1,720,971 research outputs found
Offshore renewable energy exploitation strategies in remote areas by power-to-gas and power-to-liquid conversion
Full text linkChemical storage of electric energy is recognised as a potential solution to improve the penetration of renewable energy. The coupling of renewable power production with offshore oil & gas exploitation by converting electricity into synthetic fuels represents an opportunity to valorize renewables in remote areas in an energy transition panorama. The present study aims at a comparison of alternative power-to-gas and power-to-liquid strategies for the conversion of offshore wind power into different chemical energy vectors (hydrogen, synthetic natural gas and methanol), taking advantage of conventional offshore oil & gas infrastructures for energy conversion and synthetic fuel transportation. A set of technical, economic, environmental and profitability performance indicators was defined to allow the comparison. A case study in the North Sea was analysed. The results showed that electrolyzers capacity and offshore-onshore distance play an important role on economic indicators. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to test the robustness of the results
Hybrid Energy Systems for Offshore Applications: A volume in Hybrid Energy Systems
No full textHybrid energy systems for offshore applications are innovative technologies combining renewable and non-renewable power devices that require a performance assessment with respect to different aspects to address suitable choices in early design activities. This chapter defines the concept of sustainability and inherent safety for multi-criteria decision analysis of offshore hybrid energy systems. Technical, economic, environmental and societal pillars are presented for the sustainability assessment of the technologies, while key principles of the inherent safety approach are described to orient a safe process design at the offshore context. To evaluate and compare alternative options effectively, the use of performance assessment indicators addressing both sustainability and inherent safety is proposed. The availability in the existing literature of systematic indicator-based methodologies supporting decision-making in the analysis of offshore process and energy systems is finally discussed
Design and energy analyses of alternative methanol production processes driven by hybrid renewable power at the offshore Thebaud platform
No full textIn the present study, novel processes for the offshore production of methanol via alternative routes than reforming of synthesis gas are investigated. Two process schemes are defined differing in the carbon source in input, i.e. the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide and the direct oxidation of methane via radical gas reaction. Both the schemes are considered to be installed at the main facility of the Canadian Sable Offshore Project in the Atlantic Ocean, the gas production Thebaud platform. Both offshore wind farm and solar parabolic trough systems are integrated to supply electricity and heat power to each process. The Aspen HYSYS is used to simulate the chemical processes, while Homer Pro and System Advisor Model are adopted for the design of feasible renewable energy plants. A thermodynamic modelling through energy analysis is conducted to evaluate and compare the energy efficiencies of sub-systems and overall schemes. Moreover, a preliminary design analysis is performed to estimate the footprint required for the components of the two schemes located on the offshore facility. The present results reveal that the methane-to-methanol process makes more efficient use of the integrated renewable sources but requires relatively higher space at the installation than the other scheme
Exergetic and exergoeconomic analyses of novel methanol synthesis processes driven by offshore renewable energies
No full textIn the current context of global energy transition, the coupling of methanol production with offshore oil & gas operations appears to be a promising option to share infrastructures and convert renewable energy into valuable fuel. However, renewable methanol synthesis has not yet reached the commercial stage. Moreover, there is no evidence on studies integrating offshore multiple resources into methanol process. The novelty of this paper is a performance analysis of emerging routes for methanol production driven by offshore wind-solar energies through exergy and exergoeconomic techniques. Two production schemes (catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide and direct radical oxidation of methane) are properly designed to produce a fixed methanol rate driven by offshore wind farm and solar-thermal plants at a given oil & gas rig. The results demonstrate that carbon dioxide-based route shows the lowest exergy destruction rate (66 MW) and total cost rate (1000 $/h) compared to other option. In conjunction with this, the methane-based route gives a satisfactory exergy efficiency of 87% against a mere 2% of other pathway, as well as higher potential to increase cost savings due to lower exergoeconomic factor. Furthermore, influences of varying some key variables on the proposed parameters of the two options are investigated
Multi-criteria sustainability assessment of potential methanol production processes
No full textDue to rapidly increasing world population and growing energy demands, the development of cleaner technologies to exploit renewable energy systems has become of primary importance in the collective efforts to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. The chemical conversion of renewable power into synthetic liquid fuels, such as methanol, allows an easier storage and transportation and avoids any fluctuating issues. Alternative process routes for methanol production other than from raw materials derived from fossil fuels have, during the past decade, grown in interest, where valorising the carbon capture and utilization concept and promoting synergies with the oil & gas industry are potentially achieved. The aim of this study is, in this regard, to investigate the sustainability aspects of alternative processes for synthetic methanol synthesis by applying a systematic methodology based on multi-criteria performance indicators (such as technological, economic, environmental and inherent safety). A total of eleven alternative methanol production schemes, based on synthetic methane or carbon dioxide transformation, are considered, analyzed and comparatively evaluated. The present results demonstrate that the process schemes using catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide offers the best performance when considering a methanol capacity of 500 kg/h. A sensitivity analysis based on the Monte Carlo approach is also performed to verify the robustness of the results
Key performance indicators for environmental contamination caused by offshore oil spills
Full text linkOil spills during offshore operations are likely to cause severe contamination of the sea. The identification of the environmental effects of accidental releases from offshore oil and gas facilities plays a crucial role in the prevention and mitigation of marine pollution. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are largely recognized as an effective tool to address and communicate multifaceted issues related to accidental events in the framework of risk management. In the context of Oil Spill Risk Assessment (OSRA) studies, this study proposes a set of KPIs addressing the potential environmental contamination caused by on-surface oil spills from offshore oil and gas installations. A layered approach was defined, based on three different levels of KPIs having an increasing complexity and providing an increasing amount of information. The environmental KPIs defined allow a preliminary quantitative assessment of the environmental contamination due to the oil spill scenarios defined in the ENVironmental hazards IDentification (ENVID) studies carried out for oil and gas installations, providing a preliminary ranking of the expected environmental effects of the spills and supporting their prioritization in order to select those which should undergo a more accurate Environmental Risk Assessment study (ERA)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Multi-target Inherent Safety Indices for the Early Design of Offshore Oil&Gas Facilities
No full textImproved tools are needed to manage major accident hazard of progressively more complex offshore oil&gas systems in environmentally sensitive areas. Inherent safety principles provide a strategic opportunity to reduce major accident hazards since the early design phase, but a suitable metric to orient safer design choices is needed to apply such principles intro practice. This study aims at providing a systematic approach to the assessment of the hazard profile of alternative process designs in offshore oil & gas production facilities. A novel methodology providing a ranking of inherently safer solutions in conceptual design is described. The methodology is able to highlight the different contributors to the safety profile of the offshore oil & gas production system, linking them to the specific features of the design. The proposed approach, based on multi-criteria Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), addresses different targets (people, assets, environment) and provides a quantitative assessment of the safety score, accounting for both the possible accident consequences and their credibility. An application to a case study concerning an offshore facility for gas production is discussed to demonstrate the potential of the methodology
Design of sustainable offshore hybrid energy systems for improved wave energy dispatchability
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