At the School of Mines in Golden,
Hans and a group of students worked on a project that captured the natural
gases produced during the decay of garbage in landfills and turned them into
energy. After graduating, he continued his quest of helping the environment by capturing
greenhouse gases. Hans understood early on that, to help the environment, he
would have to turn poison into gold and make a profit. It soon dawned on Hans
that there could be a way to capture those gases that leak from oil storage
tanks. We see the escaping gases that Hans captures as unsightly fires burning
at the top of huge stills. In fact, when one of Han’s EcoVapor Recovery Systems,
or as Hans calls it, the “vapor recovery module” is running, the flame goes
out, a sign that Han’s gases are turning into dollars and those burning dollars
aren’t chocking our air with greenhouse gases.
This type of technology has been the Holy Grail of the oil industry and just as elusive. One of the main issues is that when these mineral rich gases are captured it’s difficult to re-pipe them back into the system, mainly because of the oxygen that is found in the compounds. Oxygen corrodes precious pipelines. But Hans found a clever and highly technical way to remove the oxygen molecules from the gases. This then allowed the EcoVapor to re-pipe the gases back into the system, mainly methane.
With about 235 million cubic feet
of methane now captured by his 21 machines the size of a small school bus, Hans
could heat some 6,500 homes.
So what’s the problem? Why aren’t
there school-bus sized vapor recovery modules dotting every oil field in America,
or the world? Well, one word—accounting. The problem is who owns the gases?
Wells and tanks are often owned by multiple people. Also, the minerals in the
mineral-rich gases are also owned by individuals holding mineral rights, which
are separate than oil or land rights—a slippery predicament. Mineral owners
have historically not generated revenue from gases, since gases have never been
captured; therefore, they’ve never been sold or taxed. So who does the gas belong
to?
The solution to the accounting
nightmare was found by Rep. Dave Young, D-Greeley through House Bill 1322. But because of some miscommunication or
perhaps bad wording, House Bill 1322 missed its mark and became wholly
unpopular for the wrong reasons. As it stands now, the question remains. Who do
the gases and now its profits belong to? It’s a solution that can easily be found
through accounting paperwork to oil companies instead the multiple wells, tanks
and owners. Finding a piece of legislation
that can project profits from gas would remove one last hurdle to Hans’ new
technology, the environment and finally make clean air a profitable market. The
Holy Grail has been found, now can the government and huge business find a
means to make it work?
