Waste Reduction, Gas Production, Carbon Deduction

ShipEco Marine is developing Project ALPHA that takes recycled household waste, turns it into odourless, non-hazardous pellets and then converts them into renewable gas using an existing Advanced Conversion Technology (ACT) process.   

The natural gas will be captured and sent to Peterhead Power Station as a fuel source and the carbon dioxide will be sent in the other direction in an existing pipeline to the Sleipner Field in Norway for downhole injection Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).  

The project offers SSE, Statoil, BP and field partners an opportunity to participate in a large scale green energy project and re-uses existing offshore facilities, converting them from present day liabilities back into useable assets once again. 

Project ALPHA is specifically aimed at the the large scale production of renewable gas from household waste pellets, and entering the produced gas into existing pipeline infrastructure owned by BP, and transporting the gas to an existing power station in Peterhead, Scotland. 
This scaled up ACT located on a ship has the capability to manufacture the renewable gas onboard, send the gas back to shore in an existing pipeline for use. 
Although the project does not anticipate on entering this gas into the natural gas network, it could produce 1 Gigawatt of base load renewable electricity. 

Some of the benefits include: 

  • The Miller Field reuse
  • The Miller Pipeline resuse
  • No Planning Permission requirements 
  • Re-Uses existing Infrastructure 
  • Is not Incineration
  • Energy Security 
  • Energy Storage
  • Manufactures Renewable Gas for the future
  • Exports carbon dioxide to Sliepner Field, Norway 
The renewable gas is a product made from household waste pellets produced by a Materials Recycling Facilities strategically located in major ports around the United Kingdom.  
Project Alpha is completely different from anything being proposed by the waste industry to date, and formulates an innovative paradigm shift which will benefit both industries in the short, medium and longer term.
We can now produce gas when it is needed, and store it in pellet form. Sea based transport solution removes waste from our roads and puts it on rivers, which take it to the estuary and then pellets are transported to the GasShip where they are used to produce gas for power generation.

The master stroke of Project ALPHA is to carry out this operation:

  • on board a vessel (a converted tanker)
  • moored offshore at a compliant distance from, but nevertheless close to an existing platform jacket
  • where there are basic compression facilities available
  • an export line which can deliver the gas to shore
  • an export line for downhole injection of carbon dioxide
  • with each GasShip consuming the equivalent (in pellets) of 2,000,000 tonnes of household waste per annum
  • and producing 1,000,000 m3 of gas per annum per GasShip

The Miller Facilities where decommissioning has already commenced appears to be an ideal fit for the project requirements as the pipeline facilities have been mothballed and have a re-use potential. BP currently have the following facilities available:
An existing platform jacket, where a topside could be rebuilt
A 30 inch, 241km pipeline to landfall at St. Fergus, which is capable of transporting sour gas, CO2 or natural gas
A 26 inch land line from St. Fergus to Peterhead Power Station which can use the gas for clean electricity generation
Significant research and development work already conducted by BP on these facilities for the Hydrogen Energy Project, which ceased in March 2007
 


  • 14 million tonnes of “black bag” household waste will produce circa. 120 billion cubic feet of gas per annum 
  • Over a 25 year period this is a 3 Trillion cubic feet Renewable Gas Field
  • Cost of Project, to include 10 vessels to convert the household waste pellets into Renewable Gas £2 Billion 
  • Cost of first full gas production vessel + hook up. Circa £200 million
  • First Renewable Gas available within 2.5 years
  • Project Life 25 Years 
  • Peak Production of Renewable Gas 328 million cubic feet per day from 38,000 tonnes of household black bag waste per day
  • Each of the ten vessels will produce 32.8 million cubic feet of RG daily. 12 billion cubic feet of Renewable Gas per annum 
  • Decarbonisation Pre Combustion: 90% of the CO2 produced from the Gas Production Ships at site could be extracted from the manufactured renewable gas and re-used for EOR (Approx. 160 tonnes of Co2 per day per ship) 
  • Decarbonisation Post Combustion

Hydrogen Power Plant

In 2006 there were plans to produce 350 MWe of power from hydrogen produced from methane, with the resulting carbon dioxide being pumped into the Miller Field by BP using carbon capture. It would have been the first large scale hydrogen power plant. On 23 May 2007, BP pulled the plug on the carbon capture idea after losing patience waiting for government approval, with concern over the long term storage capacity of the Miller Field.

BP attempted to tied to have a second stab at the same plan for Hydrogen power in Abu Dhabi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il0Dw3vfjZk

… but the plan failed there also due to the uncertainty of the international carbon credit scheme. http://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/bp-delays-2-billion-hydrogen-power-plant-in-abu-dhabi

 
The two fundamental reasons why these projects failed are:

o   Hydrogen Power failed in the UK due to regulatory problems

o   Hydrogen Power Project failed due to uncertainty of international carbon credit schemes.  

These two problems have now been solved:  

  • Norway has regulations in place for CCS, and has already proven it up
  • Project ALPHA is effectively underwritten and heavy subsidized due to the £100 per tonne of household waste, and the receipt of £150 per MWh, for advanced conversion technology power generation.

The Sleipner Field is less than 50 miles from the end of the redundant Miller Field gas pipeline, so a connection can easily be made to send the carbon dioxide down hole.  

Project ALPHA could produce first gas within 30 months based on the use of a single GasShip 12 miles offshore and connected via a flow line, via a single buoy mooring to achieve maximum efficiency and safety.  

The Project would envisage the additional build up to 10 further GasShips offering significant scale over time, which would give the “Renewed” Miller Field and pipeline the potential to become not only the first Renewable Gas field ever, and ensure it is converted into the largest of any gas field in calorific value terms, in the UKCS, and one which does not suffer from depletion.

In addition all of the carbon dioxide produce from the household waste will be sent to the Sliepner Field in Norway where it will be re-injected into an existing depleting gas field from where we get most of our gas today. So as natural gas is removed from the Sleipner Field it is replaced with carbon dioxide . 

The project is in the final stages of completing the Pre-Delivery and Post-Delivery financing obligations on the re-conversion of an existing FPSO to the first Prototype GasShip.