Fluid Filtration and Air Pollution Will Reach $5.8 Billion Next Year

Revenues for pumps, valves, instrumentation, fluid filtration and air pollution control in the fuels market will reach $5.8 billion next year. This is the conclusion of the most recent forecast in Air/Gas/Water/Fluid Treatment and Control: World Markets published by the McIlvaine Company. The fuels market includes unconventional gas and oil extraction, conventional gas and oil extraction, gas processing, refining and biofuels. The contribution to the annual double-digit growth is from the unconventional gas and oil extraction and the processing of these fuels at upgraded refineries. The lower cost feedstock is making U. S. Refineries competitive. Hydraulic fracturing is being successfully employed to release both liquids and gas from shale. While much of the publicity has centered on the dry gas shale deposits in the Eastern U. S., the recent growth has been with extraction of liquids from shale deposits in the west. The flow control and treatment of gases and liquids is required in many of the processes. Generally, there are some liquids extracted with gases even from the dry gas shale deposits. Some gases are extracted with the liquids from the wet shale deposits in the west. The gas and liquid streams need to be initially purified for transport. Subsequently, final treatment and separation is required. Recent regulations have increased the 2013 market. Previously, where small amounts of gas were released during well completion they were discharged to the atmosphere. This is no longer permissible. An interim solution of combustion will be followed by a permanent solution of processing into a salable product. The availability of large quantities of inexpensive gas is also resulting in several large scale gas-to-liquids plants in Pennsylvania and Louisiana. Significant investments in flow control and treatment are also required as former LNG receiving terminals are being converted to compress and export LNG. Source: McIlvaine