Capstone Turbine has announced that it continues to broaden the application of its innovative C200 microturbines in the oil and gas industry with a recent order from a large natural gas and coal producer for a C200 fueled by coal bed methane gas--the first Capstone microturbine of its kind in the United States.

The order is the latest in a string of new orders Capstone has received in recent months from several large oil and gas companies for its C65, C200 and C1000 microturbines. E-Finity Distributed Generation, Capstone's mid-Atlantic distributor, secured this most recent order.

The C200 microturbine will be installed this summer at a coal bed gas processing plant.

The microturbine will use methane gas from the plant that is normally flared, to produce 200 kilowatts of electricity.

Normally, operations that produce methane gas flare the waste gases or vent them directly into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, methane has a greenhouse-gas impact on the atmosphere 21 times that of carbon dioxide. Capstone's microturbine technology allows companies to capture the waste methane and use it as an on-site fuel source.

"The oil and gas industry continues to be a growing market for Capstone," said Jim Crouse, Capstone's Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

"With this sale of our C200 operating on coal bed methane flare gas to a major U.S. producer, we continue our expansion and market adoption in the U.S."