Generating Power from Waste Gas

Milwaukee -- February 28 -- When satellite photos showed bursts of light coming from the black night sky of rural North Dakota, it raised awareness about the practice of "flaring" wasted natural gas from the Bakken oil fields.

Huge flames light up the sky as the gas, a byproduct of oil production, is burned off day and night where there's no economical way to capture and use it.

In some places, "You can't see the stars. The sky is kind of a dark orange," said Sean Arithson, spokesman for Dakota Resource Council, an environmental group based in Bismarck, N.D.

Generac Power Systems of Waukesha and Kohler Power Systems, a division of Kohler Co., have equipment that captures some of the gas and turns it into usable electricity.

The portable generators, some roughly the size of a large pickup truck, burn the gas as fuel and provide electric power to the oil pumping operations.

The equipment captures "a fair amount of fuel" that otherwise would be burned off into the atmosphere, said Terry Dolan, a Generac executive vice president.

Generac and Kohler make generators for commercial and industrial uses as well as backup power for homes. Some of the largest units can provide enough emergency power to run an oil refinery or hospital.

The Bakken oil field units, which run 24 hours a day in remote areas of the Dakotas, are a growth area for Generac, Dolan said.

"A lot of these places are really far from where the utility lines go, but they need the electric power. With the flared gas, they have a constant flow of fuel coming out of the ground," he said.

Generac and Kohler sell the gas-driven generators to companies in the oil fields, which set them up to provide electric power that otherwise would come from diesel-powered generators.

A diesel-powered unit would burn 9 gallons of fuel an hour, 24 hours a day, to provide the electricity that comes from a generator burning the waste gas, said Mark Wald, president of Blaise Energy Inc., a Bismarck firm that provides the equipment and uses Generac products.

"It's crazy. There's a great big flare and fuel going up in smoke, while right next to it you have a diesel generator using fuel that has to be trucked in," Wald said.

Oil companies say they've spent more than $13 billion to capture the waste gas, mostly through pipelines, rather than burn it into the sky. But sometimes they have difficulty obtaining permission from landowners to place pipelines on their property, and it's cost prohibitive in remote areas.

North Dakota is considering state legislation that would drastically cut the time oil companies can burn off natural gas. It would require companies to begin paying royalties and taxes on wasted natural gas within 14 days after an oil well begins production. Companies are given a year now, but often they receive extensions because of the high cost of moving the gas to market.

The burned-off gas is valued at more than $1 million a month in lost state revenue, according to an Associated Press article.

"We want to get this gas, no question about it," Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, said in a recent hearing on the issue.

The Generac and Kohler generators use only a small amount of the waste gas from an oil well, but the units provide valuable power in areas where it would cost millions of dollars to run a utility line. They run year-round even in the harshest weather.

Reliability is important. It can cost a petroleum company $10,000 an hour in lost revenue if an oil well is not pumping because the generator shut down or something else went wrong.

Kohler has dozens of the gas-powered generators in the Bakken oil fields, said Nolan Landes, a senior products manager for the company's generator product line.

The units also are used in oil fields in Texas, Oklahoma, Canada and overseas.

Once a well is established, the waste gas is essentially a free source of fuel, Landes said.

But it's difficult to maintain machinery in remote locations, where the temperature can drop to 30 below zero. Also, the gas coming out of the ground from an oil well contains impurities that have to be removed before it's suitable for powering a generator.

"It's not like the gas that comes out of a pipe into your home," Dolan said.

Sensors in the generators are constantly checking the fuel quality and adjusting the units to run on it. Backup systems, such as propane tanks, can be used if a problem arises with the gas coming out of the ground.

The gas is valued at only a fraction of the value of the oil being produced. But there's still incentive to capture it as an energy source, Blaise Energy's Wald said.

With lower oil prices, "Everybody's looking at trimming costs," he said. If an oil field operator can save money by replacing diesel generators with gas-driven units, they're moving in that direction.

"We are not slowing down with the drop in oil prices," Wald said.

"We have seen significant growth in the call for generators to use the waste gas that's been flared for years," Dolan said.

http://www.jsonline.com/                        Rick Barrett

Kohler Expansion Positions Company for Greater Success

Recently, Benjamin Noel followed a semi hauling a Kohler Power Systems generator. Warning flags fluttered from its sides, yellow lights flashing caution. The generator was one of the largest Kohler Power Systems builds, and Noel, a Kohler associate with 37 years of employment under his belt, had built the housing for the unit.

“Knowing I was a part of building that?” he asked above the factory noise. “That’s pretty neat.”

Noel stood in the south end of the recently completed 105,000-square-foot addition to the generator manufacturing plant in the Town of Mosel, north of Sheboygan. Here, associates work three shifts, making everything from marine generators to 3.25-megawatt behemoths that power entire airports and military bases.

Although many of the residential generators are built using mass production procedures, larger units are often built to customer specifications. And while it’s appropriate to stock inventory for mass-produced items, the nature of the specialized units required an updated, responsive inventory system used throughout the factory.

John Brickner, director of manufacturing, said this system “is about having the right part in the right place at the right time.”

Approximately three days’ inventory is in the factory at any given time, with cutting and bending of steel taking place the first day, painting on day two, and building taking place the following day.

“We turned this into a job shop,” Brickner said. “We focus on on-time delivery and trying to get things out as quickly as possible.”

Helping that along is one of the plant’s newest acquisitions, an Amada fiber laser, which cuts some of the 25 to 30 million pounds of steel that passes through the generator plant each year.

“The precision on this is amazing,” Brickner said, watching the machine work. “It can cut up to 140 inches per minute, and cuts up to five times faster than a regular laser.”

Previously, Brickner explained that when it came time in the manufacturing process to enclose the generators, KPS sourced outside vendors. That step added time and increased costs. The new addition provides space for the company to manufacture its own enclosures, allowing KPS to offer “an entire solution to our customers,” Brickner said.

The philosophy of a “one-stop shop” means that KPS manufactures much of the generators’ internal components – transfer switches, wiring harnesses, circuit boards and switch gears – which provides competitive advantages like quality control, decreased lead time, and cost savings.

“Our controllers are designed specifically for power generation,” Brickner said. “It’s a lot more interactive, with a focus on application.”

Brickner said the longest build cycle, from planning to shipment, is 12 weeks; most units are shipped in less time, and each unit stays on the shop floor being built for four or fewer days. All generators are run through the testing bay prior to shipment, an area that also allows customers to test generators and request adjustments as necessary.

A two-coat painting system, installed in 2010, creates what Brickner called “a robust coating system” to protect generators from salty or harsh environments, like those found in hurricane- and storm-ravaged sections of the country.

When Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012, many East Coast businesses went long stretches without electricity — KPS generators supplied power so grocery stores could keep food properly preserved, and gasoline pumps could provide much-needed fuel for customers.

Brickner said the demand for electrical power in the United States is growing “faster than population growth, construction growth and GDP growth.”

That situation, coupled with the country’s “antiquated and under-invested-in electrical grids creates a need for quality power,” Brickner said. “If the grid for the United States becomes overtaxed, we’ll have an increased need for reliable power distribution at the customers’ point of use.”

Generators certainly find their way around the world, but local companies also benefit. Brickner tapped a smaller generator, its injection-molded enclosure made by Bemis Manufacturing in Sheboygan Falls.

“We source a lot of parts locally, whether it’s packaging or plastics,” he said. “It supports the whole vitality of this area.”

http://www.sheboyganpress.com/          Deanne Schultz

Kohler Acquires Brazilian Generator Manufacturer

March 13 -- Kohler Power Systems, a manufacturer and marketer of generators, automatic transfer switches and switchgear has acquired Maquigeral, a generator company with headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“We were persuaded to invest in Brazil because of its strong economic potential and a growing need for primary and backup power systems,” said Herbert Kohler Jr., chairman and CEO of Kohler Co, parent company of Kohler Power Systems. “Maquigeral represents an excellent building block in South America.”

Maquigeral will be managed by SDMO, Kohler’s French subsidiary, which has grown dramatically in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to the company. Initially, the company will focus on Brazil by increasing the product range and introducing additional technology into the current product offering, Kohler said.

Current Maquigeral executive Sandra Battistella will continue as general manager, reporting to Jean-Marie Soula, managing director of SDMO. Georges LeGall, SDMO’s director of engineering, will relocate to Brazil and serve as the deputy general manager.

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