Valkyries are Supposed to Reduce Deadly Gas Emissions
Source: https://earthworks.org/blog/valkyries-are-supposed-to-reduce-deadly-gas-emissions-they-dont/
Author: Jack McDonald
Oil and gas sites are expected to have the most cutting edge technology reasonably available to them in order to reduce the amount of invisible, deadly gasses they are allowed to release into the air. But Earthworks’ Field Investigations reveal that relying on this technology lets the industry continue to get away with emitting gasses that cause a wide range of health problems, elevate cancer rates, and worsen the climate crisis. The Valkyrie system was developed by Streamline Innovations as a mechanism to remove toxic hydrogen sulfide from natural gas and allow operators to sell gas that would otherwise be too toxic to enter into pipelines. Hydrogen sulfide has been linked to numerous worker deaths in addition to a litany of health effects from exposure. When burned, the gas combusts into sulfur dioxide, another gas harmful to human health that creates acid rain. Due to this and its own high toxicity, operators remove hydrogen sulfide from natural gas in a process known as “sweetening” the gas. This is typically done at refineries or other large processing facilities. Some wells produce gas with so much hydrogen sulfide that the companies controlling pipelines are unwilling to accept the gas to bring to a refinery for sweetening. With nowhere to sell the gas, operators flare the gas they produce on site only keeping the oil that they produced.