Regardless of personal views, I do not usually criticize the oil industry, especially not in a public forum. While I am not the least in favor of the methods taken to get the oil out of the ground, and I appreciate the environmentalists for drawing attention to a critical issue, the oil sands is an extremely complicated situation tied up in environment, politics, history and money.
Mostly, my criticisms come from the fact that I don't understand why certain things have to happen the way they do. For instance... take this picture...
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| Alberta in a nutshell... Mountains. Oil. Farms. |
I took this picture on the way to Golden in February... somewhere along Highway 22 north of Cochrane. I also drive by one of these on Refinery Row almost every day.
Now, can someone please explain to me why flaring like this is the best way to get rid of production waste? If it is not feasible to sell or transport it, fine. If the fuel often needs to be released to relieve pressure, fine. But really, if you have to burn it, wouldn't it be possible to, at the very least, stick a boiler on top of this gigantic flame and harness even some of the energy?
4 comments:
Right On !
Colleen says flares are intermittent and an emergency device so a boiler would be impractical, and too heavy to put that high.
She says that the problem lies in " why do you have a flare?" what in your system is failing so often to need to flare?
She is Chemical Engineer who has worked at a couple refineries. :)
Thanks Vince/Colleen!
I know a boiler isn't really a practical system with the current tall stacks, but I think you get my point :)
As for intermittent... the one near my house could be more accurately described as "intermittently off" rather than occaisonally flaring... :S
"Intermittently off" WELL SAID
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