Lloydminster– Last year at the Saskatchewan Oil Show in Weyburn Black Gold Rush Industries was showing off its enclosed vapour combustor designed for combusting low pressure vent gas. This year, at the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show, they have another new product in addition to their combustor on display – a power generating system that takes advantage of low pressure vent gas on a wellsite. It’s their latest tool in Black Gold Rush’s methane reduction technologies.
The product is called the Rush Power 1000, and the 1,000 indicates the amount of continuous watts it produces.
Dallas Rosevear, general manager, explained, “It uses low pressure vent gas which is already being wasted to generate the continuous 1,000 watts of power for your site.”
It does this by integrating a Sterling engine, which Rosevear says is a one of the most highly efficient engine designs in the world. “It takes very small amounts of waste gas to generate that power,” he said.
Since gas output can vary, the system has a battery storage system, with two batteries. It draws power from the batteries when gas power is low, and stores power otherwise. An integrated inverter puts out clean power. The European-built Sterling engine operates on a 50 hertz cycle. The inverter converts it to North American standard 60 hertz.
“You could run your lighting, your SCADA, security, or your burner management systems all together,” Rosevear said. That’s more economical than using big diesel gen sets to run that same equipment.
Additionally, heat tracing can be powered by the system.
The generator can run alongside the combustor depending on the amount of vent gas you need to deal with or as a standalone system. It is possible to also group multiple units together.
Using waste gas instead of good, valuable propane offers a significant savings to the oil company. Rosevear also said it will qualify for carbon credits.
The Rush Power 1000 uses maximum 14 cubic metres per day of gas.
Rosevear said that between the Rush Burner, used to heat oil in the tanks, Rush Power to generate power, and the Rush Combustor, it is now possible to completely eliminate all vent gas on a well site.
Their products are made in Sundre, Alta.
