Black & Veatch announced with its alliance partner Emerging Fuels Technology, Inc. (EFT), the FLARE BUSTER®, a turnkey solution for converting natural gas flares into synthetic crude oil or transportation fuels.

FLARE BUSTER® employs EFT’s proprietary Advanced Fixed Bed Fischer-Tropsch reactor/catalyst system and a number of other cost reducing innovations. The process converts well head gas into room temperature, pumpable synthetic crude oil that can be combined with crude oil or turned into transportation fuel blendstocks.

The technology addresses the global problem of natural gas lost to flaring. The World Bank has estimated that more than 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas was flared worldwide in 2013. That amount of gas could have been turned into 1.2 million barrels per day of synthetic crude instead of being wasted.

Black & Veatch and EFT have developed standard designs for 500 and 1,000 barrels-per-day (BPD) portable plants that are truckable into remote locations. Each plant generates its own power and does not require makeup water for operation.

“The FLARE BUSTER® solution provides oil and gas companies with a compact-footprint and highly portable method of capturing hydrocarbons that before would have been lost to flaring,” said Dave Hile, general manager for oil and gas in Black & Veatch’s energy business. “It also allows oil and gas companies to continue producing oil when local regulations no longer allow flaring of associated natural gas. EFT’s breakthrough technology combined with Black & Veatch’s design and construction capabilities offer oil companies a golden opportunity to increase revenues while reducing greenhouse gases by eliminating their flares."

"The FLARE BUSTER® concept is the culmination of a vision that began many years ago," said Ken Agee, President of EFT. “A lot of innovation and the availability of new technologies have finally made it possible to offer this solution. Black & Veatch's technical knowledge and EPC execution abilities have facilitated turning the concept into a reality.”

Notes:

- Each plant consists of several truckable skids, each weighing under 100 tons for portability.
- Plants can be barge-mounted.
- Capturing flared gas is a component of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Government Services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2014 were US$3 billion.

About Emerging Fuels Technology, Inc.

Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT) is a technology company focused on methods for producing synthetic fuels and specialty products from a variety of feedstocks such as natural gas, biomass, municipal solid waste (MSW), coal and bio-derived oils. EFT is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Fischer-Tropsch (FT) and related synthesis, licensing the core technologies and upgrade packages for 500- 10,000 BPD applications.