Nat Gas News – October 17, 2017

Nat Gas News – October 17, 2017

JPSO to Continue Search for Missing Oil Platform Worker

WWLTV reported: KENNER, LA. – The search for a missing employee after an explosion at a natural gas platform in Lake Pontchar train Sunday night has been suspended. The missing worker was identified as 44-year-old Timothy Morri-son of Katy, Texas. As of Monday at 7:15 p.m., the Coast Guard suspended its search for Morrison. According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, eight people were aboard the platform at the time of the explosion around 8 p.m. Sunday. Seven people were rescued and rushed to area hospitals Sunday night. As of Monday morning, the Coast Guard was conducting a search and rescue operation for the last missing worker.

Novel Power-to-Gas Tech Begins Testing in the US

Greentech Media reported: Last month, a team of researchers and engineers quietly installed a first-of-its-kind energy reactor on the campus of a government lab just west of Denver, Colorado. The device — a 25-foot-tall, thin mass of industrial silver pipes and tanks — is a test of a rather unusual method to store energy using microbes, hydrogen and clean electricity. Similar technology is being tested in pilot projects across Europe, but the reactor in Colorado is one of the only ones operating within the U.S. If the process, known as “power-to-gas” by those in the industry, is able to be deployed at a bigger scale and at a lower cost it could some day offer a solution to store large amounts of electricity produced by wind and solar over long periods of time. For now, it’s a novel experiment, at least in the U.S. “It’s pretty slick,” said Kevin Harrison, senior engineer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, describing the new reactor. NREL worked on the project in tandem with Southern California Gas Company and engineering firm Burns & McDonnell.