Innovation

Fuel Choices for Advanced Vehicles
Read about advancements in the internal combustion engine, cleaner-burning and alternative fuels, improved emissions control devices, and new powertrain technologies such as hybrids. Fuel Choices for Advanced Vehicles covers past successes and the progress and potential of future fuels and vehicles, and offers dialog on evolving technologies such as hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Click below to view/download the Fuel Choices for Advanced Vehicles Report.

Virtual Training for Tanker Pilots Builds Experience, Protects the Environment
Protecting the health and safety of our beaches and coastal waterways – treasured sources of recreation and natural beauty – is a top priority for the oil and natural gas industry. To reduce the risk of accidental groundings and spills, prospective tanker pilots are using virtual reality technology to get extensive hands-on training before they ever take the wheel of a ship.

Revolutionary Pipeline Drilling Protects Habitats
The breakthrough of horizontal drilling has revolutionized the search for new reserves of oil and natural gas, enabling our industry to recover resources located under sensitive habitats without harm and produce more oil and natural gas from fewer wells. The same basic principles also enable pipelines – essential in delivering the fuels you count on every day – to be laid underground without disrupting the lands or waterways above.

New Technology Keeps Storage Tanks Safe
America’s 180,000 retail service stations hold over 2 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel at any given time – primarily in underground tanks – ready to deliver the fuel you need to get to work, school, shopping and home again. Just as important, new equipment and tank-monitoring technology is helping ensure these vital fuels stay where they belong, preventing underground spills and protecting the environment.

Recovered Gas Vapors Add Value, Cut Emissions
Crude oil storage tanks are used to regulate the flow of oil between production wells and the trucks or pipelines that will transport it to the refinery. Although crude oil usually is only stored for a short period, natural gas dissolved in the crude oil can vaporize and collect at the top of the tank. Vapor recovery units have be fitted onto storage tanks to collect these so-called “fugitive emissions” for use as fuel and reduce the chances that gas vapors will be released into the environment.

Liquefied Natural Gas Storage in Underground Salt Caverns Could Increase U.S. Energy Supply
A new process for unloading and storing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) could augment the nation’s energy supply and increase worldwide trade of the valuable fuel.  The “Bishop Process” is a unique method of unloading and re-gasifying liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly from tankers for storage in underground salt caverns. Salt cavern-based LNG terminals can be built for approximately half the cost and with twice the capacity of conventional liquid tank terminals. This technology potentially could increase the efficiency of extracting natural gas from underground storage sites, making more gas available to consumers during the winter heating season.

Coalbed Methane Moves from Unconventional to Mainstream Energy Resource
New natual gas reserves are vital to guaranteeing a steady supply of affordable fuel to power our cars, heat and cool our homes, generate electricity and preserve Americans' quality of life. Large amounts of methane, or natural gas, are stored inside of coal. In the past, coalbed methane was primarily a hazard to coal miners and was vented to the atmosphere during mining. Now, new technology allows this natural gas to be produced for use in our homes, electrical generation plants and factories. The result, coalbed methane is now a significant part of our Nation's natural gas supply and less methane, an important greenhouse gas, is released to the atmosphere.

Natural Gas Hydrates May Help Fuel the Future
Gas hydrates – natural gas and water frozen together into a solid substance – are common in arctic permafrost regions and in sediments in the ocean's deep waters. Research is now underway to better understand this vast, untapped resource: how natural gas hydrates form, where they are located and how they could be used as a future source of natural gas.