2009-01-06 - In an exclusive interview for the World Future Energy Summit 2009, ABB's Jim Kelly talks about managing pollution through Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) and energy efficiency in fuel recovery.
WFES: How important is ABB?
ABB: ABB is a leading power and automation technology company with over 110,000 employees serving industrial and utility customers with operations in over 100 countries. As one of the world’s leading engineering companies, we help our customers to use electrical power efficiently, to increase industrial productivity and to lower environmental impact in a sustainable way.
WFES: How does ABB U.A.E work with the oil and gas industry?
ABB: ABB has a dedicated oil & gas business unit with over 50 years of experience in serving the oil & gas industry. We have over 5,500 employees in 35 countries dedicated to serving the industry and have successfully completed 1,000´s of projects worldwide delivering products, automation systems, electrification, EPC projects, and services to national and international energy companies. ABB is recognized as the #1 Distributed Control Systems supplier to the oil & gas industry.
WFES: How can ABB technologies positively impact the sustainability and energy efficiency concerns of all stakeholders including citizens, industry and governments ?
ABB: The world is facing serious energy-related challenges and increasing concerns associated with climate change which has brought these key issues to the top of the agenda in business, politics and public debate. ABB technologies are at the forefront in assisting stakeholders in overcoming these challenges and mitigating their effects. For example, ABB’s HVDC Light technology simultaneously tackles the energy supply, efficiency and sustainability issues associated with offshore oil & gas production. Powering oil & gas production platforms with higher efficiency power from shore using HVDC Light eliminates lower efficiency gas turbines on the platform itself resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions and more reliable power delivery to operations. This technology is installed at StatoilHydro’s Troll A gas platform in the North Sea where ABB provided a 70-kilometer underwater power link to deliver electricity from the mainland grid. This solution removed the hazard of local power generation on the rig, saved valuable space and provided access to a reliable supply of emission-free power from Norway’s hydroelectric plants. By providing a high-efficiency transmission link using ABB’s HVDC Light technology, as well as high-efficiency motors to drive gas delivery equipment, ABB helped Statoil to cut CO2 emissions by 130,000 tons per year.
In another application, the technology is used to connect offshore wind-farms to the grid, increasing the quality & reliable delivery of much needed renewable power while reducing electric power transmission losses.
WFES: How can ABB help reduce pollution in the UAE?
ABB: The UAE’s rapid economic and population growth as well as the increasing industrialization of the country presents opportunities for enhanced adoption of sustainable technologies. In particular, ABB believes that energy efficiency is the “other alternative fuel” that can quickly reduce energy consumption and environmental impact. For example, if we consider the rapid expansion and increased tonnage handling of ports in the UAE, opportunities exist to reduce the carbon footprint of these facilities by supplying high-voltage power connections that provide grid electricity to vessels while berthed. This technology allows ships to shut down their own, less efficient generators, which would otherwise produce emissions in the port facility. ABB is the world’s leading supplier of power and propulsion systems for the marine industry and has supplied shore to ship power technology in multiple ports around the globe.
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is another technology that is gaining increased interest around the globe as a means to reduce the climate effects associated with anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. As part of this global push, the Masdar initiative has highlighted CCS as a key technology for the UAE in developing Clean Development Mechanism projects to reduce CO2 emissions. ABB feels this technology has a significant role to play in the overall mitigation of climate change effects and we have been intimately involved with our automation and power technologies enabling success of the few commercial scale CCS projects currently operating in the world today. The monitoring of sequestered CO2 is also a key area of focus in CCS projects and ABB is uniquely positioned to contribute technology that can remotely sense CO2 from airborne sensors. The high-technology field of Remote Sensing of atmospheric gases is a longstanding & key competency of ABB that is now being applied to greenhouse gas monitoring and can play a critical role to ensure success of CCS projects.
ABB U.A.E will be exhibiting at the World Future Energy Summit from January 19-21, 2009.