Deep Sea Recovery is developing a novel nitrogen-based lifting system that the firm claims could cut the cost of North Sea subsea projects and potentially reduce the bill for decommissioning redundant infrastructure.
The technology could also be used for installing and removing marine renewables plant.
DSR’s Controllable Buoyancy System (CBS) system has been on trial at the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen, apparently successfully.
When working at great depths, challenges include increasing pressures and decreasing capacity of compressed gas, shortfall in heavy lift vessel (HLV) capacity, remote operation, and increasing cost per tonne.
CBS technology is a variable buoyancy system, which uses liquid nitrogen as a subsurface buoyancy gas source, and as the system is reusable, it is claimed that it offers the potential to save operators significant costs.
The company also claims that the only technology available for raising and lowering heavy loads is the heavy-lift vessel crane. However, Energy has carried stories of other technologies designed for the same basic purpose, so the claim would appear to be incorrect.
Nonetheless, it is said that CBS could provide a viable alternative, or complementary, technology to assist in cutting costs and improving safety for operators to utilise.
At the National Hyperbaric Centre, the company ran trials designed to demonstrate that its nitrogen-based system could control the ascent, descent and hover of loads.
CBS uses an integrated cryogenic gas generator within a lifting structure which makes extensive use of advanced composite materials that are both strong and light.
Duncan Bates, mechanical engineer and project manager at Deep Sea Recovery, said: “The industry is inundated with literature detailing the supposed costs of decommissioning and there is a constant drive to find cheaper methods of achieving each and every step of the process.
“If the industry sticks with the current equipment on the market, spiralling costs will be unavoidable. By providing an alternative to the industry in the form of our CBS technology, we can save organisations money, time, and provide a buoyancy system that is clean, scalable and most importantly reusable, significantly driving down operational cost.”