Feature Story:
2008 was an extremely challenging year for the global economy, with the
financial, manufacturing and housing industries all suffering. And there is
unlikely to be any respite in 2009. Set against this backd rop, supplying the
energy, food and water to meet predicted global demands is going to be a
monumental task. GENERATE looks at the challenges ahead.
Here’s a staggering statistic: in one month you consume more electricity
than your grandparents consumed in an entire year when they were your age.
Fifty years ago color TVs were still a precious commodity, the automatic
washing machine had only just been invented and desktop computers and
dishwashers didn’t even exist. Electricity is the lifeblood of today’s world
and powers not just all these and essentials such as communications and
transport networks, but also a range of household goods, entertainment systems,
toys and even cars. It’s impossible to imagine life without electricity. But
that’s nothing compared with what the next 25 years are predicted to bring. The
world is going to become ever more electrified and energy hungry. In its 2008
International Energy Outlook, the US government’s Department of Energy (DoE)
estimated that global electricity demand will almost double by 2030 to 33.3
trillion kilowatt hours per year.
40 per cent of all electricity generated comes from coal
Who is going to be using all this energy? Where will it come from? And
can we generate that much electricity without greenhouse gas emissions from
power stations causing runaway climate change and bringing major environmental
disasters? It won’t be western nations who account for most of this growth in
energy demand. Though our appetite for electricity will grow – the DoE predicts
at a steady rate of around 1.3 per cent per year – over 80 per cent of the
growth in global electricity demand will come from emerging economies, chiefly
China, India and Brazil.
For example, China has more than doubled its electricity generating capacity
since 2000, and will likely double it again within the next decade. India and
Brazil are predicted to have similar growth rates. All told, by 2030 non-OECD
countries will generate 46 per cent more electricity than OECD countries. To
meet projected demand, China is building coal-fired power stations at the rate
of about one a week.
The energy problem is too serious for a resource to be excluded from the
very start. For all, more efficient and more reliable technologies must be
developed and made available on a global scale. Coal-fired power stations still
dominate the world’s electricity mix, with around 40 per cent of all
electricity generated coming from coal. With the world’s coal supplies
estimated to last for the next 1,000 years, that’s not going to change anytime
soon. Electricity generation is currently responsible for 21 per cent of global
CO² emissions but it’s not all bad news on the environmental front. The current
trend in Europe and the US is on improving the operating and environmental
performance of the existing coal-fired plants as well as those of the future,
through the use of desulfurization equipment that cleans the power plants'
exhaust gases.
The replacement of this existing capacity is giving GEA Group, in the shape
of its Thermal Engineering Division, opportunities to supply cooling towers and
air cooled condensers to the coal- and gas-fired power stations of the
future.
GEA and the energy industry
Almost 90 years ago, GEA developed industrial air cooling technology
and built its first Air Cooled Condenser for the energy industry back in 1939.
Since then it has become a major player on the world’s energy stage and its
knowledge, reliability and Engineering Excellence are central to a wide range
of energy projects. The group’s Thermal Engineering Division, which has
operations worldwide, has won a string of contracts to supply equipment to
power plants across the world in recent years and it is well placed to help
meet the predicted surge in global energy demand.
Heat transfer technology – GEA’s central offering for the energy industry –
plays a central role in the world’s power stations, oil refineries,
petrochemical plants, gas pipelines and GTL (gas to liquid) and LNG
installations and biomass facilities. GEA’s energy portfolio features:
- Air Cooled Heat Exchangers (also known as Air Fin Coolers) for direct dry
cooling, used in any application where heat needs to be transferred in large
quantities. Air cooling is used at all modern industrial facilities (from
energy generation to energy transportation) – air is unlimited, free and does
not require treatment.
- Air Cooled Condensers, for direct condensing, which are used to condense
steam in a power or process
- Wet cooling (a two-step method – water is cooled in a Wet Cooling Tower and
then the cooled water cools or condenses the fluid or steam).
- Indirect dry cooling by means of Heller® cooling towers (a two-step method
– water is cooled in a Dry Cooling Tower and the cooled water cools or
condenses the fluid or steam).
- Special applications (e.g. de-sublimination, crystallization).
GEA has a presence in energy’s biggest growth market – Asia. GEA’s Chinese
operations have won a series of major contracts to supply Air Cooled Condensers
and Air Fin Coolers for the power stations, oil and gas industries that will
power China’s future. In India, GEA is supplying components to the country’s
rapidly developing petrochemical industry and the power plant industry.
GEA is also a big player in supplying cooling technology for new power
stations and the
petrochemical industry in South Africa. And in the Middle
East, where water is scarce, the growth of refineries, GTL plants and gas
processing plants has created a new market for air cooling, which GEA is
helping to supply from its manufacturing site in Qatar. Geothermal energy is
one of the lesser-known forms of electricity generation. Power is generated
from beneath the earth’s crust by extracting hot water and converting it into
steam. Pilot geothermal energy projects are underway to explore its potential
and a number of GEA Group companies are involved in one such project in
Bavaria, Germany, supplying cooling towers and plate heat exchangers.
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