A new report by NPD and others reveals that it will not be feasible to deploy onshore supply of power to offshore installations on the Norwegian continental shelf. This means the substantial cuts in CO2/NOX is postponed, as is the infrastructure for offshore wind mill farms. Alternative solutions cannot currently replace onshore power cabling, but a significant and profitable cut in pollution can be gained by installing RotaChoke.
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While we are awaiting onshore power to the rigs to cut emissions, there is already complementing technologies partly solving the problem, and at the same time being economical sound. By installing RotaChoke on e.g. produced water and cooling water, a couple of MW can be produced, and CO2/NOX emissions can be reduced correspondingly. The equals 10-20% of the energy consumption, and thus emissions, from the offshore installation. Return on investment is gained in a few years, and this proves that it is possible to reduce emissions and earn money on it.
Most of the CO2-emission offshore is due to power generation offshore. A majority of the 167 gas turbines offshore Norway today is old, with low efficiency factors, and consequently high CO2- og NOx-emissions. I average, the electro/mechanical efficiency factor for these turbines are 31,4 persent, and in 2004 the total CO2 emissions from these turbines were 9,6 million tons (source: Bellona). A reduction of 10% of this is thus 1 million tons CO2.
To gain even higher reductions in emissions, it is possible to regenerate energy also from the more critical processes on board (well streams, process trains,etc.)