Well Field Remote Monitoring and Control:
Case Study at Crapo Hill Landfill
SWANA NJ Chapter - April 14th, 2015
Presented by: Andrew Campanella
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
About the presenter
ANDY CAMPANELLA
- B.S. Electrical Eng. and Computer Science at MIT
- M.S. in System Design and Management at MIT
- Founder and CEO of Loci Controls, Inc.
- Inventor on 32 US patents, dozens of applications
- Expert in control systems, instrumentation, power systems, and electronics
- Introduction
- Typical Landfill Gas Collection Process
- Remote Monitoring and Automatic Control
- Case Study - Crapo Hill Landfill
Outline
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Typical gas collection system
1 TRASH GENERATES METHANE GAS
3 GAS BURNED TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY
4 ELECTRICITY SOLD TO THE GRID
$$$
2 GAS COLLECTED FROM WELLS
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
• Manual surveys of well field are very labor intensive
• Infrequent measurement & tuning due to time/effort required
• Well adjustments are an art rather than a science
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Drawbacks of typical collection system
Automated well field control system
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Installed hardware
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Sensor Suite: CH4 CO2 O2 Temperature Pressure Flow rate
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
• Set custom alarms • Instantly identify problems • View real time data • Energy analytics
Control valve: Remote control 0-100% range Linearized output Solar powered
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Control system objective
∂LFGE
∂t=∂LFGG
∂t
Gas Extraction = Gas Generation
- Stable gas quality
- Minimized emissions - Long term maximization of methanogenesis
- Eliminates risk of underground fire
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Gas extraction modeling
• Find correlations between variables at each well
• Express correlations between wells • Add outside data (weather, etc.)
• Generate predictive estimates of well production at different operating points
• Calculate optimum operation condition for each well
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Crapo Hill Landfill in Dartmouth, MA
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Landfill owner - Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District Landfill Site – 152 Acres Current Landfill Size - ~40 Acres Permitted Capacity – 100,000 Tons/yr Waste in Place - ~2,000,000 Tons
LFG-E Facility Owner – Commonwealth Resource Management Corporation End User - Power sold to NSTAR Generators – 4 Caterpillar 3516 Engines Generation Capacity – 3.2 MW
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Crapo Hill Landfill in Dartmouth, MA
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Want to quantify real world impact Outfit top 13 horizontal and leachate collector wells with automation system
- Wells account for > 60% of total flow All wells located in active area 3 month data collection: Aug – Nov 2014 Comparison against same period in 2013 and July 2014
Case Study Overview
Lessons learned
• Very strong well to well interactions!
• Unexpected problems with well flooding
• Production increased through use of automated monitoring and control
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Well to well interactions – Crapo Hill
A
B
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Well A
Extraction Zone A
Well B
Extraction Zone B
+ f (LFGB )
Influence of Well B on A
∂LFGA
∂t≈ f (x1, x2,...)
∂LFGB
∂t≈ f (x1, x2,...) + f (LFGA )
Influence of Well A on B
Well to well interactions
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Example of coupled wells – Crapo Hill
Methane killed from Sept 25 7pm
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
4:48 PM 6:00 PM 7:12 PM 8:24 PM 9:36 PM 10:48 PM
SCFM
Well A Flow Rate Well B Flow Rate
45
50
55
60
65
4:48 PM 6:00 PM 7:12 PM 8:24 PM 9:36 PM 10:48 PM
CH4
%
Well A CH4% Well B CH4%
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Methane killed from Sept 25 7pm
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
4:48 PM 6:00 PM 7:12 PM 8:24 PM 9:36 PM 10:48 PM
SCFM
Well A Flow Rate Well B Flow Rate
45
50
55
60
65
4:48 PM 6:00 PM 7:12 PM 8:24 PM 9:36 PM 10:48 PM
CH4
%
Well A CH4% Well B CH4%
1 OPEN VALVE WELL A
Example of coupled wells – Crapo Hill
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Methane killed from Sept 25 7pm
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
4:48 PM 6:00 PM 7:12 PM 8:24 PM 9:36 PM 10:48 PM
SCFM
Well A Flow Rate Well B Flow Rate
45
50
55
60
65
4:48 PM 6:00 PM 7:12 PM 8:24 PM 9:36 PM 10:48 PM
CH4
%
Well A CH4% Well B CH4%
2 DROP IN CH4 WELL B
Example of coupled wells – Crapo Hill
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Lessons learned
• Very strong well to well interactions!
• Unexpected problems with well flooding
• Production increased through use of automated monitoring and control
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Horizontal Well Flooding
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Real Time Detection of Well Flooding
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Lessons learned
• Very strong well to well interactions!
• Unexpected problems with well flooding
• Production increased through use of automated monitoring and control
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Pilot results - 25.8% higher power from automated wells!
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
1.408E+09 1.409E+09 1.41E+09 1.41E+09 1.411E+09 1.412E+09 WEEKS
Performance with Loci Baseline Performance
Gas E
xtra
ction
(m
illion
BTU
/min
ute)
6 days engines down in 2014 4 days engines down in 2013
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1 8 15 22 29
SCFM
DAY
Sept 2014 50% CH4 Sept 2013 50% CH4
AVG. 132 SCFM INCREASE
Total flow increase of 13.8%
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
MORE $$$
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
• More gas = more revenue
• Reduction of risks through continuous monitoring • Underground fire or reactions • Odor complaints • Emissions violations
• Labor savings – more efficient use of technician time
Potential for system automation
MORE GAS
THANK YOU!
SWANA NJ Chapter - April 14th, 2015
©2014 Loci Controls, Inc. – Not for distribu:on
Andy Campanella
Email –[email protected] Phone – (585) 415-9950 www.locicontrols.com