Winterizing Wellheads: How SOFCs Prevent Freeze-Off

“The best part of my role is when I get to witness a customer’s excitement as they see for themselves what our aircraft are capable of, especially when they discover the flexibility, ease of use, and capability to easily integrate other technologies,” says Grace Burgess, Training Manager of Flight Operations at Edge Autonomy. “It’s really gratifying when a customer tells me, ‘That is exactly what we must have to fulfill our operational needs.”

And the demand for flight demonstrations and training is growing. Grace and the Edge Autonomy flight operations team have travelled the globe to showcase our uncrewed aerial capabilities for customers and partners, training new pilots and providing education for operations teams.

Not only does Edge Autonomy currently have more than 300,000 square feet of production and manufacturing space, but we also have multiple committed airspace locations devoted to training, demonstrations, and quality control.

“I enjoy traveling to meet our customers and partners wherever the need for our UAS technology lies,” says Grace. “And as a company we are also in an exciting time of expansion, which means that our dedicated flight operations facilities in the U.S. and overseas are growing to be even better equipped to accommodate the needs of our clients.”

A Strong Foundation in Aviation

Rapid growth and an ever-increasing demand for flexible and adaptive UAS technology makes strong organizational skills and a deep understanding of the industry a must. The daughter of a pilot who served in the U.S. Army while she was growing up, Grace found an early mentor in her father, who also worked in the drone and aviation industry. In addition to instilling her with a love of travel and a keen interest in technology, Grace’s military upbringing gave her a growth mindset and made her highly adaptable.

“This is a very fast-paced, ever-evolving industry and a lot is going on all the time,” says Grace. “Being resilient and adaptable to those changes is key to meeting the real-world needs our customers face, all while being open to learning about how our aircraft fit into current and future mission needs. It’s important not to be afraid to ask, ‘How can I learn more? How can I make this work?’ These questions not only lead to new technological innovations, but they keep me growing in my career.”

From flight safety and standardization to developing instructional curriculum and deploying as an operator, working in multiple disciplines within the UAS training arena gave Grace a solid foundation in aviation. Yet she believes her most intensive season of personal and professional growth began when she joined the Edge Autonomy team.

“I’ve had opportunities at Edge Autonomy to complete trainings on new equipment and new technologies that I wouldn’t have been able to pursue elsewhere,” she explains. “My mentors within the company have given me so much opportunity for growth, as well as countless chances to move into leadership roles. I feel very blessed to have senior leadership that believes in my capabilities to step into more. More visibility and more responsibility.”

The Future of UAS: Maintaining the Human Factor in the Face of Automation

With all the buzz surrounding Artificial Intelligence and the swift changes taking place not only in aviation but in the broader technology culture at large, Grace believes it is critical not to lose sight of the human operators behind the technology.

“You have to understand people’s perspectives and the very personal ‘whys’ behind the needs our customers face,” says Grace. “We must remember that a human being ultimately operates a UAS. Our goal at Edge Autonomy, no matter what exciting technology advancements we implement, is to make a product that is as user-friendly and operable as possible.

“I’m really looking forward to up-and-coming capabilities that will give the operator even greater agility on the ground. How the operator controls the aircraft is going to change, I think, so it’s an exciting time to be working in this dynamic field.”

Interested in an aviation career at the forefront of innovation? Learn more about Edge Autonomy’s open positions across our locations in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

One of the major risks of natural gas wellheads is freeze-off, which is when freezing temperatures cause a buildup of ice that blocks the flow. Water and other liquids in the gas can freeze in cold temperatures. This can cause major reductions in natural gas production. That, in turn, can lead to power outages affecting millions of customers.

There are methods to protect wellheads. However, areas that experience infrequent but dramatic cold weather may lack the infrastructure and are especially vulnerable to this breakdown. In fact, we saw this very thing happen in Texas during the late winter of 2021. Texas relies on natural gas more than any other fuel, but the freezing temperatures halved natural gas production from 22.5 billion cubic feet per day in December to between 10 and 12 billion cubic feet of gas per day during the peak of the crisis in February, 2021, according to BTU Analytics.

This production drop-off was caused by the freeze-offs occurring at wellheads where oil and gas are pumped out of the ground. The cold temperatures also damaged the equipment at processing plants, where gas is separated from fluid and impurities.

But Texas is not a unique case – interruptions like this happen every year in the US and will continue to occur as winters get colder and wellhead production fields are left vulnerable without the proper infrastructure.

A Solution to Avoiding Freeze-off

One solution maintainers are considering to winterize wellheads are solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which are uniquely designed to withstand freezing temperatures. Adaptive Energy is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of low-watt SOFCs for backup and offgrid power,. Our Performer Series P250i SOFC, combined with a thermostatically controlled electric wellhead heater, can ensure protection of wellheads from the cold.

The P250i is a drop-in addition to existing infrastructure that can add security to wellheads up to -35C. Powered from an auxiliary fuel supply (propane), this unit has three major benefits:

  1. The P250i does not need to run off of pipeline gas, ensuring it won’t be impacted if the flow of oil or gas is interrupted due to cold;
  2. It can sit on standby for months or even years, only turning on when temperatures drop below a programmable limit;
  3. Has a small footprint and can be isolated from other systems as necessary.

The P250i At Work

The P250i is already in use across industries to protect against freezing temperatures. For example, extreme cold and low sunlight were causing frequent outages of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) weather camera stations in Alaska. These weather cameras along busy and critical routes are the only visual weather aid pilots have in Alaska.

However, with frequent power outages caused by harsh winter weather, the FAA needed reliable backup power that would keep the cameras up even in the harshest weather. And they turned to our P250i SOFC to do exactly this.

While other technologies fail in Alaska’s extreme cold, the P250i excels because it is engineered to store, start and operate in temperatures from -40°C to 50°C. It produces no liquid water and is constructed of heat-resistant ceramic tubes that will not freeze. The system runs on propane, and unlike diesel it doesn’t degrade over time, can be stable for 10-30 years and won’t freeze until -44°C.

Wellhead maintainers need to be looking at methods like this to improve infrastructure to avoid future disasters, and that includes winterizing wellheads against potential freezing temperatures. Protecting wellheads is vital in preventing everything from minor delays to major disasters.