Onboard VOC, Cargo and Energy Recovery

HO&GS has many years of experience within development and implementation of VOC recovery technology for various applications. These technologies have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of oil and petroleum product handling. On a global basis though this potential will remain theoretical unless one of the two following criteria are met: 1. Regulations, legislation or policy makes it necessary to implement a certain minimum level of recovery. Examples are Norwegian legislation re quiring 78% recovery of NMVOC from offshore loading and IMO Regulation 15.6 of the MARPOL Annex VI requring all crude oil tankers to have an approved VOC management plan. 2. Technology can be fit into the context of prevailing business models and demonst rate commercial benefits. This is a common challenge for current technologies where the party making the investment in VOC technology does not necessarily reap the economic benefits. The two criteria above are the drivers for this R&D project which focu ses on these in Phase 1 and Phase 2 respectively. Phase 1 is the development of a simplified loading system, which has a low investment threshold, clear environmental benefits and is consistent with the IMO requirements. Typical applications for Phase1 t echnology will be onbard shuttle tankers and FSOs. Technologically the focus is on reducing the amount of VOC emissions. Phase 2 addresses the challenge of tailoring systems to customer interests such that the hydrocarbon value of the VOC can be recovered . In this regard HO&GS registers two significant trends; the first is the utilisation of VOC as fuel for vessel motors, the second is the recovery of VOC at land-based terminals as cargo or as an energy source for electricity and/or water production. For this project HO&GS will be teamed up with a shipowner JJ Ugland as a potential user of such technology. This collaboration will ensure the industrial relevance of the technology development