September 2007 Issue
the summit series
Towards a Better Gas Flare
In the early 1990s, the Alberta Research Council found that flaring combustion wasn’t always as efficient as industry and government believed.
The discrepancies were a call to action for Larry Kostiuk, P.Eng., who embarked on a project that would earn him a 2007 Summit Award.
BY FRANCINE MAXWELL
The PEGG
_______________________
 |
FIRED UP |
Larry Kostiuk, P.Eng., thought he’d follow in his father’s footsteps and become a mechanic. After all, he was interested in how equipment and engines work, just like his dad.
Three degrees in mechanical engineering later, Dr. Kostiuk is one of the University of Alberta’s many accomplished researchers and professors. And his fascination with combustion hasn’t diminished — it’s just moved out of the engine block.
In 1996, Dr. Kostiuk began researching and testing the effects of flaring on the environment, through measuring combustion efficiency. His work resulted in a new standard for the oil and gas communities, at home and abroad, to measure their emissions against.
It has also earned him recognition from his peers as the 2007 recipient of the Environmental Excellence Summit Award (now the Environment and Sustainability Award).
“I remember talking with my friend near the end of our bachelor’s degrees in college,” says Dr. Kostiuk. “We were discussing, What was a big enough engineering topic to still be relevant when we retired? I decided energy would be something that would be relevant, and I started with combustion and its impact on the environment.”
The
conflict was too much for me, and I
waded into the problem. My education in combustion made
me say — hey, this is very confusing. I proposed experiments to help settle
the confusion.
-Dr. Larry Kostiuk, P.Eng.
That was a decision made in the early 1980s — not the best of times
for engineers in Alberta.
Work wasn’t easy to come by, so Dr. Kostiuk decided to stay in university.
He earned his master’s degree and followed it up with a PhD. All three
of his degrees are in mechanical engineering.
“I look back now and think that it was very fortuitous that I got the PhD.
It was the inability to keep a job that made the path to environmental issues.
The PhD gave me the background to work with.”
A Backdrop from ARC
Enter the Alberta Research Council. In 1991, ARC began to do experiments on the
flaring of solution gases, because they aren’t a target for drillers. According
to an accepted methodology from California, as long as a flame was burning, combustion
was about 98 per cent efficient.
That’s not what the ARC research discovered, however. Flaring of solution gases could be as low as 62 per cent efficient, and the practice emitted toxins into the air.
“The conflict was too much for me, and I waded into the problem. My education in combustion made me say — hey, this is very confusing. I proposed experiments to help settle the confusion,” says Dr. Kostiuk.
It took four years just to build a facility and to calibrate all the possible environmental variables. Things such as wind speed, gas composition, temperature or precipitation — all these can affect flaring. The entire project lasted some seven years.
Its results were enlightening.
“Simple fuels such as methane or propane burned robustly with little environmental impact. They emit basically carbon dioxide and water vapour,” says Dr. Kostiuk.
“When more complicated fuels were used, they didn’t burn as cleanly. Weaker combustion combined with wind, and they just fell apart and emitted raw fuels and sometimes created toxic compounds.”
Good Flaring, Bad Flaring
Proving that having one, overly simple standard could be environmentally
dangerous, Dr. Kostiuk’s project and research became the basis for regulatory
bodies to create guidelines for flaring.
“We determined where the boundaries are between the good flaring and the
bad. Basically, if you were working within one set of parameters, fine, but if
you wanted to use different parameters, don’t go there.”
Dr. Kostiuk says flaring isn’t just an Alberta concern. It’s a global one, and he hopes his research leads to positive change.
Now that the effect of flaring on the environment is measurable, it’s up to industry and government in Canada to set an example for the rest of the world. They can do this by finding alternatives to flaring weaker combustion gases and by more stringently regulating the use of flaring, he says.
In the meantime, Dr. Kostiuk has turned his attention to yet another energy source — or rather, how to use an existing resource in a new way.
“The goal is to eventually use water to directly produce electrical energy. It may not be possible, but we’re going to try.”
The Environmental and Sustainability Award recognizes excellence in the application of engineering, geological and geophysical methods for the preservation of the environment and the practice of sustainable development.