Floating production facilities

The unit is subject to accelerations and tilting such as floating production facilities. 

Platform motion is significant, such as tension leg platforms or floating production facilities, since the hydrocyclone is insensitive to motion. Other devices, such as flotation cells, are adversely impacted since platform motion makes accurate level control (using weirs or other control devices) difficult. 

Floating production systems offer production facilities offshore, and will be introduced in this section. 

Floating exploration and production facilities are sometimes provided on jackup rigs, semi-submersible vessels or ex-crude oil shipping tankers converted to production treatment vessels. These facilities are essentially the same as fixed offshore platform or installations except they are moored in place or provided with a temporary support structure instead of provided with fixed supports to the seabed. The major process fire and explosion risks are identical to the risks produced on offshore platforms. They have one addition major facility risk, that is the maintenance of buoyancy of the installation. Should fire or explosion effects cause a loss of buoyancy (or even stability) the entire facility is at risk of submergence. Adequate compartimization and integrity assurances must be implemented in these instances. 

On the basis of the experience with Tazerka and units installed in other pans of the world, we believe that the concept of a floating production, storage, and offloading system offers an excellent possibility for the development of a marginal field and/or for application as an early production facility. We also believe that the good results obtained in relatively mild environments (the Mediterranean. Santa Barbara Channel, and the Philippines) and the successful operation of a floating storage unit in the North Sea justify the statement that an FPSU could be applied successfully in more hostile environments such as the North Sea and other comparable areas. 

Effects of Motion on Design of Process Facilities for Floating Production Systems... 

EFFECTS OF MOTION ON OESI6N OF PROCESS FACILITIES FOR FLOATING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS OTC 5034... 

For this subpart, facilities include all types of offshore structures permanently or temporarily attached to the seabed (i.e., mobile offshore drilling units floating production systems floating production, storage and offloading facilities tension-leg platforms and spars) used for exploration, development, production, and transportation activities for oil, gas, or sulphur from areas leased in the OCS [Outer Continental Shelf], Facilities also include DOI regulated pipelines. 

Last but not least, floating NPPs secure the possibility of an increased local labour involvement for a wide range of countries with shipbuilding and energy-machinery production facilities. 

The term platform is only used to describe a development and subsequent production facility, offshore. It is a much more massive structure than that used simply for drilling and can be fixed to the sea bed or floating. 

It is possible to remove small particles using dispersed or dissolved gas flotation devices. These units are primarily used for removing suspended hydrocarbons from water. Gas is normally dispersed into the water or released from a solution in the water, forming bubbles approximately 30-120 pm in diameter. The bubbles form on the surfaces of the suspended particles, creating particles whose average density is less than that of water. These rise to the surface and are mechanically skimmed. In the feed stream, chemicals called "float aids" are normally added to the flotation unit to aid in coagulation of solids and attachment of gas bubbles to the solids. The optimum concentration and chemical formulation of float aids are normally determined from batch tests in small-scale plastic flotation models on-site. Because of the difficulty of predicting particle removal efficiency with this method, it is not normally used to remove solids from water in production facilities. 

The legs of the platform can be used as settling tanks or temporary storage facilities for crude oil where oil is exported via tankers, or to allow production to continue in the event of a pipeline shut down. The Brent D platform in the North Sea weighs more than 200,000 tonnes and can store over a million barrels of oil. Topside modules are either installed offshore by lift barges, or can be positioned before the platform is floated out. 

Primary separation facilities process the produced fluids and gases into individual streams of gas, oil and water. These facilities are commonly referred to as Gas Oil Separation Plants (GOSP s), Central Processing Facilities (CPF) or if located offshore on drilling, production and quarters platforms (PDQ s). The offshore platform may either float on the sea or be supported on steel or concrete supports secured to the ocean floor, where it is capable of resisting waves, wind, and in Arctic regions ice flows. In some instances surplus oil tankers have been converted into offshore production and storage facilities. 

The second year costs will be 3 billion to 6 billion. This will include site acquisition, evaluation of proposals, granting contracts, and construction of research and construction facilities. The research and construction facilities will serve as the foundation for the future production capacity for fusion reactors and floating platforms. We must maximize concurrent development, design and construction. The initial development of the Fusion-Hydrogen production equipment and production plants will require 5 to 10 years and cost about 200 billion. The construction sites and equipment will be designed for many years use in construetion of future reactors. The cost for the research and development of the Fusion-Hydrogen equipment and the investment in the reactor construction sites will be spread over all future reactors and ultimately reeovered. 

An OTEC installation comprises a power generating subsystem subsystems to convert the electric powerproduced to forms useful for power transmission and fuel production energy storage and transfer equipment equipment for position control of floating systems and facilities (ships, platforms, or on-land installations) to house and maintain the total system. Closed-cycle OTEC systems are suitable for installation on ships and, therefore, offer a potential way for OTEC plantships to draw power from the entire area of the tropical oceans and provide a major new source for renewable fuels production. 

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