Amid rising useful resource shortage and the pressing have to decrease greenhouse fuel emissions, the idea of round financial system is rising in significance. Nations are initiating plans to make their economies extra round, a transition which entails rethinking how we produce, reuse, restore, and recycle. Additive manufacturing (AM) is enjoying an more and more key function in efforts to transform materials waste into new objects, as demonstrated by a pilot undertaking executed by Aker Options, Aker BP, F3nice, and Additech.

Aker is a $13 billion Norwegian oil exploration and improvement firm targeted on petroleum sources on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The corporate is about 30 % owned by industrial funding firm Aker ASA and 22 % by BP, with the remaining shares divided amongst largely amongst banks and different institutional buyers like JP Morgan and State Avenue. Aker Options is the power infrastructure division of the agency.

To discover using recycled supplies for top efficiency purposes, Aker Options tapped F3nice and Additech. Whereas F3nice is devoted to manufacturing metallic AM powders constructed from recycled supplies, Additech is a Norwegian 3D printing bureau owned by a enterprise capital agency referred to as Clara Ventures, which is supported by Acker.

3D printed tubing hanger protectors for subsea wells. For the uninitiated, subsea wells are vital for oil & fuel manufacturing, and tubing hanger protectors serve to protect the delicate hydraulic and electrical controls of those wells throughout the tubing set up course of.

3D printed tubing hanger protector.

Historically, these tubing hanger protectors are manufactured from chrome steel, which has a carbon footprint of 237 kg of CO2 emissions, largely attributable to manufacturing and transportation. 3D printing the identical elements dramatically reduces this determine to a mere 34 kg of CO2 emissions per protector. To supply the elements, the crew 3D printed the protectors utilizing a powdered mix of recycled scrap materials sourced from workshops in Tranby, Norway.

In keeping with Ådne Østebrøt, senior companies specialist at Aker Options, the 3D printing course of requires solely 13 kg of metal powder in comparison with a whopping 227 kg for standard manufacturing and transportation. F3nice dealt with the conversion of waste metallic into additive powder, whereas Additech oversaw the laser powder mattress fusion course of on a DMG Mori Lasertec system.

Remarkably, over 80 % of the fabric used originated from waste metallic from the Tranby web site. This not solely reduce down on transport prices but in addition lessened the dependency on imported, carbon-intensive supplies. Importantly, your complete course of adhered to business requirements, together with API Degree 1 licensed to DNV-SE-0568 Qualification of Additive Manufacturing Service Suppliers and Producers plus DNV-ST-B203 Elements, Additive Manufacturing of Metallic.

As AM is ready to obtain economies of scale, it could turn into essentially the most environment friendly manner for producing elements utilizing recycled feedstock. Not solely does it cut back general useful resource utilization by making use of materials solely the place it’s wanted, however it could possibly accomplish that closest to the purpose of use. On prime of this, the power to optimize designs for efficiency.

All of that is significantly essential for the sector for which this undertaking was carried out. Whereas uncooked supplies could also be briefly provide, fossil fuels are crucial for international socioeconomic stability, regardless of the long-term instability it causes. Because of this, the oil and fuel sector must turn into as environment friendly as attainable as shortly as attainable with a purpose to squeeze out the final remaining drops of power it may possibly present within the midst of a transition to different types of power. In flip, the identical efficiency advantages AM introduced to grease and fuel may be utilized to these different types of power.

Along with these macro causes for justifying the elevated adoption of AM within the power sector, 3D printing is effective for sea-based oil rigs for its capacity to supply elements close to to the purpose of use. In any other case, procuring and getting an element to the rig can have vital lead occasions. Although practically each oil and fuel firm is now exploring using AM, shipbuilder Wilhelmsen is among the many leaders in 3D printing for off-shore oil rigs and different marine different purposes, even piloting the use of drones to ship 3D printed elements to a Berge Bulk ship.

Such an instance isn’t any extravagance. 3D printing might finally be essential in addressing the subsequent deep sea oil spill and even stopping it earlier than it occurs. The truth that Acker is investing not solely in various power, but in addition AM companies through Additech, demonstrates that the corporate is severe about sustaining its standing throughout the transition to a post-fossil gasoline world.