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Team 25

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Akshay Zaveri
Benjamin Lombard
Drew Snowdon

Dr. Tianfeng Lu

Sponsor

Peter Paul Electronics

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Fugitive Hydrogen Emissions System

The process of methane extraction and delivery involves reducing high pressure methane down to a lower pressure that can be transferred through sales lines. This regulation process renders methane that is at too low of a pressure to enter the sales line, so it is released to the atmosphere. Due to the introduction of new legislation regarding methane emissions in natural gas wells, natural gas companies are at risk of large fines if methane emissions are not curbed. To avoid fines and decrease methane emissions, Peter Paul desires to create a self-contained system that captures the low-pressure methane and compresses it to the sales line pressure, and to investigate the feasibility of a system that uses no electricity, but rather only the higher-pressure drive gas to compress lower-pressure gas to desired pressure. The proposed solution uses a piston/cylinder system with an external spring to return the piston to its reloaded position. The design constraints for the proof-of-concept prototype are 100psi as the high-pressure, 5psi as the low-pressure, and 25psi as the sales line pressure gas. The system successfully achieves targeted sales line pressure with a 74% piston stroke efficiency while losing no gas to the atmosphere. The final prototype automates valve timing using pressure transducers, a microcontroller, and solenoid valves to allow for continuous cycling. The power to drive the electrical components is modeled after the available power of car batteries with solar panels that are located on the well heads.