Page 104: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2016)

TECHNOLOGY: PUMPS

VSDs, including a 45kW version that and Voith have engineered the pump’s between managed well stream and motor killer savings machine for maintenance- appears to be central to Omnirise. built-in VSD and permanent magnet ? uid spun at low speed. Normally, a sub- weary oil companies accustomed to the

While subsea pump maker FSubsea coupling to match the motor’s speed sea pump needs a physical separation of symptoms of seal failure (said to be as- challenges the bigger players on cost by (low) to the pump’s process. The result- ? uids. Since the seal-less FSubsea pump sociated with “75 to 80 percent” of pump eliminating the need for protective ? uids ing “magnetism” creates a “suspended,” also eliminates the need to place the failures and emissions).

in a cooling or compression pump, NEBB “virtual” or hydrodynamic “separation” pump or VSD topsides, it’s potentially a

NEBB Engineering

Along with Statoil, FMC and others, the 20-year veteran NEBB identi? ed three groups of VSDs that would suit

Statoil’s declared vision of arranging all production components on the seabed to create a “subsea factory”: 22.5 kW, 45 kW and up to 1,500 KW.

The 45 kW version was quali? ed with

Kongsberg Group in 2014 using a stan- dard Ethernet connector and “active cooling”. Managing director Alexander

Risoy, who went to university in Scot- land but lives with his ? nance-director dad, Aasmond Risoy, in downtown Oslo, says NEBB investigated old land-based

VSDs for subsea use, especially Italian versions, and learned, “The challenge of subsea VSDs is to get rid of the heat. We need to keep the 45 kW unit below 30 degrees Celsius. The electronics will dry out if the temperature is too high.”

NEBB’s JIP with FSubsea, Voith,

Photo a SkeetsÊ Photo Service

ABB, Statoil, Total and EON on a proto- type to control smaller pumps offers the allure of ? nancial support in developing a 500 kW VSD starting in 2017. “To develop the 500 kW unit we need the support of the oil company,” said the elder Aasmond Risoy. At $1.25 to $2.5 million each, the 500 kW price tag would be considerably cheaper than the $12.3 million version used at Ormen Lange.

Size determines price with VSDs as with

Pump Enabler

NEBB Engineering’s 45 kW subsea variable speed drive. (Photo: Courtesy NEBB) 104 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • AUGUST 2016

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