SHANA -- The National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) launched a smokeless gas flare in Ahwaz, southwestern Iran, in a push to fulfill its environmental agenda.

NISOC CEO Bijan Alipour told a ceremony to officially launch the project that preservation of the environment was one of the company's policies, saying gathering of associated gases as well as efficient incineration of vent gas were on NISOC's environmental agenda.

Smokeless flares incinerate flammable hazardous vent gas with the assistance of supplemental high-velocity air or steam to prevent the formation of soot or smoke.

According to him, the amount and type of pollutants released from these flares to the environment was a function of the low combustion at the flare tip which meant that there was a significant amount of contaminants such as unburnt carbon and volatile organic compounds in the vent gases.