Techno-economic analysis of solar thermal applications in oil & gas processing
Student name: Mr Sachin Payyanad
Guide: Dr Som Mondal
Year of completion: 2017
Host Organisation: TechnipFMC Plc., Noida
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mrs Kalpana Gupta
Abstract: Different application of solar thermal technologies for the process heat
requirement in the Oil & Gas industry is still unexplored. Even though some
studies and projects are coming on the upstream processes, downstream process
applications and their techno-financial feasibility is not studied. This paper is
focusing on the downstream process heat application and their integration with
suitable solar thermal technologies.
In order to understand the total energy requirement in the downstream processes,
a detailed study is conducted. Which can indicate the amount of energy utilised in
the different processes and the amount which can be saved after the integration of
solar thermal systems. This is important as it’s the basis of the study. As it’s not
possible to consider all the downstream processes, it is categorised into four
categories (High temperature, medium temperature, medium-low temperature,
low temperature). Case studies are framed on the basis of this categorization, and
techno-economic feasibility of each of these cases are studied. Software tools
(SAM and Greenius) are used for techno-financial analysis.
The high-temperature application can make use of solar tower technology with air
as a working medium as it can go up to higher temperature in the range of
1200 o C.But the receiver for this technology is still in development stage, and the
initial cost is too high. On the other hand, for medium temperature application,
solar concentration technology is a good choice as it gives a lot of flexibility in
design. Parabolic trough technology is considered for the analysis, and it gives an
annual energy of 18156MWhr and giving a payback period of 6.7 years. Partial
replacement of boiler is studied with LFR based system, and it's generating an
annual output of 18341MWhr with a payback of 8.2 years. Solar based vapour
absorption refrigeration system is studied with non-concentrating collectors which
is giving a payback period of 4 years. All the applications are offering an average
of 20% solar share.
