Designed for Reduced Environmental Impact, GE's ICL Compression Technology Wins Ecomagination Certification
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New Offering Reflects Industry Trend Toward Electrification
FLORENCE, ITALY - January 30, 2008 - Designed to help compression plant operators meet growing operational and environmental challenges, integrated motor compressor (ICL) technology developed by GE Oil & Gas has received certification as a GE ecomagination product.
Ecomagination is GE's commitment to address the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water. The ICL technology was awarded ecomagination certification after completing a rigorous environmental and operational evaluation.
ICL technology features an integrated system with a single casing for the compressor and motor and combines three proven technologies: centrifugal compression, active magnetic bearings and high-speed electric motors
"Compression plant operators worldwide are facing challenges linked to CO2 and NOx emissions, as well as noise requirements. To minimize a plant's impact on the environment, the industry trend today is toward the use of electrification to replace mechanical drive gas turbines," said Claudi Santiago, President and CEO of GE Oil & Gas.
GE's ICL solution provides higher availability and lower maintenance costs, compared to a gas turbine drive, while also enabling customers to optimize their gas resources for other uses.
Among the key benefits of the ICL technology:
Driven by electricity rather than gas, ICL technology saves energy and avoids associated CO2 emissions. Using an average 8-megawatt ICL rather than a comparable-sized gas turbine driven compressor can reduce CO2 emissions by 60% or more.
Its closed design avoids the annual leakage of 40,000 cubic meters of methane from the shaft ends of a conventional compressor, which equates to 657 metric tons of CO2 - the equivalent of the emissions from 131 U.S. passenger cars or 321 European cars over the course of one year.
Unlike a conventional compressor, the GE ICL compressor does not need to depressurize when stopped, avoiding the annual venting of methane equaling 863 metric tons of CO2 - equivalent to the emissions of 166 U.S. cars or 425 European cars over one year.
By replacing oil-lubricated bearings with active magnetic bearings, GE has eliminated the need for oil within the compressor. Over the life of the product, including oil refills, this can eliminate the consumption of more than 30,000 liters of oil.
The GE ICL compressor also features quieter operation than a conventional compressor and takes up less space, since it does not require auxiliary equipment for cooling and lubrication of a gas turbine. Due to its simplified design, the projected lifetime maintenance cost for an ICL compressor is 40% lower than that of a conventional compressor.
Highly flexible and able to meet a wide range of application requirements, ICL represent GE Oil & Gas state of the art technology design and is the result of the expertise of its research team in leading edge technologies in centrifugal compression and magnetic bearings.
GE's ICL technology will make its commercial debut at the expansion of the Etzel Gas-Lager (EGL) consortium's natural gas storage facility in Germany. An 8.3-megawatt ICL compressor driven by a high-speed electric motor will be manufactured and tested at GE Oil & Gas facilities in Le Creusot, France and delivered to the EGL project site in early 2009.
"Designed to address today's requirements for reliability, pollution and noise control, ICL technology offers an innovative solution not only for gas storage applications like the EGL project, but also for pipeline applications and upstream or downstream clean dry gas services up to 15 megawatts of power," noted Santiago.
About GE Oil & Gas
GE's Oil & Gas business (www.ge.com/oilandgas) is a world leader in advanced technology equipment and services for all segments of the global oil and gas industry. Based in Florence, Italy, the company offers complete solutions for production, LNG, transportation, storage, refineries, and petrochemicals, as well as pipeline integrity solutions including pipeline-related software and pipeline asset management. Through its recent acquisition of VetcoGray, GE Oil & Gas has added products, systems and services for drilling, completion and production within onshore, offshore and subsea applications.
For more information, contact:
Gabriele Peri or Sara Hassett
GE
Oil & Gas
+39 055 423 8280/3361
gabriele.peri@ge.com
sara.hassett@ge.com
