Posted on 04/02/2007 9:20:23 PM PDT by thackney
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - A Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist, after more than two decades of work, has figured out how to liquefy natural gas using sound waves _ which could open up more gas fields.
"This is a low-cost, low-maintenance technology that can access fields that as of today have a zero value," said John Gorman, a 30-year veteran of the energy industry who runs Houston-based Swift LNG, which has licensed the lab's technology.
Gorman and lab physicist Greg Swift _ who has no stake in the company of the same name _ expect the liquefaction technology will enable the industry to open up gas fields that have been deemed too small or remote to tap.
"The purpose is to open up a whole new set of fields that currently can't be harvested," Gorman said.
They also hope the technology will help capture some of the estimated 3.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that escapes into the air or is burned during oil production. That amount of gas is enough to meet the annual needs of both France and Germany.
In the early 1980s, Swift and lab colleagues began exploring a phenomenon observed by 19th century glassblowers blowing glass bulbs.
"The glass bulb would be red-hot in the flame, and then they'd take the tube out of their mouth for a moment and the thing would go, 'woooo,'" Swift said. "It would just sing to them.
"So that was probably historically one of the first cases of turning heat into acoustic power."
Swift's team, in "curiosity-driven research," has been figuring out how to turn acoustic power into refrigeration power.
The refrigeration system, a network of welded steel pipes, takes natural gas in a stream from the ground and diverts a small part of it to heat one end of the pipe network. Sound waves are produced, and helped by high-pressure helium gas, are used to cool and liquefy the rest of the natural gas at the network's other end.
The liquid then can be pumped into tanked and hauled to market.
Gorman said the technology will supplement, not replace, well-established liquefaction systems now used worldwide.
Such plants are large and take time to build. Gorman believes Los Alamos' smaller, mobile systems, which the firm hopes to sell for less than $2 million each, could be used to extract gas and generate revenue while a larger plant is built.
Los Alamos scientists have developed a prototype that can produce 350 gallons of liquefied gas a day, Swift said.
Swift LNG hopes to sell a 70-foot-tall system within the next three years that will produce 20,000 gallons a day.
Gorman said such systems also could help companies get to "stranded gas" _ methane in locations too small or remote to access with current technology.
Bet this kills snare darters and spotted owls and will be banned immediately to help stop global warming.
***Bet this kills snare darters and spotted owls***
Pitty the poor blind cave fish.
My very rough calculations indicate that the 20,000 gallon/day unit could yield over $30 million/year if it ran 24/7/365. Sure hope their re-cooped R&D costs, maintainence and the expected life of the unit don’t make it too expensive to operate.
real science , real solutions ... does ANYONE really buy into this ethanol scam?? it’s not like we’re Brazil with only 2 main markets and no problems in manufacture or transport ,, not to mention our raw product (corn) is much less efficient than sugar cane..
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