A new solution offers a small-scale alternative to traditional GTL approaches. Flaring produces about 400 MMtons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the World Bank-led Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) partnership. While flaring is less damaging to the environment than directly venting natural gas into the atmosphere, it does produce CO_2 and a host of other harmful pollutants. Until now, the only solution to the flaring problem has been to build expensive transmission pipelines to transport the natural gas to distant markets. But since the oil in a petroleum reserve is about 30 times more valuable than the associated natural gas, oil companies have chosen to flare much of the associated gas they produce rather than investing in the infrastructure to collect, process and market it.
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