North Sea Project

Tapped-out oil and gas fields are full of drill holes that could leak the carbon dioxide. The stored gas might also seep into groundwater pools. But the North Sea project seems to be working well. Seismic images under the ocean floor show that a thick layer of clay capping the sandstone is sealing in the millions of tons of carbon dioxide injected. 

In the North Sea project, the results from primary screening for biological activity or new compounds guide the selection of strains for upscaling and finally isolation and structural elucidation. Since even modern methods for structure determination and an initial biomedical evaluation require 10 mg of every compound or more, a scale-up fermentation is necessary. With the aid of biotechni-cal methods, fermentation conditions have to be optimized to achieve maximum yield of metabolites, to increase the genetic stability of the producer or to improve other parameters. 

Holt, J. T., James, I. D., 1999. A simulation of the southern North Sea in comparison with measurements from the North Sea Project. Part 2 suspended Particulate Matter. Continental Shelf Research, 19, 1617-1642. 

In the last ten years, work has been done in the North Sea by a number of national and international projects. A key project was the UK Natural Environment Research Council s North Sea project (NSP). A unique feature of the NSP was that a consistent grid of stations was worked in the southern North Sea once a month for fifteen months (Howarth etal., 1993). From this, the winter standing stock of nitrate and silicate was calculated. The inputs to the system over an annual timescale were then calculated to determine whether they can account for this standing stock. 

Lowry R, Cramer RN, and Rickards LJ (1992) North Sea Project CD ROM and Users Guide. Swindon British Oceanographic Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council of the United Kingdom. 

This, then, was the scene in which SCP projects were planned in Europe. The need for alternative foods and feedstuffs was clear and, in the UK and elsewhere, oil and gas seemed a plentiful and cheap resource from which to produce them. North Sea gas fields were being exploited and research had shown that natural gas or its derivatives could be used to produce SCP feed of superior protein content to conventional feedstuffs. The economics of such processes seemed very promising. In 1971 the European prices for fish meal and soya meal were 200 and 100 per ton respectively. In 1973 oil price rises and a failure in the Peruvian fish meal supply pushed these prices up to 550 and 300 respectively. With such prices for the major feedstuffs it was considered that SCP feeds could be produced competitively. 

DENA (2007). Interactive Map of the North Sea. Planned Offshore Projects in the North Sea. Deutsche Energie Agentur (DENA). www.offshore-wind.de/page/index. php id = 2620. 

The conduct of the cement manufacturers in the case of chromium cements is one such case, as is the continuing resistance of mineral wool manufacturers to the introduction of the criteria biopersistence or biosolubility for a toxicological evaluation of mineral wools. One further example can be found in the case study examined in the course of the COIN project. In this example, the joint insistence of the three German manufacturers of titanium dioxide on the dumping of dilute acid in the North Sea in the early 1980s was ended by the unexpectedly speedy movement of one manufacturer . 

Some years later Statoil decided to start a project within catalytic cracking in order to learn more abont residue fluid catalytic cracking in general, and particnlarly abont catalysts suitable for this process. The project started as a prestudy for the residue fluid catalytic cracker unit (FCCU) that Statoil was planning to bnild at the Mongstad refinery in Norway. The intention was to crack North Sea atmospheric residue directly, without first using a vacuum gas distillation tower followed by cracking... 

One of the objectives when our project started was to use North Sea atmospheric residues as feeds in the ARCO pilot unit. It was comprehensively shown during the very hrst years of the project that the ranking of the catalysts were dependant on the feed used [4,5]. The results of the tests done at this time showed that all the catalysts tested could be divided into three groups, all with their own characteristics, depending on the matrix surface area. 

As an example, a recent North Sea study project optimization for a 150,000-bo/d combination platform resulted in 114-million savings (Table 1). 

CO2 may be able to be sequestered in geological formations, such as active and depleted oil and gas reservoirs, coalbeds, and deep saline aquifers. Such formations are widespread and have the potential to sequester large amounts of CO2 (Herzog et al., 2000). A model project is underway in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. The Sleipner offshore oil and natural gas field contains a gas mixture of natural gas and CO2 (9%). Because the Norwegian government taxes emissions of CO2... 

The majority of independent energy projects which have been promoted in countries such as the UK, which have a non-parastatal electricity supply indushy, have been funded on the so-called project finance basis. Under such an arrangement which was developed originally in connection with North Sea oil projects in the 1960s) the majority (in the region of 80 %) of the finance required to implement the project comprises debt borrowed over a period of, typically, 12-15 years. Bond financing can extend this period to 25 years in certain cases. The debt is repaid from the net revenues of the project. The remainder of the finance required for the project comprises equity provided by the project sponsors. 

Considering the rapid expansion of the regional air pollution problems in Europe during the later years, as examplified by the forest damage, the appearance of "red tide" in the North Sea, and the increasing mercury content of the freshwater fish, the development of EMEP has been slow. It is interesting to note that when the OECD project started in 1972, Canada participated as an observer, while the US EPA did not believe that acid precipitation would become a problem in North America as well. Similarly, the European countries did not think that photochemical oxidants would become a problem in Europe. There was not enough sunshine, they reasoned. 

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