Revamping overlooked emissions contributor to imbue energy transition with greener vigour

With the climate and energy woes intertwined, energy security and sustainability have become household names throughout the world. This sparked the evolution of existing solutions and the search for more innovative ones to curb emissions in the energy sector. However, there are still some components, which are being largely overlooked during the decarbonisation quest. As the hype surrounding hydrogen gains more traction, it brings these to the fore, including valves, which are also useful for reducing the emission footprint from oil and gas.

Ahead of the European Parliament’s landslide plenary vote to step up the EU’s attempts to curb the methane footprint with the first EU-wide legislation aimed at cutting these emissions from the energy sector, the Clean Air Task Force released a report about methane pollution from oil and gas infrastructure within the EU.

Based on trips to over 430 oil and gas sites between February 2021 and March 2023, this report indicates that methane pollution remains widespread, with 881 sources of emissions documented across 15 countries, putting the need for strong EU Methane Regulation into stark relief. However, methane is just one of the greenhouse gases whose concentrations are rising and worsening the climate crisis.

A lot is being done to tackle this, but there are still some pieces which are missing from this emission reduction arsenal. Some of these overlooked contributors to emissions in the energy transition story are valves. The energy sector seems to be doing little to address the impact they have not only on the environment but also on a company’s bottom line.

One of the players, which is trying to rectify this is Oxford Flow. Therefore, Offshore Energy obtained insights from the firm’s Business Lead – Gas & Energy Transition, who claims that operators are “throwing their money down the drain” the longer they wait to replace the valves in their systems. He highlights the importance of creating valves that eliminate emissions and enable the energy transition by getting ahead of the problem to develop solutions that are suitable for emerging sectors.

Faris Churcher, Oxford Flow’s Business Lead – Gas & Energy Transition, remarked: “Many valves were installed decades ago. Left untouched, many have degraded, emit fugitive emissions and do not offer the same levels of precision or other benefits associated with next-generation technology. Oxford Flow set out to reimagine valve design and develop a solution that addressed key industry challenges such as emissions.

“By removing the diaphragm and associated elastomers, Oxford Flow’s zero-emission, hydraulically operated ES stemless actuated valves significantly reduced the issues of fatigue, erosion and embrittlement and tackled the Achilles heel of pressure regulator valves, to eliminate the main issue causing fugitive emissions in valves.”

In line with this, Oxford Flow’s Business Lead – Gas & Energy Transition underscores that valves can play a crucial role in eliminating emissions from oil and gas systems and gas networks, as they account for approximately 60 per cent of fugitive emissions while little is being done across high-emitting industries, to remove, replace and innovate. Emerging sectors like hydrogen, which still have a lot of unsolved challenges to get to grips with such as the lack of existing industry testing standards, also stand to benefit from revamped valves.

Churcher further adds: “Operators that replace traditional valves with emissions-free solutions will no longer need to allocate precious resources to seek out fugitive emissions on that portion of their valve population. Nor will they need to adhere to the same intensive maintenance regime, as drivetrain-related failures are eliminated when there is no stem repacking to maintain.

“As a result, operators can expect a 20-30 per cent reduction in the cost of ownership as well as doubling the mechanical life of the valve – all while having the assurance that their systems are not wasting money or damaging the environment. By investing in new grid infrastructure, the design changes and cost reductions of emissions-free valves will reap huge long-term benefits.”

Churcher points out that the UK is one of the countries interested in exploring the role of hydrogen in the energy mix and is expected to move forward with plans for the blending of hydrogen into the UK’s gas distribution networks at a 20 per cent concentration. While this could take place in 2025, some of these plans aim to reach 100 per cent hydrogen pipelines, thus, Oxford Flow’s Business Lead – Gas & Energy Transition emphasises that this raises questions about the ability of the existing infrastructure to be adapted and where new energy infrastructure needs to be built.

“Despite these ambitions, the lack of industry standards for hydrogen infrastructure and equipment poses a threat. Hydrogen blending across incumbent gas transmission and distribution networks is a nascent technology, and governments must develop enforceable regulations, instead of issuing guidance, to avoid leaving the industry operating in a vacuum without any agreed safety standards,” explained Churcher.

Furthermore, Churcher is of the opinion that hydrogen blending will play “a vital role” in the energy transition. To support this claim, he mentions the report from the Institute of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM), which found that “a 20 per cent hydrogen blend could reduce carbon emissions by 6 m tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to 2.5 m cars being taken off the road.” While curbing emissions is the key to unlocking a sustainable future from an environmental perspective, Churcher underlines that more efficient grids will “save time and money” for current gas distribution operators and future hydrogen networks.

According to Churcher, hydrogen is “a highly volatile and incredibly buoyant fuel and can ignite at 75 per cent concentration, which means networks will need to be even tighter when making the transition to hydrogen blending. Instead of kicking this into the long grass, industry standards are required now. Since its inception, Oxford Flow started examining the potential for this.

“Its founder, Thomas Povey, recognised that the same materials used for valve solutions in other industries, such as aerospace, could be used for valves in energy infrastructure, including upstream oil and gas, as well as in downstream applications and gas transmission and distribution.”

With a new design and material as seen on its IM-S wafer type gas regulator, Oxford Flow put the wheels into motion to verify the efficacy of its solution and confirm it was hydrogen-ready by working with a third-party test house, which specialises in engineering and design solutions for valves, fuel systems and associated accessories. The duo set out to define testing criteria, including cyclic stress testing up to 100 bar with both hydrogen and helium.

Oxford Flow also conducted test checks to meet its own factory acceptance criteria, conducting air tests to as high as 150 bar. Churcher claims that this goes beyond current natural gas regulator testing standards, as it would be like dropping a diver into one of the deepest parts of the ocean, and then pulling them back up again within a second.

“The tests were designed not only to prove that Oxford Flow’s designs are ready for use with hydrogen but also to test the life expectancy of its valves over an accelerated length of time. This was necessary to verify the company’s claims that the valves would vastly outlive existing infrastructure when used with hydrogen or natural gas,” underscored Churcher.

As maintaining, repairing and replacing valves with a like-for-like solution is becoming harder due to manufacturers phasing out existing valves from standard product lines, Churcher reveals that Oxford Flow found a way to tackle ageing infrastructure with ongoing maintenance challenges, especially as leaks caused by valves lead to greater expense.

The firm’s solution could be “retrofitted to existing systems and was manufactured from 316 stainless steel, which is acknowledged to be less susceptible to a form of degrading called embrittlement, typically caused by fuels similar to the molecular makeup of hydrogen,” elaborated Churcher.

For Oxford Flow, valves are part of the solution not only to cut down emissions but also for the use of hydrogen and other emerging fuels, thus, Churcher believes that companies will need to be required to obtain “tangible data” to prove their infrastructure and equipment is not just emissions-free but also ready for hydrogen.

Otherwise, the uncertainty caused by a lack of clearly defined regulations and standards would bring the possibility of more delays while posing a risk to people, assets, and the environment.

“If we are to achieve our goal of blending hydrogen while meeting emissions targets, we must think about every aspect of our energy systems, instead of overlooking what is deemed to be ‘fine’ or only a small part of the puzzle. Every piece of the puzzle needs to be scrutinised for long-term change to be possible,” concluded Churcher.

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