When conscious efforts are not being made to mitigate the leakage of methane into the atmosphere, we’re not only harming the environment, but valuable energy assets are being irretrievably lost. Control valves in natural gas and methane applications have become a point of concern for the health of the planet and it’s no secret that government support and new regulations to adopt low emissions technologies have arrived. When legacy control valves are replaced with valves that greatly reduce fugitive emissions and venting in the field, your organization is actively protecting the environment and preventing its product from being lost to the atmosphere. Clarke Valve’s safe, reliable and field-proven Dilating Disk™ Valve product line offers a next generation flow control solution that can help organizations achieve Net Zero, all while maintaining the performance factors that are vital in keeping your operation running smoothly.
Traditional Emission-Reducing Practices
Unburned methane is 25–80 times more harmful to the Earth’s atmosphere than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. By definition, all methane that leaks out of control valves is classified as “unburned.” In an attempt to reduce these harmful emissions, maintenance personnel will often times tighten the stem packing of legacy control valves during inspections. While this method does help reduce the amount of methane that escapes, they are not continuously monitored or adjusted 24 hours a day. With inspection visits occurring anywhere between one and 12 months apart, it’s entirely possible that the valves are leaking methane at rates that far exceed the regulatory limits without end-users or operators even realizing it. This can result in many tons of methane being lost from legacy control valves between inspection periods. These types of emission-reducing practices for legacy valves can cause setbacks for your organization’s Net Zero targets and can reduce the amount of overall product your operation can sell.
Selecting Low-Emissions Technologies
Best available low-emissions technologies in the valve industry can easily be identified by either the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) standards for fugitive emissions. These 3rd party institutions have a fugitive emissions “A rating” grade that indicates which valves emit 50 parts-per-million of methane, or less, when deployed in the field. A product that holds a leakage rate of 50 parts-per-million leaks 10 times less than a typical valve that does not carry an ISO or API A rating certification. With the health of the planet and best interests for your operation in mind, we strongly urge organizations to strategically select their flow control solutions from valves that fall within this product pool.
Retaining Performance
While reducing emissions from your operations should always be a priority, ensuring safety and reliability should remain top of mind. From a procurement perspective when selecting from products that have earned ISO or API’s fugitive emissions A rating, you’re narrowing down the amount of products that are field-proven. Hitting your methane reduction target dates is great, but what is it worth if you’re sacrificing safety, reliability, and performance? Any proposed emission-reducing product you select must be field-proven over several years, while maintaining a track record of safety and reliability, like the Clarke Valve Dilating Disk™. Decreasing operational performance in any way in exchange for lowering emissions in the field with unproven technologies runs the risk of negating any cost savings that methane leak mitigation can provide.
The Dilating Disk™ Valve
Clarke Valve has a solution available today that provides customers with an option that does not decrease operational performance. The Dilating Disk™ Valve has earned an A rating from ISO and API, reducing emissions to just 2-parts-per-million while consistently measuring 0 parts-per-million leakage in the field. Our novel approach to stem sealing prevents methane from escaping from our valve, keeping it within your pipelines and eliminates the need for packing or tightening during inspections. Additionally, the Dilating Disk™ Valve requires roughly 80% less force to operate than the equivalent globe valve under the same process conditions. This results in a massive reduction to methane venting, preventing even more methane from escaping and damaging the Earth’s atmosphere. When it comes to performance, the Dilating Disk™ Valve’s precision control, maintainability, and rangeability all rank equal to, or higher, than the globe valve equivalent in each of these categories. Clarke Valve is calling upon all operators utilizing natural gas and methane to select ISO or API certified products that have earned an A rating, and to consider the Dilating Disk™ Valve product line to increase flow control performance and reduce emissions to meet regulatory requirements and achieve Net Zero targets as quickly as possible.
About the author: Kyle Daniels, CEO @ Clarke Valve
Kyle Daniels, CEO, is an Aerospace Engineer and the inventor, Chief Engineer, and Head of Product Design of the Dilating Disk Valve™, formerly known as the Shutter Valve™. He holds several patents on the Dilating Disk™ Valve, and is an expert in the field of industrial valves. Mr. Daniels spent his career in the aerospace industry working at General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, and Embraer Aircraft. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University’s prestigious Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering program and received a master’s degree (magna cum laude) from Brown University’s Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. Mr. Daniels is from Miami, FL and has resided in Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Paris, France.
