Flare from Gas Plants in Alberta - How Much Potential Electricity is Wasted

This is probably a little known fact, outside of the oil and gas industry, or people who live in Western Canada. There is a lot of gas that is flared because it can not be processed. Typically it is because of safety reason, if something somewhere in the process stops or slows down, the gas that comes into the facility from the field level needs to be flared as it can't be processed.

In fact, based on August 2009 figures, companies flare on average $457,720 worth of gas a day based on $5/mcf for the month of August. This is equal to 91,544 mcf/day. If this flare were to be harnessed, assuming that it is a constant flare and the gas would be of good enough quality to drive a turbine, then in August 2009, the total flare would have been able to produce 508MW/h of electricity or the equivalent of providing enough electricity for about 400,000 homes. Pretty significant when you think about it. This would be equal to producing enough electricity for most or all of the residences in Calgary or Edmonton, assuming 1 residential location per 3 to 4 people.

Biggest offender is a large Canadian based oil and gas company with about 51 MW/h, which would be almost enough to provide electricity for about 40,000 homes per year or probably a city the size of Red Deer.

Over all, if you were to harness this flare for power it would allow for the reduction of approximately 768,970,746 pounds of CO2 from a coal powered electricity plant or 490,676,572 pounds of CO2 from a gas fired electricity plant, just for the month of August 2009, there are still another 11 months in the year.

So by harnessing even a portion of the flare from gas from facilities, oil and gas companies could have another revenue stream that is highly profitable. You have to ask yourself, why haven't they?