in Nigeria.…”

Impact of gas flaring on communities in Delta region of Nigeria, narrative review part 1: environmental health perspective

“…Natural gas can be found in oil and natural gas fields, and in coal beds as coalbed methane. 3 When petroleum exploration commenced, natural gas was not considered useful because of the difficulties in transporting to markets and its storage. As a result, the gas was burned at the well or vented into the atmosphere, to create room for other operations and to avoid gas explosion.…”

“…As a result, the gas was burned at the well or vented into the atmosphere, to create room for other operations and to avoid gas explosion. 3 Presently, flaring and venting is ongoing in locations where local markets and gas transportation infrastructures are not available, or where the gas is contaminated with other incombustible gases.…”

“…2 This practice has drawn global attention for years and policy makers have brainstormed to reduce or end routine flaring. 3 reported that flaring gas was responsible for several health and environmental challenges and some negative impacts of gas flaring include global warming, climate change, environmental pollution, loss of livestock and respiratory challenges. Nigeria has the ninth largest gas reserve in the world with a reserve of 199 trillion cubic feet (TCF).…”

Environmental Challenges Associated with Processing of Heavy Crude Oils

“…Process flaring usually comes with a lower rate, such as during petrochemical process; this involves the removal and subsequent flaring of waste gases in the production stream. The volumes of flared gas at such processes can vary during normal functionality and plant failures from a few m 3 /h to thousands m 3 /h, respectively [26].…”