What future-proofing looks like for the energy market

EthosEnergy’s suite of life extension and emissions compliance solutions aims to make energy affordable, available, and sustainable for its clients.

In a world of changing expectations and soaring energy prices across the globe, customers are facing a challenging future. The energy industry is exploring options for increased sustainability, emission control, and reduction.

Industry players need to improve and adapt operations in order to be future-proof.

Climate concerns have already placed pressure on traditional ‘take, make, dispose’ business models, i.e. a linear approach whereby we buy new, use, and get rid once we are done. Whilst the industry has utilised this traditional model in the past, it will not hold up to the changing landscape of today. 

Moving to a circularity approach, in contrast, decouples economic activity from the consumption of materials and energy by creating closed-loop cycles in which waste is minimised and resources are reused. Even sectors such as oil & gas can introduce elements of circularity in their operations. 

The uptake of reuse in the energy industry is not as good as it should be. There’s a real opportunity for reusing instead of disposing when equipment is close to decommissioning. EthosEnergy’s value is to provide economic, social, and environmentally beneficial solutions to extend the life of existing equipment. Utilising this leads to significant cost savings for businesses, as well as critical CO2 savings.

To transition from a linear economy to a circular one, industry players need to look across three key areas: how to maximise product use; prioritise renewable inputs; and how to recover by-products and waste. 

EthosEnergy has already developed a suite of life extension and emissions compliance solutions to support current assets in meeting critical targets. Operating in over 100 countries, it relies on the potential to deliver services and solutions globally for rotating equipment to make energy affordable, available and sustainable. 

“Customers are looking for a localised strategy. Certain services and technologies are not made available from the region's perspective. However, a number of assets are quite mature in [the power, oil & gas, industrial and aerospace markets] which clients have good knowledge of and are comfortable exploring alternative services,” said Ken Peerapong Hansakwong, Regional Sales Director APAC at EthosEnergy.

For them, there is a need for more collaboration and alignment between business, social, and environmental factors to work through the energy crisis and achieve success.

EthosEnergy’s solutions also have a significant impact on CO2 emissions across two fronts: first, they avoid the production of new equipment and therefore avoid emissions during the manufacturing process; second, they can avoid or postpone the recycling of aged assets, reducing CAPEX expenditure.

Gas Turbines

EthosEnergy also offers gas turbine solutions across a range of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Its solutions and services are known to reduce emissions, increase reliability and availability, and reduce capital expenditure.

At the same time, EthosEnergy has extensive experience in services for multiple gas turbine product lines—derivatives, light and heavy industrial gas turbines, and components and accessories.

The company also provides gas turbine repair services in the power generation, industrial and oil & gas markets, where its advanced technology repair and coating facilities are committed to developing solutions that keep customers within their budgets and timescales. 

Its ECOMAX® combustion tuning platform provides an automated, fully customisable solution to achieve customer-determined operational objectives. 

This patented technology continually monitors and adjusts key combustion control parameters to maintain NOx and CO compliance, flame stability, and acceptable combustion dynamics. It also provides operators with customisable operational goals, emissions management and compliance, combustion dynamics control and mitigation, and increased fuel flexibility, amongst others.

For EthosEnergy, achieving operational flexibility is critical to maximising output and environmental effects. 

ECOMAX® has helped save in the region of $15m in capital expenditure. It has also increased reliability and has helped power plants to maximise their output, better manage emissions, as well as reduce the risk of human error through manual tuning. 

Furthermore, EthosEnergy’s end-of-life rotor solutions have been engineered to meet or exceed the OEM’s recommended end-of-life specifically targeted to ageing fleets. Only the life-limiting components of a rotor are replaced, thereby minimising the overall project cost for the user. 

“Our rotor program is centred around commercially flexible solutions that provide a customised approach to meeting your needs. Through the evolution of our manufacturing process, we have developed innovative solutions to extend the life of GE rotors,” added Ken.

There are significant advantages to extending the life of existing assets compared to replacement, most notably in cost and reducing carbon footprint. It also has a reduced turnaround time and it is flexible versus other rigid OEM offerings.

With the current energy transition, energy companies should look for a solutions partner to support them in navigating this complex landscape. 

“Everyone plays an important role in this transition. What companies should be looking for is a partner that could provide technology [or] solutions suited to their existing assets, or the ability to develop one. This will assist in [the] transition and sustainability point of view,” said Ken.

In the coming years, energy companies will be challenged on how they handle ageing or existing assets through the transition period to net-zero. EthosEnergy’s solutions will help companies take advantage of the opportunities brought by this transition.