#705 - Environmental Technology, Legislation and Economics for Oil & Gas
and Other Small Power Producers

Course Objective

Upon completion of this course, participants will gain a basic understanding of the main components and subsystems of environmental systems and components.  Participants will learn to critique the advantages, applications, performance, and economics of the systems and components mentioned above.  They will learn about various auxiliary systems required including instrumentation, controls, and monitoring systems.  They will learn some basics about environmental legislation and how it can work in an operator’s economic favor. Participants will discover what relevant environmental legislation and technology can do for oil and gas plants, and all process plants.  Finally, they will learn about the monitoring and control of environmental emissions and identify methods for self-improvement.

Who Should Attend

Engineers, technologists, and other operational personnel who currently or may in the future be involved with the technology or business of running process plants that could benefit from an additional power generation source. This is regardless of whether the personnel are involved in:

• Conventional oil and gas
• Non-conventional energy (e.g., tar sands)
• Process plants of all kinds
• Operations
• Maintenance, repair and overhaul
• Systems optimization and performance verification
• Specification, retrofit design
• Business and management of machinery systems and personnel
• Support of machinery trains and their support systems

While this course is of major benefit to newer people in the field, it is also valuable as a revision and technology update for more experienced personnel.

Course Description

This course covers:

• The basics of environmental technology for fossil fueled turbines
• Basic relevant legislation and its specified criteria
• The systems used to optimize economic performance
• Key maintenance considerations and pitfalls

Course Outline

• Definitions of Small Power Producer (SPP), Merchant PPs, Independent PPs
• Review simple Gas Turbine (GT) cycle, Combined Cycle (CC), Steam Turbine (ST) cycle, Waste Heat Recovery (WHR), cogeneration
• When is each of these choices appropriate and why?
• The economic and legislative case for being an SPP
• Incentives provided by government (provincial and federal)
• Experience of current users with those incentives
• Potential benefits from those incentives
• Potential drawbacks
• What makes being an SPP practical?
• Available fuel
• Waste combustible fluids
• How does Gas Turbine (GT) design technology make SPP practical?
• Low NOx burner modifications
• Operating parameters
• Fuel flexibility, or combustion of varying fuel types (low BTU hydrocarbons, flue gas, paper waste, etc.)
• Other design changes to optimize operation
• Performance curves
• Case histories in varying environments:
• Onshore
• Offshore
• Different countries
• Lessons learned
• Relevant aspects of the Clean Air Act
• Credits for pollutant emissions
• Monitoring, instrumentation, and system accessories

Course Text

“Environmental Technology and Economics” by Claire M. Soares, published by Butterworth Heinemann (included in the course fee)

Course Duration - 3 days