Rolls-Royce will supply Petrofac with an additional industrial RB211 gas turbine package for the In Salah gas (ISG) project at Krechba, the central Sahara area of Algeria, continuing the long-standing relationship between the two companies.
Krechba is officially the hottest continuously inhabited place on earth, with temperature extremes ranging from 50°C in the summer to –4°C in the winter. The 27,840kW RB211-G62 electrical generating set will join two other RB211 generator sets, installed in 2002, to provide additional electrical energy to power the facility. This includes power for new electric motor driven compressors being installed to maintain gas production.
The RB211 gas turbine package has been designed to operate in the extreme heat of Krechba and to withstand the violent sand storms experienced in the region. It will also be fitted with a dry low emissions (DLE) combustion system to suppress harmful NOx emissions. The fuel efficient aeroderivative gas turbine supports ISG’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Sahara region.
ISG, an association between Sonatrach, BP and StatoilHydro, already has a pioneering project at Krechba for the underground storage of up to one million tonnes of CO2 each year that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The CO2 is extracted from the gas, then re-injected into underground reservoirs a mile beneath the Sahara desert through large compressors. The benefit to the environment is the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars off the road.
Rolls-Royce will manufacture the industrial RB211 at its Montreal, Canada facility with assembly of the complete gas turbine package at its Mount Vernon, Ohio factory in the US. Delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009, with operation of the unit in the Sahara beginning in 2010.