Introduction Innovations

Our Energy is consumed in various forms, electricity to power light and equipment, heat for creating a warm environment or to operate industrial processes and fuels for transport or as a feedstock for the petrochemical and energy intensive industry. Each application area for energy requires a different approach with respect to decarbonization and energy efficiency. They also have their own transition timescale and specific challenges.

1 • Households
2 • Industry
3 • Mobility
4 • Power generation
5 • Upstream production

Scroll down for examples of each subject.

1 • Households

The energy transition in households will be mainly about heat generation and decentralized energy generation and storage. Increasingly, heat will be generated by heat pumps in combination with heat storage in the shallow subsurface. Gas will increasingly serve as a backup system for heat or cooking where heat networks are not economic. But also cooking will increasingly be done electrically, with power from solar panels with backup from a smart grid or battery packs.

Project Pernis

Shell, Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam will supply residual heat released by the Shell Pernis refinery, supplying the Rotterdam region. The project should provide enough energy to meet the heating needs of 16,000 households. "This project will result will further reduce the net emissions of CO₂ of the Rotterdam region."
Source Shell

Ecogenie

An experimental house in the Netherlands reveals how renewable technology can cut energy bills and carbon emissions from old homes.This is my first day in the EcoGenie, a 1930s house in The Hague, the Netherlands, where Shell researches how low-carbon technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps work together.The idea, says Peter Breithaupt, the lead project scientist, is to find practical ways for people to reduce their bills and carbon footprints, and help Shell understand how renewable technologies could change the way people use energy in the future.“We wanted to learn how homeowners can make the biggest cuts in their carbon dioxide emissions at the lowest cost,” says Breithaupt.
Source Shell

2 • Industry

Most of the energy in the Netherlands is used by the Industry, high temperature heat for processing, power and fuels to drive process equipment and engines and also as a feedstock for many products based on oil and gas. Energy transition to a low carbon footprint is the most challenging in this area. Many processes have been designed for fossil fuels, and the high energy demand does not easily allow a rapid transition to renewable energy sources such as wind, biomass or solar power. Innovations are targeted to change to low carbon feedstock (biomass, H2) or to reduce emissions (CCUS) and increase the energy efficiency by integrating processes and plants.

Carbon Capture Storage

In order to reduce carbon emissions
from powerplants or energy intensive industries, CO2 capture and storage technology has being developed in the national CCS R&D program CATO. Several demonstration projects are running globally, with active involvement of Dutch industry and knowledge institutes. The first demonstration project is planned for Rotterdam, called ROAD.
Source TNO

Digital Oil and Gas

The ultimate recovery of an oil field is often not more than 30%. With smart sensors, modelling, control and optimisation the recovery rates can be significantly increased from oil and gas fields. TNO has developed a fibre optics sensor coated with a sensitive responsive coating, to serve as a distributed chemical sensor, to detect water, CO2 or spicific components in the wellbore.
Source TNO

ElectroChemistry

VoltaChem is a business-driven Shared Innovation Program that connects the electricity sector to the chemical industry. New technologies are developed and implemented that focus on the conversion of renewable energy to heat, hydrogen and chemicals.
Source TNO

3 • Mobility

Transportation (cars, trucks, ships and aviation) is the biggest market for liquid fuels, mostly based on fossil fuels with a significant emission of GHG and air pollution. For personal cars, hybrid or full electrification will reduce the CO2 footprint significantly. However, for heavy duty transport including shipping and aviation, the energy density of batteries is too small and alternatives are needed. Innovations are in the area of gas based fuels (GTL, LNG, CNG, LPG) or Hydrogen in combination with fuel cells. The challenge is the combination of the development of a market and a supply network in parallel.

Ecoliner (LNG)

Damen’s EcoLiner is an LNG fuelled inland shipping vessel designed to substantially reduce both fuel consumption and emissions. The EcoLiner can reduce fuel usage by up to 25%.
The ACEs air lubricated hull contributes as much as 15% of this. The power management system of four LNG generator sets ensures optimal engine loads for additional reduction in fuel consumption. The LNG fueling substantially reduces CO2, NOX, SOX and particulate emissions.
Source Damen

GTL

Shell GTL Fuel, a liquid fuel made from natural gas burns cleaner than conventional diesel oil, and therefore produces less local emissions and less visible black smoke. The innovative fuel is easy to implement into an existing fleet of new and older heavy diesel engines.
Source Shell

Hydrogen

THE MOBILE POWER PLANT
Shell Netherlands is one of the partners of The Green Village and actively involved in the Car axle Power Plant. From outside you see nothing special. But the stickers betrays "this is no ordinary SUV. It is one of the first hydrogen vehicles currently driving around in the Netherlands. The Hyundai ix35 FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle) is part of The Green Village, a testing of the TU Delft for sustainable technology. Besides durable propellant, the fuel cell under the hood should also be supplying energy back. The hydrogen car as a power plant.
Source Shell

4 • Power Generation

The biggest share of power generation in the Netherlands is still based on fossil fuels, predominantly coal and gas, with a small part nuclear. Renewable electricity production is still around 10%, although this share is rapidly increasing with strong growth ambitions with (offshore) wind and solar panels. The intermittent electricity supply of renewable energy however demands a backup system in case no wind or sun are available, or a large scale storage system to provide energy security. Innovations are in the area of energy storage, CCUS and energy conversion.

CAES

A process which electrical energy is captured in the form of compressed air. Then converted back into electricity during peak demand. This system is well-suited for renewable applications such as wind turbines, where power productions fluctuate greatly.
Source Siemens

Power to Gas

Power-to-Gas is the process using green power to convert water into hydrogen and pure oxygen via electrolysis. The use of this sustainably-produced syngas represents a huge step towards ‘greening’ the chemical industry. The power-to-gas technology also forms a solution for the storage of temporary surpluses of wind and solar power.
Source Siemens

Tidal Turbine platform

Bluewater has partnered with a group of leading offshore companies to realize the BlueTEC floating tidal energy platform. It is an innovative design based on a modular platform, generates clean electricity from the tides and feeds it into the power grid. This offers a predicable supply of energy, based on tidal consistency. The platform currently carries a 100kW turbine, but is a stepping stone to further development, which will see larger platforms in the future.
Source Bluewater

5 • Upstream

The Netherlands is still an important gas producing country for Europe, with a significant export capacity to our surrounding countries. This gas is partly produced from the Groningen field, but an increasing share is produced from small fields, predominantly offshore from the North Sea. To maximize the recovery of these depleting fields, and provide energy security and independence mature fields technology is developed and applied. In the North Sea, collaboration has started with other sources of energy, in order to create a stable and reliable energy system offshore.

Offshore Energy

Many oil and gas platforms in the North Sea are approaching their end of production as the fields are depleting. Abandonment and decommissioning is expensive. Reuse of platforms, depleted gas fields and pipelines may be an interesting option to reduce cost and enable energy storage and conversion at sea.
This can enable offshore wind parks to be developed more cost efficient.
Source TNO

Innovation Tower

At this very moment Huisman is expanding its testing and commissioning facilities in Schiedam for new drilling equipment. A new 90m high drill tower, capable of handling 55m (180ft) stands and 46m (150ft) riser and with the ability to simulate dynamical vessel movements, is nearing completion at the Huisman Schiedam quayside.
Source Huisman