Offshore power generation with carbon capture and storage to decarbonise mainland electricity and offshore oil and gas installations: A techno-economic analysis

his study investigates the techno-economic potential of offshore power generation from natural gas with carbon capture and storage to reduce the climate impact of mainland electricity and the offshore oil and gas industry. This potential is assessed through techno-economic assessments over two relevant cases (“floating” and “shallow water” cases) including comparison with relevant reference concepts. In the base case evaluation, the offshore power plant concept toward decarbonising mainland electricity results in high costs (178 and 258 $/MWh respectively for the floating and shallow water cases) compared to a reference onshore power plant with carbon capture and storage (around 95$/MWh). However, a stronger potential is identified for the concept toward decarbonising offshore oil and gas platforms as the concept results in costs more comparable with the reference electrification concept (137 compared to 133 $/MWh in the floating case and 207 compared to 166$/MWh in the shallow water case). Although the base cases show a limited potential for the offshore concept, the results show that with technological improvements (advanced capture technology, reuse of infrastructure…) and more suited case characteristics (development based on associated gas…), the offshore concept offers a significant potential for cost-efficiently decarbonising the offshore oil and gas industry, while a more moderate potential is foreseen for the decarbonisation of mainland electricity.Offshore power generation with carbon capture and storage to decarbonise mainland electricity and offshore oil and gas installations: A techno-economic analysisacceptedVersio

Society and Technological Control: An Argument Against Progress in the Study of Ancient Ceramic Technology.

The use of evolution as either analogy or theory in ceramic change artificially imposes a view of technology which is directed. The use of progress has led to a tendency to equate technological change with technological improvement, as if change were unidirectional. This improvement is usually measured by modern standards of industrialization, such as increasing standardization, increasing speed of production, increasing quantity of production and the overall increasing formality of the workshop. Within models which employ an evolutionary paradigm there is the implicit notion that a) technology change when it occurs, only occurs towards improvement (Myers 1989; Rice 1981); b) improvement occurs towards the most logical, efficient solution to a technological problem (Kingery 1984:171); c) such a solution is rooted in fundamental scientific ‘truths’ or ‘facts’, which scientists or technicians ‘discover’ (Bloor 1973 in Pinch and Bijker 1987:18). Over the past twenty years, social scientists studying the development of modern technology and society have questioned the usefulness of evolution as a model for change (Barnes 1982 in Pinch and Bijker 1987:21; Hughes 1987:56-57; Laudan 1984:10; Pinch and Bijker 1987:22-23). A critical appraisal of technologically determinist history of scientific discovery has found that important discoveries are frequently credited with fundamentally changing the course of history (Smith and Marx 1994). However, the evidence of modern history and ethnography shows that cultural values and embedded beliefs may be more powerful in selecting and directing developing technologies than any external factors (Latour and Woolgar 1986; Miller and Tilley 1984, Miller 1994; Thomas 1991). European archaeologists van der Leeuw, Petréquin and Loney, among others, are now applying the findings of the techno-sociologists to the development of ancient pottery production (van der Leeuw 1984, 1993; Petréquin 1993; Loney 1995, 1997, 2000). Their perspective on ancient technology takes into account personal choice as well as ecological resources and economic organization. The approach of European archaeologists permits the investigation of the varied trajectories of ancient ceramic technology without resorting to self-perpetuating, internally self generating models of biological evolution