Abstract:The recent shale gas boom has transformed the energy landscape of the United States. Compared to natural gas, shale resources contain a substantial amount of condensate and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Many shale basin regions located in remote areas are lacking the infrastructure to distribute the extracted NGLs to other regions-particularly the Gulf Coast, a major gas processing region. Here we present a shale gas transformation process that converts NGLs in shale resources into liquid hydrocarbons, which are easier to transport from these remote basins than NGL or its constituents. This process involves catalytic dehydrogenation followed by catalytic oligomerization. Thermodynamic process analysis shows that this process has the potential to be more energy efficient than existing NGL-to-liquid fuel (NTL) technologies. In addition, our estimated payback period for this process is within the average lifetime of shale gas wells. The proposed process holds the promise to be an energy efficient and economically attractive step to valorize condensate in remote shale basins.

The objective of this research is to identify ways to reliably detect residual material and the associated energy through noninvasive methods using a portable, field-deployable system in order to prevent loss of containment and injury to workers. Leaking valves, defective pressure gauges, and blocked bleeders may cause residual liquid or gas to remain in process equipment, sometimes holding equipment at elevated pressures or allowing a toxic or flammable atmosphere to remain in spite of efforts to clear the equipment. This creates the potential for serious injury to workers when they open, enter, or begin to work on equipment unaware of the hazardous energy still present. The term, "zero energy," has been used within the context of this research to refer to "a state characterized by the complete absence of hazardous energy." Hazardous energy is defined as "energy that could cause injury due to the unintended motion, energizing, startup, or release of such stored or residual energy in machinery, equipment, piping, pipelines, or process systems" http://employment.alberta.ca/documents/WHS/WHS-LEG_ ohsc_p15.pdf. This research examines a method to determine if a vessel has achieved zero energy, denoted by internal pressure equal to ambient pressure with no residual liquid present, using strain gauges.