MAERSK Oil has teamed up with Siemens of Germany to develop and build turbines for the Danish company’s novel TriGen clean power generation technology, which could be used in association with enhanced oil or gas recovery.
TriGen is a power generator the size of a typical shipping container which burns gas with pure oxygen to produce clean power, pure water and ‘reservoir ready’ carbon dioxide.
The high purity CO2 is captured, making the power generation emission-free, and may then be transported to oil and gas fields for enhanced oil or gas recovery (EOR/EGR).
Maersk Oil acquired license rights to the pure oxygen combustor, the technology of which is rooted in the space industry, from US-based Clean Energy Systems (CES) a year ago.
Now, Siemens will build turbines specially adapted to the combustion process to significantly increase the efficiency of the electricity produced.
Marking the signing with Siemens, Bob Alford, TriGen project manager at Maersk Oil said: “Our goal is to be able to offer a unique product that for the first time joins oil and gas production together with power generation in one integrated project.
“This offers not just zero-emission electricity and pure water but also the ability to extract oil and gas that would otherwise be non-producible through EOR/EGR.”
At this point, the system is seem as “an ideal solution” for water-parched Gulf states that have reservoirs that can benefit from CO2 driven-EOR. It is also well suited for countries in South East Asia where many stranded contaminated gas fields could be unlocked using the flexible TriGen technology.
It is not known at this stage whether TriGen might also be utiltised in the North Sea, where EOR/EGR are becoming increasingly necessary to sustain output from the province.
