Challenges in the oil field include dynamic power and thermal requirements, potential operational cost savings, air quality and emission concerns and site power reliability. Combined heat and power (CHP) is a distributed generation that provides both on-site electricity and thermal energy recovered from waste heat. Therefore, CHP can bring benefits such as power reliability, emission reduction, and cost saving for facility operators, which embrace opportunities to overcome those challenges in oil field.
Effective use of the CHP thermal energy determines all those benefits in oil field. The recoverable CHP thermal energy is mainly contained in the waste exhaust heat from turbine or engine, as well as the engine jacket coolant and lube oil cooling system. The quality of thermal energy varies among these sources and consequently is applicable for different heat recovery technologies to produce steam (applicable to generate power via a steam turbine), hot water, cooling load and drying capacity. The presentation analyzes how to integrate various heat recovery technologies in oil field by showing models developed by best practices, concepts and theories. Those technologies include Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG), Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), flaring to gas, adsorption chiller, desiccant dehumidifier, process heating, etc.

Primary Author / Conference Presenter:
Dr. Fanxu Meng
Research Associate
Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC)
The Woodlands, Texas, USA

Co-Authors:
Dr. Gavin Dillingham, HARC; Carolyn LaFleur, HARC; Andra Wilcox, HARC