Method and apparatus for disposal of well flare gas in oil and gas drilling and recovery operations

Abstract

A wellhead gas recovery system and method for the generation of power from wellhead gas is provided. A gas conduit is used to direct wellhead gas from a wellhead casing or wellhead bore to a stirling engine where the wellhead gas is used as the fuel source for the stirling engine. The wellhead gas is ignited and the burning wellhead gas is used as the heat source for the stirling engine. The thermal energy from the burning wellhead gas is converted transferred into motion by the stirling engine and the output of the stirling engine can be used to drive devices at the wellsite, generate electricity or other use.

Description

[0001] This invention is in the field of wellhead gas recovery and more specifically generating power using wellhead gas collected as a by-product of oil collection.BACKGROUND

[0002] Natural gas occurs in the collection of oil from an oil well, typically referred to as wellhead gas, because it concentrates at a wellhead during oil collection. Typically, this gas dealt with by either piping it to a collection system, shutting it in the well head, or in many cases venting or flaring it off.

[0003] Ideally, this gas is collected for later processing because the gas can often be processed into a saleable commodity. However, because many well sites are in relatively remote locations and the amount of gas collected is often relatively small, the requirements of collecting and transporting the gas for further processing is often uneconomical.

[0004] Raw wellhead gas (wellhead gas that has not been treated) typically comprises a mixture of methane, ethane, propane nitrogen carbon-dioxide, helium, ...

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