Zero Emission Power from Oil and Gas Production Streams using Organic Rankine Cycles

Alan Rossiter

Executive Director, External Relations & Educational Program Development

UH Energy, University of Houston

ABSTRACT

Fluids from oil and gas wells are often produced at temperatures between 200 and 250°F – an ideal temperature range for organic Rankine cycles. There are over 900,000 producing oil and gas wells across US lands and waters, and it has been conservatively estimated that at least 7,500 of these well sites could be used for power production using ORC packages, producing a total of between 937.5 MW and 1,575 MW of emissions-free power for consumption within the United States. A current DOE project is developing this concept with a pilot project in in the Elk Hills field near Bakersfield, California, using a platform based on a patent‐pending system developed by ICE Thermal Harvesting, LLC ("ICE"). This presentation discusses the goals and concepts of the work, the underlying technology, and the results obtained to date.