BLOG: Through The Pipeline

[#1]

Two engine technologies are helping oil and gas producers save money - and improve the environment.

Both dual fuel and dedicated natural gas engines have been around for years. But increased global concern about emissions and associated gas flaring, as well as the acknowledgment that natural gas is both abundant and less expensive than diesel, have renewed interest in the technologies.

Starting in 2012, the Russian government will require oil companies to capture up to 95 percent of the natural gases associated with petroleum extraction - fuel that is now emitted into the atmosphere via gas flaring. While there is an environmental cost to flaring, there is a financial loss as well: In Nigeria, as much as 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas is flared each day, which amounts to an estimated yearly loss of $2.5 billion (U.S.).

The dual fuel and dedicated natural gas technologies can harness that associated gas for energy, greatly reducing the need for flaring. The use of the flare gas also reduces the need for diesel fuel, saving operating costs. But both technologies have strengths and potential drawbacks:

• A dedicated natural gas engine offers more fuel cost savings and a cleaner emissions footprint than either diesel or dual fuel designs. But supplying the natural gas can sometimes be a challenge and gas-burning engines are slower to respond to transient loads.

• Dual fuel engines also have a proven track record of fuel cost savings and lower emissions. Most can tolerate use of associated gas and offer the flexibility of switching between diesel and natural gas depending on need. Again, fuel supply can be an issue, as can the fact that the natural gas needs to be of a specific quality to assure best operation.

Caterpillar is planning to release a comprehensive dual fuel solution for land drilling and land production applications in late 2012. The new product will operate on relatively low-quality field gas and continually optimize diesel and gas combustion efficiency in harsh oil and gas environments.

What concerns do you have about dual fuel engines? Is natural gas readily available in your application? How important are fuel cost concerns in your decision-making process? What innovations have you adopted to reach environmental goals?

[#2]

I worked for Caterpillar Europe for 10 years , In 2008 to 2011 I was the Caterpillar Advisor at the Exxonmobil Facility MPN Nigeria.

In many occasions I approached Exxonmobil management with the idea of installing Caterpillar Gas Engines for Power Generation.

The Onshore facilities were operating 3512 and 3516 Diesel Engine generator packages,One major problem in Nigeria would be fuel being stolen and 20% water added to it to compensate the stolen fuel. I once joked and told the management I was on a secret research mission to learn and adapt Caterpillar Engines to run on water.

The damage and maintenance costs soared while I continued to battle the forces of corruption, MPN was flaring gas for 30 years, management appreciated the idea of operating gas engines but no concrete efforts were made to install and run gas engines.I guess it does not matter in the end in these countries, people are only concerned to the barrels of oil being produced each day and the short sighted views or the lack of leadership to put forward these economical logical solutions were not always important to them.

I believe that once people wake up to the idea of Gas Engines in Africa there would be a huge market for Caterpillar Gas engines in countries like Nigeria.

Nigeria however is a place where you take one step forward and ten steps back, The Corruption and the lack of vision, investment and leadership in the country and in the large oil companies is a sad tale of woe and wasted energy.

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."  Non-cognitive skills can matter as much as I.Q. for workplace success.

[#3]

i work in italy, my personality esperience is full positive with dual fuel application, wi have project to start at sun dual fuel application on 3412 gen set with altronic system, our target is reduce of 50% NOX , without catalist,the  istallation is in north of italy ,are in cogeneration and we use vegetable crude oil, soo not only oil field need and use, i have many friends with planty years of esperience, special with cat engine in many application, and tail me is wery low cost to compare ader solution to reduce pollution, soo welcome and we wait some good news, redars ciao Claudio

[#4]

Am working for 7-up bottling company in Nigeria as generator manager and we rely on diesel generator as prime power source.in order to survive in our harsh condition we decide to install duel fuel system On our 3412 gen-set with comap system but unfortunately this conversion cause catastrophic failure with no11and 12 piston burst the block due piston seizure result from tremendous overheating.so saving fuel cost was our goal but blackout result from generator failure make us loose market .

[#5]

The Caterpillar dual fuel option can't come soon enough. And, it mustn't be just restricted to Petroleum applications.

A Carbon Tax has just been legislated in Australia. All manner of energy users are looking at ways of reducing their carbon footprint. Even Electric Power consumers are looking at using their standby gensets to reduce their reliance upon coal-fired utility power. Some large Data Centres are looking at using their gensets on100% biodiesel fuel, to give a zero carbon footprint.

Dual fuel is being requested at mine sites, and we are starting to convert engines using third party conversion kits, but we are concerned about the commercial risks of warranty gaps, and the disputes that can arise if a failure occurs. We need an integrated solution, complete with published emissions data, quantified performance data (transient performance capabilities, fuel consumption, exhaust flow data, etc) and a full Factory warranty for dual fuel products- particularly generating sets.

Customers want diesel fuel transient load change capability, diesel reliability, and 100% diesel capability for flexibility, but reduced fuel cost and reduced diesel emissions.

Bring on the Cat dual fuel option!

[#6]

rahal...we are developing our system to be able to tolerate associated well head gas (gas reelased during crude oil production at the wellhead), can you share any data on the gas fuel you were using?

[#7]

I did some experimenting with dual fuel (diesel pilot injection) and found that it is very difficult with mechanical controlled engines to control the level of detonation with the relatively high compression ratio (14:1?) required for diesel operation.  I found that much over 60% gaseous fuel ratio was about all you could get when trying to achieve the diesel rating.  We had a PLC controlling the diesel fuel rack; this was before electronically controlled engines.

With the electronic controls and detonation sensing that Cat has today, it should be much easier to balance the diesel/gas ratios with the load changes and achieve the best combination of these new dual fuel engines.

Al Hunt

[#8]

Personally, I think fuel cost concerns are really important. With the economic trends as of late, it's good to stay far away from the financial brink. When I worked at an oil refining plant back in Alaska, I really saw first hand a side of the industry I'd never understood as a consumer. Profit does matter. Right now, reducing costs is, I think, one of the best ways to do it. That's a big reason why I support a switch to Caterpillar gas engines. 

[#9]

This comment follows my recent post under Land Drilling:  Do dual fuel generators become unreliable at high loads when the gas-to-diesel fuel ratio is very high (e.g., above 80%)?

[#10]

Hello, all,

We are developing an equipment (mobile and containerized) to purify the APG (wellhead gas) in order to make it just like natural gas (CNG or LNG).

Thus, engines could run with their own production - no CNG/LNG logistics needed.

hope someone can provide some info regarding the following:

- What composition of wellhead gas can the dual engines take?

- Is it better if the engines run on natural gas than on wellhead gas?

- Is there any guidance regarding heating value of the gas?

- Ratio gas/diesel vs. heating value or wobbe index?

I would appreciate being contacted by someone at CAT that has technical info, as we would like to design our offerings to help CAT engine users.