Challenge
An underground natural gas pipeline was discovered leaking in a residential area. Although the pipeline owner quickly fixed the leak, much of the soil had become saturated with odorized natural gas. In order to protect the nearby residences and shops, the company needed an engineered solution to degas the soil as quickly as possible.
Solution
Envent worked with a geotechnical expert to drill 20 wells in the affected area in order to quickly pull the natural gas vapors from the soil. Slotted PVC was placed in each well and manifolded to one of two Envent Mobile Thermal Oxidizer (EMTOS) Systems. Each EMTOS unit was able to continuously pull explosive, odorized vapors from each well and burn them in a controlled environment. After the first day of operation, local residents stopped complaining about odors, and after the sixth day no hazardous natural gas could be detected in the air coming from the ground.
Benefit
Envent was able to respond immediately and provide a carefully engineered degas solution with the safety of the community in mind. Having the nation’s largest selection of mobile thermal oxidizers, Envent could provide units of optimal size along with all necessary hoses and fittings to pull vapors from 20 different wells. Methane has a global warming potential (GWP) approximately 28-36 times higher than CO2 (1), and Envent’s units were able to oxidize the natural gas and odorants to CO2 with 99.9% efficiency. Lastly, the customer and community were very satisfied. Emergency response procedures have been written to perform the same operations should a similar situation happen in the future.
(1) https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials
