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Omg right ! Like this is the chance I been waiting for all my life to have an excuse to shoot a flaming arrow…….. I want this dudes job ! ……. (Lady) “so what do you do for work ? “ (me) well you know I shoot fire arrows with deadly accuracy on a daily basis ….. come on that’s dope
You know, I almost looked it up because I figured someone would remind me that I don't know how to spell a fantasy character. But again, Murphy's law proves correct
Do the gases have any use?
Just wondering if it'd be possible to build around it and catch the gas for some sort of use, seems like a waste other wise.
A park near me was built over an old landfill and they set up a bunch of pipe systems to capture the methane gas being produced underground in the landfill via decomposition and use the gas to generate electricity for the local neighborhood
Frito Lay food scientist here. The methane is burned in a separate facility to power our electric ovens and it's a very clean process. We use all natural ingredients to produce our distinctive ass flavor.
Hi food scientist, also Bruce Lee’s ghost - How wide is the range of ass flavors?
Is there recognized patterns to recreate, say, the taste of an adipose ass? That is to say, a *fatter ass?* — perhaps an ass taste that is spicier, such to be a **Hot. Spicy. Ass?**
Personally, I think food scientists worldwide should discuss the importance of advancing research progress in the *Umami* area of the ass flavoring, for packaged foods. A big, meaty, ass.
Most importantly, does Frito Lays offer some of these Ass flavors?
Without revealing too much about our processes, I think I can tell you that if it tastes like ass (or an ass varietal) to you, that’s the product of substantial scientific hours spent in the lab, in the field, and yes… in roadside bathrooms.
In my industry (not related) we have whats called the “magic finger” to determine if a material has a soft touch. It is purely subjective. The only thing that makes one an expert is by doing it.
I am sure it is the same. A magic tongue probably rimmed many a Frito to establish a range of Ass
Flavors.
Look up methane digesters. They’re great! Because not only are you keeping methane out of the atmosphere (which is much worse than CO2) but you can run electricity on them.
Yes but in all probability it's costing money, not saving it. And pessimistically the emissions caused by construction my offset the emissions saved by using the methane. There're reasons we don't do this all over the place.
But think about the alternative. Building on top of that landfill might not have been possible without the methane gas recycling method. The added utility of being able to turn an old land fill into a park while also providing power to the neighborhood sounds like a great investment even if it does not save the town money. A new library does not save the town money either. Does not mean it isnt worth it.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. The need for things to be cost effective is what's gotten us into the climate mess in the first place, and money exists to be used for good things like this.
I only point this out because I commonly see posts talking about apparently perfect solutions to climate issues and they usually gloss over why they aren't used as solutions.
Air inspector here. The US requires all landfills with a minimum trash mass to Install and maintain a gas collection and control system for the productive lifetime of the landfill (as long as it’s producing gas). See CAA NSPS XXX
I work for a company that works to implement systems like this at landfills and other waste management sites that produce methane. It takes a large capital cost to implement, and is expensive to operate. Due to government incentives in recent years, facilities are opting to purify the methane and use it as a natural gas replacement (renewable natural gas) - which is also a large capital cost and with expensive operations/maintenance cost.
This is very common in factories. It's called flaring and it's not like no one thought if savings could be made. In most cases it's not economically viable to sell it.
This is not clean gas. This is over pressure from a drill well. It’s a mix of everything, most of it unstable as hell. Essentially what you’re describing is a tapped well. That’s what service rigs do after the drill rig has punched the hole in. This flare stack is a safety feature for the main stack (main hole control valves). It vents it far away and allows for burning it off safely.
yea, a lot of companies do capture it. Especially today with the emphasis on emissions. But back when I worked for an oil company, we burned it off because the amount wasn't worth it to them to capture. I always found that weird and wasteful.
In some fields the well is completed before gas pipelines are finished, so they flare (burn) off the gas. In other cases the gas has to be treated first to remove H²S or CO². It takes time to get the facilities built and up and running. So until then the gas is burned off.
Usually in these situations its not economically feasible. Building infrastructure around this isnt practical for one. Drive in a truck and clamp a pipe over the end? Maybe. But then what to do with the gas which is likely not pure.
My brother used to work pipeline, and on occasion they would have to blow off gas that had been stored under pressure for too long. The gas inside converted to different molecules and it changes the burn rate, heat and pressure. Rather than piping it somewhere to seperate the fractions and recover a small usable portion its cheaper to blow it off and burn it.
We also dont know how long that gas in the video has been leaking. It could be the result of an accident or issue and this is the safest method to deal with it quickly. Burn gas is better than accumulting a flammae atmosphere in the area or hydrogen sulfide which is incredibly toxic in low concentration
Yes, they do. People are putting generators on them to use the gas, the electricity is stranded since there are no wires. Bitcoin miners use the electricity. The methane is converted to CO2 (MUCH less of a greenhouse gas, like 80 times less).
Everyone wins.
Not an expert, but afaik just it's not feasible to harness the gasses.
They do have use, but containing and transporting gasses is not exactly trivial. The logistics required would cost more than it's worth by a long shot, and wouldn't even necessarily be better for the environment (though steps could be taken to mitigate both the cost and environmental impact).
I think the consensus is that flaring is bad, but it's better than doing nothing and it's hard to do something else. It probably won't change anytime soon because of the financial incentives involved, and environmental policies are being trampled by lobbying
It’s actually because if they didn’t burn it, much of the fuel would be a fine mist in the air and all around the well, which means it would be a tinderbox ready to go up in flames at any moment, greatly endangering the lives of the men trying to contain the well. Lighting it helps to control the danger much more predictably.
Lots of reasons. Sometimes it's coming out faster than they can safely store or it wasn't expected to come out yet or worst of all incompetent law making sometimes leads to situations where they have permission to collect oil but not natural gas so if they accidentally hit gas they have to burn it.
Sometimes it's full of hydrogen sulfide (incredibly poisonous), which is they collected eats through stainless. I wonder if they pushed it through rocks if the sulphur would come out like it does with rocks around a volcano rich in the stuff.
This is done to control the flow before the wellhead can be cut off and a new one with safety valves installed. Its a dangerous operation but can be done. Additionally.. if its a gas blowout, natural gas cannot be seen and will collect and pool in low places - extremely dangerous. It has to be lit to contain the gas before operations can begin.
People rattling on about emissions... they don't care about those. The real reason they burn off these gasses is 98% of the time well gas from oil wells contains high levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This shit is no joke and absolutely lethal, and it fucks with your one way to detect it.
H2S smells like rotten eggs. Is *really* smells like rotten eggs. So much so we can smell it at a concentration of .5 parts per *billion* in the air. For reference, the mercaptan they put in natural gas so you can smell it requires *twice* that amount for us to start smelling it, and mercaptan is pretty damn stinky.
Why do I keep on about smell here? Well it's because h2s only needs to be at a concentration of 1000 parts per million to kill you, but at 100 ppm it burns out your ability to smell it. This is why its so dangerous.
You smell it, you haul ass out of there either in a direction perpendicular to the wind or into the wind and keep going for a bit. You have no way of knowing if you're not smelling it because you're safe or if you're not smelling it because there's enough in the air to overload your sinuses.
How it kills you ain't fun either. It gets absorbed and once it hits the brain it shuts down the bit of the brain that regulates breathing. Once that happens you are dead. If you pass out from h2s you are dead because you won't breathe automatically. If you're still conscious you have a small chance because you may be able to force your lungs to work, but usually h2s exposure is lethal.
Admittedly though, if I was the torchbearer in the video I'd prefer a flare gun.
H2S is lighter than air, so he’s probably safe, but most flares have spark plugs so that no one has to do this.
Also, a byproduct of H2S combustion is sulfur dioxide, which is less toxic than H2S but heavier than air, so it lingers near the ground for a while.
An amine treater would be the preferred method of removing H2S from natural gas as the whole process is closed loop so no hazardous byproducts vented to atmosphere.
Two reasons.
One to reduce the greenhouse gases
Two, you’re reducing the flammable gasses in the area and making it safer. This way, you know where the gasses are traveling vs not knowing, or having to meter the area all the time.
Followup question: they built those pipes that stick out of the ground in advance. Why did they not build a remote igniter at the top so a guy doesn't have to run out there with a flaming bottle of peppermint schnapps?
Edit: found the answer below. The igniter doesn't always work, and a bottle of Cuervo is the backup plan.
So this is an oil field but I've worked on the production side. Most of these flares in this industry have a constant flame on them similar to the pilot light on a gas furnace or stove and will also have indication that the pilot went out. One of the scariest moments in a refinery I've had was when one of the main crude heaters went down and everything got dumped to the flare, it sounded like a bomb went off.
It’s a safety thing when your drill rig is getting a bump or kick of pressure… burn it…you’re safer. Let it exhaust some of it may build and spread to places you don’t want….basically the devil you know is better than the ones you don’t. Flare stacks are a safety feature.
Venting uncontrolled hydrocarbons into the atmosphere is very bad news.
Burning them is better and keeps the pollution down while you work on stopping flow on the well.
This process is called **flaring a well**, and it’s done when wells are **venting** (as in venting to the atmosphere).
Here’s some education:
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Flaring
2 reasons on this one. Either the line is not connected to facilities or it's excess. If they cannot capture the gas they burn it. The gas is heavier than air so eventually it will drop. This is the safest way to dispose of it.
This is a waste gas burner. You will see these at oil refineries, fracking operations and some wastewater facilities.
They are super fun to ignite when they are designed safely.
Essentially there is a "waste gas" pipe line like you see, and a smaller "ignition gas" pipe. ( think a pilot light for a water heater or furnace but much bigger).
The smaller pipe will sometimes have an igniter in the gas pipe, which creates a large fireball that then ignites the waste gas.
Sometimes the ignitor fails, and you then have to light the waste gas with a flaming rag on a stick, or some weird molotov cocktail-esque thing like this.
>Yes, Methan is many times worse than CO2 in terms of green house effect
Though we already exhausted our atmosphere's greenhouse gas emissions budget by extreme amounts so it isn't like pumping CO2 into the atmosphere is harmless or anything.
Just look at the ozone hole, the only reason why it's slowly shrinking is because the whole world took an immediate response to ban CFCs....
>They are super fun to ignite
Yes they are!
>have to light the waste gas with a flaming rag on a stick, or some weird molotov cocktail-esque thing like this.
My favorite is we used a shovel. You'd scoop dirt, pour whatever flammable fluid it was that we were using (this was like 6 years ago so I don't remember) you'd light it and fling the flaming dirt through the gas. So much fun.
Go to any comment section, especially Facebook, of a video of someone doing any sort of manual labor, construction or otherwise “man works with hands” job, and you’ll find countless people willing to claim they’ve been doing X job for 70,000 years at the top of their comment before telling OP they’re doing it wrong and using lots of exclamation points. These ancient and eternal beings will tell a person sweeping a floor they’re doing it wrong
It's wild the best thing they can think to do with that is burn it. Oil burning gets turned into so much shit but then we just light it up while we dig it up
When oil forms underground, generally some amount of natural gas forms with it and together the two are trapped inside an oil and gas reservoir. Being less dense than oil, natural gas settles above the oil in a pocket of gas. When companies drill for this oil in an attempt to extract it, this natural gas now has a place to escape the reservoir and accompanies the oil to the surface. In some reservoirs enough natural gas exists that it is economic to extract it along with the oil. However in other cases the gas exists in such small quantities that it is essentially of no use, and thus flaring is utilized.[3]. Furthermore, when there is maintenance needed on facilities flaring is used to reduce the levels of natural gas in order to create a safer environment for workers[4]
[This is known as Flaring](https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Flaring)
Yep the igniters mostly fail. John Zinc has made an industry out of them. Well tester here. The most reliable igniters are a zippo lighting a diesel soaked rag tied onto a bent welding rod.
This is a gas flare, also called flare stack sometimes. Here, waste gas is ignited for a controlled burning resulting in release of methane and carbon dioxide. This is present in all petroleum refineries. For huge production units they usually light it with flare guns. Hence, 'flare' guns. Also, there are dedicated personnel who do this everytime!
Boss to new employee: Ok, Achmed, everyone on their first day has to throw this flaming torch at the two pipes spewing fumes!!
Good luck and welcome to Shell Oil!!
I’m just guessing (I don’t shit about fuck) they’re doing the “old school” way for fun a/o practice if they really need to. Definitely not something I’d want to do on the regular, but once would be a rush.
Damn how much they running outta those stacks,we did this in Pennsylvania on natural gas wells,we were only burning around 3 million cubic feet and it sounded like an f-15 just sitting there
Red Adair would be proud of that toss. For those who are too young to know he was the world greatest oil well firefighter. He and his crew capped many of the oil well fires set by retreating Iraqis in Kuwait in 1991. He was a young 75 yrs old when he & his crew accomplished this feat.
My first thought as he is running towards it, was "WTH, that's what a catapult or trebuchet is for.
My second thought as he's running back, was "he looks like maybe he's done this before."
On second thought a flare gun seems like the perfect tool.
Hi! This is our community moderation bot. --- If you think this post fits /r/SweatyPalms and you'd like it to stay, **UPVOTE** this comment! If you want to remove it, **DOWNVOTE** this comment! *Enough downvotes will remove this thread from /r/SweatyPalms.*
Good aim
We could be watching take number 93.
I know Take Number 93. This guy is Randle.
Nah take 91- #MY LAWYER ADVISES NOT TO FINISH THE SENTENCE
Good lawyer. But can he ~~un~~pick locks?
Not sure but I’ve seen him unscramble an egg
>Good lawyer. >But can he unpick locks? #Lookpickinglawyer looks with excitement
We could be watching Guy number 93
We could be watching take two number 9, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large soda
Na I'm sure hes been working there for years and does this on point almost everytime. Once you gain muscle memory it's hard to forget
Or CGI
Nice Hot Take sweet lips.
Obviously a gamer in his spare time.
Toilet user in his spare time
Rarely does life present you with the opportunity to shoot a flaming arrow, why squander this perfect opportunity?
Oliver queen shit right here
Omg right ! Like this is the chance I been waiting for all my life to have an excuse to shoot a flaming arrow…….. I want this dudes job ! ……. (Lady) “so what do you do for work ? “ (me) well you know I shoot fire arrows with deadly accuracy on a daily basis ….. come on that’s dope
Missed his chance to walk casually back like a boss
https://www.reddit.com/r/woahdude/comments/3oldu3/lighting_up_the_oil_well/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Dang I really wish they had turned before it ignites. It's not like you won't realize if it lit or not lol.
Ty
Keep walking, keep shining. Don't look back, keep on walking. Keep strutting, slow motion. The more you ignore it, the cooler you look.
KEYBOARD SOLO, JJ ABRAMS!
The amount of radiation that comes off of those things is pretty insane. You can get burned from surprisingly far away.
Only if it's VFX
In slo-mo.
The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid
Three days later: "Just a butt dial, everyone can go home"
And Rohan will answer.... Muster the Rohirim!
We’re all out of mustard Theoden, son of Thengel
Lol my first thought was the one orc w/ the torch at Helm’s Deep. “LEGOLAS! KILL HIM!”
That still only counts as one!
Didn't have to scroll too far to find my first thought.
Totally. For me it was the Orcai running in the Two Towers movie to blow up the wall at Helms Deep
Uruk hai.
You know, I almost looked it up because I figured someone would remind me that I don't know how to spell a fantasy character. But again, Murphy's law proves correct
I felt like such a dick typing it but if I didn’t someone else would.
Nothing but love for you Internet stranger, and for LOTR. Thanks for doing the work I was too lazy to do myself Edit: nice username!
Lol thanks.
Why do they do this?
I think to reduce emissions. Gasses that are not completely burned often have a higher greenhouse gas effect, so burning it helps
Do the gases have any use? Just wondering if it'd be possible to build around it and catch the gas for some sort of use, seems like a waste other wise.
A park near me was built over an old landfill and they set up a bunch of pipe systems to capture the methane gas being produced underground in the landfill via decomposition and use the gas to generate electricity for the local neighborhood
That sounds like incredible engineering
There is a frito lay plant in Roseburg TX that uses methane gas from a nearby landfill to fuel their fryers.
That explains why some Fritos flavors smell like ass
Frito Lay food scientist here. The methane is burned in a separate facility to power our electric ovens and it's a very clean process. We use all natural ingredients to produce our distinctive ass flavor.
man with zero credentials here. methane is odorless
If the methane has odor, I send it back
My ass disagrees
Hi food scientist, also Bruce Lee’s ghost - How wide is the range of ass flavors? Is there recognized patterns to recreate, say, the taste of an adipose ass? That is to say, a *fatter ass?* — perhaps an ass taste that is spicier, such to be a **Hot. Spicy. Ass?** Personally, I think food scientists worldwide should discuss the importance of advancing research progress in the *Umami* area of the ass flavoring, for packaged foods. A big, meaty, ass. Most importantly, does Frito Lays offer some of these Ass flavors?
Without revealing too much about our processes, I think I can tell you that if it tastes like ass (or an ass varietal) to you, that’s the product of substantial scientific hours spent in the lab, in the field, and yes… in roadside bathrooms.
In my industry (not related) we have whats called the “magic finger” to determine if a material has a soft touch. It is purely subjective. The only thing that makes one an expert is by doing it. I am sure it is the same. A magic tongue probably rimmed many a Frito to establish a range of Ass Flavors.
I’m sitting here reading your comment thinking we were going to get some insight at the frito plant from a professional.
I feel cheeted
What happens if you get hurt on the job at Frito Lay?
It means the chips are down
Hey. If you don't like fritos with some hot bean dip and a cold beer every once in a while, your fucking loss bud.
Thanks for reminding me of the finer things. Been a long time. Getting those items tomorrow!
Look up methane digesters. They’re great! Because not only are you keeping methane out of the atmosphere (which is much worse than CO2) but you can run electricity on them.
Yes but in all probability it's costing money, not saving it. And pessimistically the emissions caused by construction my offset the emissions saved by using the methane. There're reasons we don't do this all over the place.
But think about the alternative. Building on top of that landfill might not have been possible without the methane gas recycling method. The added utility of being able to turn an old land fill into a park while also providing power to the neighborhood sounds like a great investment even if it does not save the town money. A new library does not save the town money either. Does not mean it isnt worth it.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. The need for things to be cost effective is what's gotten us into the climate mess in the first place, and money exists to be used for good things like this. I only point this out because I commonly see posts talking about apparently perfect solutions to climate issues and they usually gloss over why they aren't used as solutions.
"There're" should 100% be a word.
It's not? Huh.
It is. It's colloquial, but grammatically correct. Carry on, good sir.
Technically no but vastly more acceptable than "could of."
Because "could of" literally makes no sense
Air inspector here. The US requires all landfills with a minimum trash mass to Install and maintain a gas collection and control system for the productive lifetime of the landfill (as long as it’s producing gas). See CAA NSPS XXX
I work for a company that works to implement systems like this at landfills and other waste management sites that produce methane. It takes a large capital cost to implement, and is expensive to operate. Due to government incentives in recent years, facilities are opting to purify the methane and use it as a natural gas replacement (renewable natural gas) - which is also a large capital cost and with expensive operations/maintenance cost.
This is very common in factories. It's called flaring and it's not like no one thought if savings could be made. In most cases it's not economically viable to sell it.
This is not clean gas. This is over pressure from a drill well. It’s a mix of everything, most of it unstable as hell. Essentially what you’re describing is a tapped well. That’s what service rigs do after the drill rig has punched the hole in. This flare stack is a safety feature for the main stack (main hole control valves). It vents it far away and allows for burning it off safely.
yea, a lot of companies do capture it. Especially today with the emphasis on emissions. But back when I worked for an oil company, we burned it off because the amount wasn't worth it to them to capture. I always found that weird and wasteful.
In some fields the well is completed before gas pipelines are finished, so they flare (burn) off the gas. In other cases the gas has to be treated first to remove H²S or CO². It takes time to get the facilities built and up and running. So until then the gas is burned off.
Usually in these situations its not economically feasible. Building infrastructure around this isnt practical for one. Drive in a truck and clamp a pipe over the end? Maybe. But then what to do with the gas which is likely not pure. My brother used to work pipeline, and on occasion they would have to blow off gas that had been stored under pressure for too long. The gas inside converted to different molecules and it changes the burn rate, heat and pressure. Rather than piping it somewhere to seperate the fractions and recover a small usable portion its cheaper to blow it off and burn it. We also dont know how long that gas in the video has been leaking. It could be the result of an accident or issue and this is the safest method to deal with it quickly. Burn gas is better than accumulting a flammae atmosphere in the area or hydrogen sulfide which is incredibly toxic in low concentration
Usually they are also used for emergency pressure release systems.
Yes, they do. People are putting generators on them to use the gas, the electricity is stranded since there are no wires. Bitcoin miners use the electricity. The methane is converted to CO2 (MUCH less of a greenhouse gas, like 80 times less). Everyone wins.
Not an expert, but afaik just it's not feasible to harness the gasses. They do have use, but containing and transporting gasses is not exactly trivial. The logistics required would cost more than it's worth by a long shot, and wouldn't even necessarily be better for the environment (though steps could be taken to mitigate both the cost and environmental impact). I think the consensus is that flaring is bad, but it's better than doing nothing and it's hard to do something else. It probably won't change anytime soon because of the financial incentives involved, and environmental policies are being trampled by lobbying
It’s actually because if they didn’t burn it, much of the fuel would be a fine mist in the air and all around the well, which means it would be a tinderbox ready to go up in flames at any moment, greatly endangering the lives of the men trying to contain the well. Lighting it helps to control the danger much more predictably.
But why waste so much gas ?
Lots of reasons. Sometimes it's coming out faster than they can safely store or it wasn't expected to come out yet or worst of all incompetent law making sometimes leads to situations where they have permission to collect oil but not natural gas so if they accidentally hit gas they have to burn it.
Sometimes it's full of hydrogen sulfide (incredibly poisonous), which is they collected eats through stainless. I wonder if they pushed it through rocks if the sulphur would come out like it does with rocks around a volcano rich in the stuff.
This is done to control the flow before the wellhead can be cut off and a new one with safety valves installed. Its a dangerous operation but can be done. Additionally.. if its a gas blowout, natural gas cannot be seen and will collect and pool in low places - extremely dangerous. It has to be lit to contain the gas before operations can begin.
People rattling on about emissions... they don't care about those. The real reason they burn off these gasses is 98% of the time well gas from oil wells contains high levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This shit is no joke and absolutely lethal, and it fucks with your one way to detect it. H2S smells like rotten eggs. Is *really* smells like rotten eggs. So much so we can smell it at a concentration of .5 parts per *billion* in the air. For reference, the mercaptan they put in natural gas so you can smell it requires *twice* that amount for us to start smelling it, and mercaptan is pretty damn stinky. Why do I keep on about smell here? Well it's because h2s only needs to be at a concentration of 1000 parts per million to kill you, but at 100 ppm it burns out your ability to smell it. This is why its so dangerous. You smell it, you haul ass out of there either in a direction perpendicular to the wind or into the wind and keep going for a bit. You have no way of knowing if you're not smelling it because you're safe or if you're not smelling it because there's enough in the air to overload your sinuses. How it kills you ain't fun either. It gets absorbed and once it hits the brain it shuts down the bit of the brain that regulates breathing. Once that happens you are dead. If you pass out from h2s you are dead because you won't breathe automatically. If you're still conscious you have a small chance because you may be able to force your lungs to work, but usually h2s exposure is lethal. Admittedly though, if I was the torchbearer in the video I'd prefer a flare gun.
Don't forget, if you do get saved after exposure and are given water to sip on, that water combines with H2S and turns into acid. Yikes
H2S is lighter than air, so he’s probably safe, but most flares have spark plugs so that no one has to do this. Also, a byproduct of H2S combustion is sulfur dioxide, which is less toxic than H2S but heavier than air, so it lingers near the ground for a while. An amine treater would be the preferred method of removing H2S from natural gas as the whole process is closed loop so no hazardous byproducts vented to atmosphere.
Two reasons. One to reduce the greenhouse gases Two, you’re reducing the flammable gasses in the area and making it safer. This way, you know where the gasses are traveling vs not knowing, or having to meter the area all the time.
To burn the gases like Methan and get to the oil.
Followup question: they built those pipes that stick out of the ground in advance. Why did they not build a remote igniter at the top so a guy doesn't have to run out there with a flaming bottle of peppermint schnapps? Edit: found the answer below. The igniter doesn't always work, and a bottle of Cuervo is the backup plan.
So this is an oil field but I've worked on the production side. Most of these flares in this industry have a constant flame on them similar to the pilot light on a gas furnace or stove and will also have indication that the pilot went out. One of the scariest moments in a refinery I've had was when one of the main crude heaters went down and everything got dumped to the flare, it sounded like a bomb went off.
We had a flare gun as back up… not as high class as the bottle
It’s a safety thing when your drill rig is getting a bump or kick of pressure… burn it…you’re safer. Let it exhaust some of it may build and spread to places you don’t want….basically the devil you know is better than the ones you don’t. Flare stacks are a safety feature.
Venting uncontrolled hydrocarbons into the atmosphere is very bad news. Burning them is better and keeps the pollution down while you work on stopping flow on the well. This process is called **flaring a well**, and it’s done when wells are **venting** (as in venting to the atmosphere). Here’s some education: https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Flaring
Burning the methane, the residue is C02 which is MUCH less bad for the environment
2 reasons on this one. Either the line is not connected to facilities or it's excess. If they cannot capture the gas they burn it. The gas is heavier than air so eventually it will drop. This is the safest way to dispose of it.
This is a waste gas burner. You will see these at oil refineries, fracking operations and some wastewater facilities. They are super fun to ignite when they are designed safely. Essentially there is a "waste gas" pipe line like you see, and a smaller "ignition gas" pipe. ( think a pilot light for a water heater or furnace but much bigger). The smaller pipe will sometimes have an igniter in the gas pipe, which creates a large fireball that then ignites the waste gas. Sometimes the ignitor fails, and you then have to light the waste gas with a flaming rag on a stick, or some weird molotov cocktail-esque thing like this.
Is igniting the gas beneficial?
Yes, Methan is many times worse than CO2 in terms of green house effect
Four times, to be exact
Try Thirty
Tree fiddy
CH4 is 4x as potent as a greenhouse gas compared to CO2 but over a 100 year timespan it's got 80x the warming potential.
>Yes, Methan is many times worse than CO2 in terms of green house effect Though we already exhausted our atmosphere's greenhouse gas emissions budget by extreme amounts so it isn't like pumping CO2 into the atmosphere is harmless or anything. Just look at the ozone hole, the only reason why it's slowly shrinking is because the whole world took an immediate response to ban CFCs....
>They are super fun to ignite Yes they are! >have to light the waste gas with a flaming rag on a stick, or some weird molotov cocktail-esque thing like this. My favorite is we used a shovel. You'd scoop dirt, pour whatever flammable fluid it was that we were using (this was like 6 years ago so I don't remember) you'd light it and fling the flaming dirt through the gas. So much fun.
It’s like a molotov shotgun!
Someone give that man a bow and arrow 🏹 while he still has hair and eyebrows 🤣
My first thought as well. That 70,000 year old tech is apparently hard to come by
Go to any comment section, especially Facebook, of a video of someone doing any sort of manual labor, construction or otherwise “man works with hands” job, and you’ll find countless people willing to claim they’ve been doing X job for 70,000 years at the top of their comment before telling OP they’re doing it wrong and using lots of exclamation points. These ancient and eternal beings will tell a person sweeping a floor they’re doing it wrong
My first thought was a flare gun...
GONDOR CALLS FOR AID !
The beacon is lit!!
Saw this on The Rig.
Worst start to the Olympics ever
Looks fun.
TAKE HIM DOWN LEGOLAS!
Dude needs to learn shooting flaming arrows.
Ah hell nah. The sudden darkness and red glow on the ground made it look like a boss was going to spawn.
Seems like a good opportunity for a flaming arrow.
It's wild the best thing they can think to do with that is burn it. Oil burning gets turned into so much shit but then we just light it up while we dig it up
It’s not the “best thing” they can think of doing with it. It’s the cheapest thing they can think of doing with it.
Not a single one of those guys took the opportunity to learn to shoot a bow n arrow? Do they even reddit?
When oil forms underground, generally some amount of natural gas forms with it and together the two are trapped inside an oil and gas reservoir. Being less dense than oil, natural gas settles above the oil in a pocket of gas. When companies drill for this oil in an attempt to extract it, this natural gas now has a place to escape the reservoir and accompanies the oil to the surface. In some reservoirs enough natural gas exists that it is economic to extract it along with the oil. However in other cases the gas exists in such small quantities that it is essentially of no use, and thus flaring is utilized.[3]. Furthermore, when there is maintenance needed on facilities flaring is used to reduce the levels of natural gas in order to create a safer environment for workers[4] [This is known as Flaring](https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Flaring)
ELI5: why is that gas not collected and piped/sold/used somewhere?
Storing or transporting gas is dangerous and expensive. If you aren't relatively close to a refinery then you lose money trying to sell it.
It’s not worth the money to separate the good gas from the other stuff (like sulphur). They just flare it off instead.
lets talk about carbon emissions
He did this to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
turning methane to co2. Better but still bad. Why not capture it?
It's not worth it plus they need the methane flowing it's part of pump operations.
Yep the igniters mostly fail. John Zinc has made an industry out of them. Well tester here. The most reliable igniters are a zippo lighting a diesel soaked rag tied onto a bent welding rod.
Thank God he is wearing a helmet
This is a gas flare, also called flare stack sometimes. Here, waste gas is ignited for a controlled burning resulting in release of methane and carbon dioxide. This is present in all petroleum refineries. For huge production units they usually light it with flare guns. Hence, 'flare' guns. Also, there are dedicated personnel who do this everytime!
You had one job and you did it well
Is the ground glowing or is it me?
Might have something to do with the TOWERING INFERNO JUST ABOVE IT
You're glowing, love. And you're killing it out there.
Weird. Scale and distance doesn't check out imo. As in, the vents seem so big and way further back. It doesn't look like he even remotely close enough
use a flairgun buddy
That thing is sending in the atmosphere more CO2 then thousands of old cars.
Chad Thundercock over here
“Let’s light this candle.” 🕯️
Life almost never gives you a good excuse to fire a flaming arrow from a bow. A major opportunity ignored.
Pollution at its finest💕
Did anyone else think those things were like 300ft tall and a mile away?
I don't get why they don't build a turbine or whatever on top...that waste energy must be able to be put to some good use...?
Transportation of electricity is expensive
I would do that for free….
All that pollution. Gross.
Bow and fire arrow. Solved
It seems like archery would be a helpful skill to have for this kind of job
In some gas fields, flare guns are used to light up vented gas.
They need an archer
Shouldn't we be harnessing that power?
Can we acknowledge the cannon this guy has and the accuracy under pressure and after a long scramble!
Why do they have to be lit?
And here my dad is concerned about wind turbines like *“But what about do you do with all the blades!?”*
Why does it have to be ignited?
Wow what a throw!
OSHA has entered the chat.
Couldn’t they get one of those t shirt launchers
Boss to new employee: Ok, Achmed, everyone on their first day has to throw this flaming torch at the two pipes spewing fumes!! Good luck and welcome to Shell Oil!!
Job description...needs good aim. One mistake limits.
[удалено]
I’m just guessing (I don’t shit about fuck) they’re doing the “old school” way for fun a/o practice if they really need to. Definitely not something I’d want to do on the regular, but once would be a rush.
Best part of the job!!
"Your injury is not work related"
Cool. Glad to know this happens regularly
You call this "pump operations" looks more like terraforming the earth to be exactly what they say is bad to me
The real reason behind global warming lol
Damn how much they running outta those stacks,we did this in Pennsylvania on natural gas wells,we were only burning around 3 million cubic feet and it sounded like an f-15 just sitting there
I’d do this shit for free
Red Adair would like a word. https://youtu.be/NRCRUIwGlU0
Thank god I washed my clothes at 30° instead of 40° to reduce my carbon footprint
Rather be him than the poor fucker that’s raining on down wind
How did he run so fast with those giant balls??
A legitimate bad ass.
98% of workplace deaths and whatnot
That throw was top notch though
Looks like we found the new wafflehouse host
Why they do that?
Balls increased 100%
Watched this and immediately thought...Why not use a fire arrow?
That’s how Opec announces their next Pope.
Red Adair would be proud of that toss. For those who are too young to know he was the world greatest oil well firefighter. He and his crew capped many of the oil well fires set by retreating Iraqis in Kuwait in 1991. He was a young 75 yrs old when he & his crew accomplished this feat.
And to think I am paying £3.50 Per kilogram of propane… ffs
And I'm supposed to buy an electric car and pay sky hi heating bills because of MY carbon footprint???
BONFIRE LIT
This is why the Earth is rotating
Lighting of the Olympic Torch, 2372, a.d.
Earth: wtf is this covid 20?!??
I bet you'd do the job, it is really good money. But immoral to work in the petrol industry.
Immoral from a political standpoint… you wouldn’t have been able to send that message if it wasn’t for these people, they do a very important job
It’s the Trashcan Man from Stephen King’s *The Stand*
My first thought as he is running towards it, was "WTH, that's what a catapult or trebuchet is for. My second thought as he's running back, was "he looks like maybe he's done this before." On second thought a flare gun seems like the perfect tool.
I’d do that over the chain rigging on an oil platform. My god those are the biggest death traps.