GE launches innovative heat recovery system for Canada complex
11/2/2011 12:00:00 AM
Alliance Pipeline and its sister company, NRGreen Power, announced the deal Tuesday at the Global Clean Energy Congress. Thanks to its environmental benefits, the ORegen technology qualified for partial government funding through Alberta Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp.
GE Oil & Gas has received a contract to supply the ORegen system to NRGreen Power, which is coordinating the project. ORegen will produce 14 MW of electricity, using waste heat from the existing Alliance Pipeline compressor station, while avoiding associated CO2 emissions and maximizing energy efficiency.
NRGreen Power is involved in the commercial development of electrical generation opportunities associated with the Canadian portion of the Alliance natural gas pipeline system by recovering and converting waste heat at compressor stations and transforming it into electricity. The benefits of deploying the systems also include the improvement of the overall plant efficiency up to 20%.
"We congratulate Alliance Pipeline and NRGreen Power for their leadership in developing this landmark project, which offers both economic and environmental benefits for the pipeline industry," said Andrew Way, vice president of global services at GE Oil & Gas. "We are very pleased that our breakthrough technology has been selected to support this vital pipeline, which brings natural gas into the heartland of the US. We are confident that our new ORegen waste heat recovery system will deliver on its promise and will help Alliance and NRGreen Power to reach their environmental and productivity goals."
The Alliance Pipeline transports approximately 1.6 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from British Columbia and northwestern Alberta through Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa to a terminal in Chicago, Illinois. GE has supplied all of the compression equipment for the mainline pipeline system, including 16 gas turbine-driven compression systems.
"The success of this project is largely driven by the excellent relationship between GE and Alliance Pipeline, which dates back to 2000 when we were starting up our pipeline system," said Murray Birch, president and CEO of NRGreen, an affiliate of Alliance Pipeline. "The installation of the first ORegen system continues our tradition of working with GE to keep our pipeline system in the technology forefront of our industry. We expect the system to eliminate more than 38,000 metric tons of CO2 per year and at the same time produce additional electricity directly connected to the grid without any water consumption."
The development of the ORegen system is part of a broader GE Oil & Gas research program that designs waste heat recovery systems for a wide range of applications. A gas turbine equipped with the ORegen system operating more than 8,500 hours a year, compared to the same turbine operating in a combined-cycle system, generates additional electricity while avoiding the consumption of more than 11,000 cubic meters of water per year—equivalent to more than four Olympic-sized swimming pools.
When joined with a GE PGT25+ gas turbine, the ORegen unit can provide up to 25% additional power, creating an additional revenue source while avoiding associated CO2 emissions. ORegen is applicable on any type of simple-cycle gas turbine. It is ideal for use in remote locations like Whitecourt, because it does not require the use of water or any onsite operational supervision and can operate at very low ambient temperatures.
Comments