Biomass is currently one of the latest sources of renewable energy. Biomass consists of plant matter that is specifically grown for its ability to generate heat or electricity. Mostly this would mean that Biomass consists of dead plant matter, but plants that are still alive can also generate heat and are therefore also included in the term Biomass.
The North Sea’s aged offshore oil and gas platforms and pipelines is
approaching a new phase in its operations during which it will be necessary to
decommission some of them, many of which have been producing oil
and gas for over 30 years.
Like we have established, health, safety and environmental legislation regimes have always been as a result of major accidents. The only time there is the need for new legislation is when there is a major accident. this is rather a faulty pivot for legislation formation because there is no single accident sequence that would ever repeat itself in thesame way. Why is it not possible to achieve a more robust model.
The North Sea is experiencing another wave of technological advancement in the process of extending the life span of Existing pipelines.
A lot of the Pipelines in the North sea have reached or are close to the end of their design life and as usual the business minds who own these assets are taking steps to extend the life of the pipelines instead of just decommisioning, their argument is mainly economic i.e. the CAPEX involved.
Is this not a potential disaster in the making. Can we properly extend the lives of pipelines and still optimize the safety case
This sort of branched off from the discussion topic "The
constant struggle between HSE legislation and human stupidity".
(http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/geothermal-energy) This is a very clean, environmentally friendly and sustainable energy source. It is the heat from the earth crust. The heart of the earth is about 12000 degrees farenheit. Geothermal systems tap into this inexhaustive though not generally available energy source. Example is Reykjavik the capital of Iceland which islocated near hot springs.
I feel that, even though health and safety regulations are
continually becoming more and more advanced, and the legislation develops after
most major incidents, a major factor aiding incidents occurring is the involvement
of humans. I understand that this sounds blatantly obvious (I mean, If humans
weren’t involved, there wouldn’t be any equipment etc. to cause a risk), but I’m
talking more about the risk due to the lack of common sense, or, more bluntly,
human stupidity. Whilst working for an valve maintenance firm, I once saw a >3m long actuator suspended
from a crane around 2m off the ground with a valve technician standing on top
of it, adjusting part of the lifting mechanism it was suspended from.
The biggest disaster in terms of fatalities in the energy industry was the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure in China which killed over 170,000 people. However this is not the only hydroelectric dam failure which has cause loss of life and major damage in the surrounding area. The accidents in this sector are rare but when something does go wrong then the consequences are usually fatal. Planners need to take a lot of geological and environmental issues into account when they plan building new hydroelectric plants but sometimes the events can’t be predicted.
