case studies - Dresser-Rand

CARBON CAPTURE UTILIZATION
AND STORAGE—RAMGEN®
SUPERSONIC COMPRESSION
TECHNOLOGY
Interest in carbon capture and storage
(CCS) has been slow to attract investment
around the world as economic recovery has
taken center stage. However, the dialogue
on global warming continues unabated.
Currently, the investment is predominantly
directed towards enhanced oil recovery
(EOR), a form of carbon capture utilization
and storage (CCUS) that can provide
economic benefit without subsidies such as
a carbon pricing mechanism. Dresser-Rand
is a leader in the EOR compression market.
The cost of large-scale implementation of
CCS technologies is challenging, and the
ongoing issues of storing large quantities
of CO2 must be addressed. We expect that
the technologies associated with CCUS
will become economically feasible in the
near- to mid-term.
In 2008, Dresser-Rand made an investment
in Ramgen Power Systems LLC and began
supporting the development of technology
that is expected to reduce the cost of
compression by 50% when compared to
the current cost of existing compression
technologies. The Ramgen technology
also offers significant footprint savings
and high-grade heat for energy recovery.
In 2011, Ramgen completed a dedicated
CO2 closed-loop compressor test facility
at the Dresser-Rand Olean, N.Y., campus.
This one-of-a-kind test facility supports
Ramgen Power System’s demonstration
World’s first supersonic CO 2 compression
test facility, located in Olean, N.Y., USA.
of a 10 MW Ramgen supersonic CO2
compressor. It is designed to validate a
10:1 compression ratio technology in a
single stage—which on an equivalent basis
takes eight to 10 stages using conventional
technology. This full-scale demonstration
testing is expected to begin in 2012.
OCEAN WAVE ENERGY—
HYDROAIR TURBINE
We are working to provide solutions for
harnessing renewable ocean wave energy
and efficiently converting it to electricity
for use on land. Dresser-Rand engineered
and developed the patent-pending
HydroAir turbine (shown at right)—
a variable-radius turbine (VRT) that
has substantially higher efficiency
than comparable devices. An initial
prototype was installed in Australia in
2010. Dresser-Rand and Ireland-based
Ocean Energy Limited, a market leader
in developing oscillating water column
(OWC) plants, signed a memorandum
of understanding in 2010 to develop a
complete range of full-scale devices to
produce electricity. This partnership could
lead to an Irish industry generating 600
MW of electricity by 2020, enough to
supply the needs of 450,000 households.
In addition, it was announced in January
2012 that the Cornwall, U.K.–based
Wave Hub selected Ocean Energy and
Dresser-Rand to deploy its technologies
at its flagship testing site in 2012.
ENVIRONMENT
CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 13