| dc.description.abstract | The attempt to reduce the environmental impact of offshore gas installations has been the main driver for research in process energy efficiency and energy supply concepts. On the one hand, offshore gas processing is an energy intensive activity, and therefore a major source for energy related CO2 emissions. On the other hand, a fair share of the current energy supply methods emit a considerable amount of CO2 from power and heat generation. Therefore, striking a balance between process optimizations and relying on cleaner energy supply sources is the key to achieving the desired environmental goals.
This study focuses on evaluating the environmental impact of several energy supply methods, namely a gas turbine, a combined cycle, and electricity from the onshore power grid, to determine the concept that exhibits the lowest cumulative CO2 emissions over the gas field’s production lifetime. Platform electrification was presented as the best energy supply alternative from the environmental point of view with a potential CO2 emissions savings of up to 85.8%. To optimize the setup even further, an innovative internal heat recovery system from the process fluids using heat exchangers was simulated. The results showed that emission savings potential could be increased from 85.8% to 86.6%, validating the advantages of the proposed setup.
The main challenge for the development of the process design configurations and the comparison of the proposed setups is the differences between the primary energy sources involved, each with its own key performance indicators. Therefore, the chosen basis for comparison was the carbon emission factor for electricity generation in the case of platform electrification, and the net plant efficiency for the scenarios involving a gas turbine and a combined cycle, which is directly proportional to the amount of natural gas consumed and hence, the amount of CO2 emitted from each of the two technologies. | |
