I have a considerable amount of methane in my well water. Milky and bubbly. I can fill a soda bottle from my kitchen tap and light the tip as it bubbles off. Preliminary "experimentation" shows a constant 6" #48 torch flame off of 2 GPM water flow rate. I'm fairly sure the methane is "biogenic" not "thermogenic" as there is no fracking in my area. This means it should be from a source close to the surface (500 feet deep) that does not contain shale related impurities (5000 feet deep). I'm going to run a methane/ethane ratio lab test to confirm... but either way the goal: to provide water to my home that does not go boom at the kitchen sink and provide compressed and bottled CH4 for cooking/heating.
Henry's law states that gas will bubble out of solution as pressure decreases or temperature rises. So here's the plan... please scrutinize.
1) My 300' deep submersible pump provides 30-50 psi H20 w/ dissolved CH4 to a 20 gallon 48 psi pressure tank. Standard normal; double spring check, gauge, brass well tank tee, blow off, and 30-50 switch.
2) I will pass the water from that tank through a 10 PSI regulator and one way spring check... and into a circulation loop. I'm eyeing a LF215 Watts Regulator, I'm curious how low a traditional hydronic regulator can be tuned down, and I'm also curious about the flow rate of those cheapo abs $10 drip irrigation 10 psi preset regulators; I could probably gang 10 together in parallel for less than a Watts 215 series. The goal being create a low pressure circulation loop just like a hot water baseboard system, but a little lower pressure than the usual 20 PSI and no added heat.
3) The low pressure circulation loop; my "methane scrubber" will contain:
3.5gpm circulator,
50g glass lined contact tank, aka "hot water tank" but with no heating element.
40 gallon well tank set to 8psi,
1-1/4 "Spirovent" air eliminator,
3/4 "Spirotrap" 5 micron dirt eliminator for prefiltration (since I'm already circulating),
30 psi pressure relief,
and a pressure gauge.
I'm aiming for lead free brass parts. Spirovents are much like a #67 maid-o-mist auto air release that you find on top of a baseboard hot water radiator.... but a lot more fancy and can actually capture finer dissolved bubbles. Think $150 part vs $20 part.
4) To repressurize my water: Drawing off the water circulation loop will be a traditional shallow well Jet Pump and a 4th well pressure tank 20 gallon 48 psi; this tank will have a standard normal gauge, brass well tank tee, blow off, and 30-50 switch. This pressure tank will then supply domestic water to the home free of methane at normal domestic pressure. This assembly will be spring checked before and after. Drinking water will be further purified downstream with traditional filtration methods and water testing. I'm looking into KDF85 backflow type filtration.
5) On the gas vent side of the spirovent: There will be
a second 40 gallon well pressure tank set to 8 psi,
a 10 psi gauge,
a 10 psi pressure relief,
and a second adjustable 0-100 air pressure relief valve set to ~9 psi.
A tee, an on/off supply valve, and gas check will provide 9 psi CH4 supply to appliances I'm hoping I can use standard "low pressure" 11 inch water column 3/8 regulators thereafter and propane appliances. I confirmed with a spirovent rep that their vent would work with methane and function with back pressure on the gas end. I will store this pressure tank outside my home as one would a propane bottle; adding additional parallel pressure tanks as necessary.
I suspect I'll have some degree of CO2 in my CH4; bubbling it through some water should help purify the gas of carbon dioxide. I'll probably have a bit of H2S in there as well... I suspect I'll be able to filter that out using iron oxide; perhaps rust water impregnated wood pellets in a 4" PVC pipe as a filter media which should sequester the sulphur.
I've also considered an open to the atmosphere "column of water" gas storage approach with a pair of 275 gallon fuel oil tanks. I'd stack the tanks above one another and connect them from drain to drain. I'd then fill the lower tank with water and leave the upper tank open to the atmosphere. I would use the 10 PSI CH4 gas to evacuate water from the bottom tank; regulating pressure with the height of the upper tank. This might be the safer and more cost effective method. However, for consistent fuel pressure I might need a float valve and overflow in the second tank to maintain water level. Using the column of water approach also poses challenges with outdoor storage in cold weather; so I might have to give up on the float valve in favor of RV antifreeze.
Then one day I was shootin' at some food...
and up from the ground came some bubbling crude!
Look forward to hearing from you!
Henry's law states that gas will bubble out of solution as pressure decreases or temperature rises. So here's the plan... please scrutinize.
1) My 300' deep submersible pump provides 30-50 psi H20 w/ dissolved CH4 to a 20 gallon 48 psi pressure tank. Standard normal; double spring check, gauge, brass well tank tee, blow off, and 30-50 switch.
2) I will pass the water from that tank through a 10 PSI regulator and one way spring check... and into a circulation loop. I'm eyeing a LF215 Watts Regulator, I'm curious how low a traditional hydronic regulator can be tuned down, and I'm also curious about the flow rate of those cheapo abs $10 drip irrigation 10 psi preset regulators; I could probably gang 10 together in parallel for less than a Watts 215 series. The goal being create a low pressure circulation loop just like a hot water baseboard system, but a little lower pressure than the usual 20 PSI and no added heat.
3) The low pressure circulation loop; my "methane scrubber" will contain:
3.5gpm circulator,
50g glass lined contact tank, aka "hot water tank" but with no heating element.
40 gallon well tank set to 8psi,
1-1/4 "Spirovent" air eliminator,
3/4 "Spirotrap" 5 micron dirt eliminator for prefiltration (since I'm already circulating),
30 psi pressure relief,
and a pressure gauge.
I'm aiming for lead free brass parts. Spirovents are much like a #67 maid-o-mist auto air release that you find on top of a baseboard hot water radiator.... but a lot more fancy and can actually capture finer dissolved bubbles. Think $150 part vs $20 part.
4) To repressurize my water: Drawing off the water circulation loop will be a traditional shallow well Jet Pump and a 4th well pressure tank 20 gallon 48 psi; this tank will have a standard normal gauge, brass well tank tee, blow off, and 30-50 switch. This pressure tank will then supply domestic water to the home free of methane at normal domestic pressure. This assembly will be spring checked before and after. Drinking water will be further purified downstream with traditional filtration methods and water testing. I'm looking into KDF85 backflow type filtration.
5) On the gas vent side of the spirovent: There will be
a second 40 gallon well pressure tank set to 8 psi,
a 10 psi gauge,
a 10 psi pressure relief,
and a second adjustable 0-100 air pressure relief valve set to ~9 psi.
A tee, an on/off supply valve, and gas check will provide 9 psi CH4 supply to appliances I'm hoping I can use standard "low pressure" 11 inch water column 3/8 regulators thereafter and propane appliances. I confirmed with a spirovent rep that their vent would work with methane and function with back pressure on the gas end. I will store this pressure tank outside my home as one would a propane bottle; adding additional parallel pressure tanks as necessary.
I suspect I'll have some degree of CO2 in my CH4; bubbling it through some water should help purify the gas of carbon dioxide. I'll probably have a bit of H2S in there as well... I suspect I'll be able to filter that out using iron oxide; perhaps rust water impregnated wood pellets in a 4" PVC pipe as a filter media which should sequester the sulphur.
I've also considered an open to the atmosphere "column of water" gas storage approach with a pair of 275 gallon fuel oil tanks. I'd stack the tanks above one another and connect them from drain to drain. I'd then fill the lower tank with water and leave the upper tank open to the atmosphere. I would use the 10 PSI CH4 gas to evacuate water from the bottom tank; regulating pressure with the height of the upper tank. This might be the safer and more cost effective method. However, for consistent fuel pressure I might need a float valve and overflow in the second tank to maintain water level. Using the column of water approach also poses challenges with outdoor storage in cold weather; so I might have to give up on the float valve in favor of RV antifreeze.
Then one day I was shootin' at some food...
and up from the ground came some bubbling crude!
Look forward to hearing from you!
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