Big News! DOE Awards Prabhu Energy Labs $10M for Vent & Flare Mitigation

Prabhu Energy Labs (PEL) was awarded a grant of nearly $10M for mitigation of vented and flared methane emissions by the US Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, administered by the National Energy Technology Lab. 

One of just four projects selected in a competitive process, PEL's proposed project will help eliminate natural gas flaring at oil production sites by converting otherwise wasted natural gas into value-added products—cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions like methane that contribute to climate change. Specifically, PEL will develop and test a patented high-temperature heat exchanger at oil/gas well sites in the Green River Basin, Wyoming and other locations to obtain useful energy from gases currently being flared or vented.  

The project team includes GTI Energy and a Technical Review Committee with representatives from major oil and gas industry partners, with Wyoming-based Jonah Energy as our field site partner.

Oil Field Flare Gas Energy Systems (OFFGASES) --Prabhu Energy Labs (Mission Viejo, California) plans to develop the Oxiperator to obtain useful energy from a wide range of gases being flared or vented. The Oxiperator is a patented, porous, non-catalytic, high-temperature heat exchanger that uses heat transfer to achieve oxidation and uses the heat of exothermic oxidation to heat the incoming gas-air mixture. Prior testing has shown that the Oxiperator can oxidize greater than 95% of methane and volatile organic compounds and generate no new nitrogen oxides. The project aims to develop, test, and install progressively larger Oxiperators at oil/gas well sites in the Green River Basin, Wyoming, and at other locations. The project objectives are to 1) demonstrate the ability of the Oxiperator to oxidize methane at concentrations as low as 0.3% and as high as 100%; 2) evaluate several technologies to scale up manufacturing; 3) adapt turbochargers and microturbines to generate the energy from oxidation; and 4) scale the Oxiperator to 10,000 standard cubic feet per minute to eliminate greater than 95% of methane and volatile organic compounds and generate 1 megawatt of power.

DOE Funding: $9,998,303
Non-DOE Funding: $7,050,000
Total Value: $17,048,303

Read the full DOE announcement here and learn more about the awarded projects here. ​