Technologies for Waste Heat Recovery in Off-Shore Applications

In off-shore oil and gas platforms the selection of the gas turbine to support the electrical and mechanical demand on site is often a compromise between reliability, efficiency, compactness, low weight and fuel flexibility. Therefore, recovering the waste heat in off-shore platforms presents both technological and economic challenges that need to be overcome. However, onshore established technologies such as the steam Rankine cycle, the air bottoming cycle and the organic Rankine cycle can be tailored to recover the exhaust heat off-shore. In the present paper, benefits and challenges of these three different technologies are presented, considering the Draugen platform in the North Sea as a base case. The Turboden 65-HRS unit is considered as representative of the organic Rankine cycle technology. Air bottoming cycles are analyzed and optimal design pressure ratios are selected. We also study a one pressure level steam Rankine cycle employing the once-through heat recovery steam generator without bypass stack. We compare the three technologies considering the combined cycle thermal efficiency, the weight, the net present value, the profitability index and payback time. Both incomes related to CO₂ taxes and natural gas savings are considered. The results indicate that the Turboden 65-HRS unit is the optimal technology, resulting in a combined cycle thermal efficiency of 41.5% and a net present value of around 15 M$, corresponding to a payback time of approximately 4.5 years. The total weight of the unit is expected to be around 250 ton. The air bottoming cycle without intercooling is also a possible alternative due to its low weight (76 ton) and low investment cost (8.8 M$). However, cycle performance and profitability index are poorer, 12.1% and 0.75. Furthermore, the results suggest that the once-trough single pressure steam cycle has a combined cycle thermal efficiency of 40.8% and net present value of 13.5 M$. The total weight of the steam Rankine cycle is estimated to be around 170 ton.