HARVESTING ATMOSPHERIC WATER USING NATURAL GAS THAT WOULD TYPICALLY BE FLARED AND WASTED

摘要

A method and system for harvesting water from the atmosphere using unwanted combustible gas, where the unwanted combustible gas refers to combustible gas (e.g., natural gas) that would normally be flared off by the oil and gas operator or by a plant (e.g., petrochemical plant). The energy produced by burning the unwanted combustible gas is used to power vapor compression or vapor absorption based refrigeration units which provide the cooling capacity to condense water. The condensers may be coated with specialized condensation promoting coatings that increase the condensation heat transfer performance thereby enabling compact combustible gas powered atmospheric water harvesters. The water collected can be used for oilfield operations, hydraulic fracturing, waterflooding, etc.

主权项

1. A method for harvesting atmospheric water, the method comprising:
receiving an unwanted combustible gas stream that would normally be flared off; purging said unwanted combustible gas stream to remove oxygen from said unwanted combustible gas; distributing said combustible gas to a gas conditioning module to condition said combustible gas to be utilized by a gas engine; sending said conditioned combustible gas to said gas engine to run a refrigeration cycle; extracting water from the atmosphere using said refrigeration cycle; and storing said extracted water in a water storage unit.