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Companies : Extraction Unused Natural Gas from the Ocean Floor |
Posted by : nita on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 11:37 AM EST
1620 Reads
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13.10.07 | Siemens will develop a compressor that will allow Statoil, Norway’s leading oil and natural gas company, to extract contaminated natural gas from below the ocean floor. Such a system would make it possible to exploit fields of previously non-extractable gas, which would in turn help to make this source of energy available for a longer period than currently forecasted. A test facility is scheduled to go into operation in late 2008. A key element in the extraction of natural gas, compressors compress gas to pressures as high as 1000 bar, making it possible for the gas to be injected or transported in pipelines over long distances. Today’s compressors consist primarily of a motor, compressor, transmission, and magnetic bearings that are sealed using dry gas seals. Gas will escape through these seals however. This is one reason it was previously impossible to extract natural gas made poisonous as a result of contamination with pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide. About one third of the world’s natural gas reserves contain such impurities. In 1999, Siemens Power Generation (PG) and Shell Global Solutions began to develop a compressor that makes it possible to create applications using toxic contaminated natural gas. To achieve this goal, the experts incorporated the individual components of the compressor into a self-contained vertical casing. The result was not just a compact, space-saving design, but also a system that prevents poisonous fumes from escaping before they are safely eliminated by a downstream treatment plant. The compressor, known as the ECO-II, has been in use with good success in a small Dutch town near Groningen since 2006.
Statoil has now commissioned Siemens to enhance the ECO-II system, with the aim of using this compressor technology directly on the ocean floor, where the majority of the contaminated natural gas fields are located. To enable the compressor to withstand the extreme conditions, Siemens is currently enhancing the system’s structural robustness while also improving it to ensure maximum availability and minimum maintenance.
The new compressor will also make it possible to extract more gas than previously. Whereas offshore production rigs still need to use the natural pressure of gas in order to bring it to the water’s surface, the new system will also be able to use low-pressure natural gas that it compresses directly on the ocean floor.
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