Page 39 - EngineerIT September 2022

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

implementation partner in their goal to grow of the learners had never before been exposed to an experience anything like it.
the global pool and diversity of engineers. The rationale behind hosting the learners on campus was to remove them from
PROTEC this year celebrates 40 years of distractions and enable the team to pair them with postgraduate student mentors
delivering impactful educational support for to inspire and help the learners imagine themselves studying at university one
successful STEM careers to disadvantaged high day.
school learners. Balan Moodley, PROTEC’s CEO, says the vast effort put in by the camp’s
The camp youngsters – many from operations team from PROTEC, FHI360 and GE, GE volunteers, and staff and
disadvantaged schools around Johannesburg students from Wits University’s Engineering Faculty, ensured that the camp was
– were accommodated at a Wits University motivational for all the learners. “GE Foundation’s Next Engineers programme is
residence for the duration of the 5-day an important step towards uplifting the lives of many aspiring young engineers,
immersive camp that delivered a wide range while also contributing to strengthening our engineering industry.
of activities, challenges, prizes, teamwork,
inspirational talks and presentations, and a lot For more information, visit www.protec.co.za and
of fun and excitement, not least because most www.nextengineers.org/cities/johannesburg

Plans to store over five million tons of CO per year,
2
equivalent of taking one million cars off the road

BB has been contracted by engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) contractor Aker Solutions, a leader
Ain sustainable energy solutions, to deliver the main
electrical, automation and safety systems for Norway’s Northern
Lights project.
A joint venture between Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies,
Northern Lights is the first industrial carbon capture and storage
project to develop an open and flexible infrastructure to safely
store CO 2 from industries across Europe. The first phase of the
project is due to be completed mid-2024 and will have the
capacity to permanently store up to 1.5 million tons of CO 2 per
year, with the ambition to expand to over five million tons per
year in a second development phase.
ABB’s automation, electrical and digital solutions will be
integrated into the Northern Lights project to enable the remote to reach net zero by 2050 with a global capacity of 1,7 billion
operation of a new carbon capture terminal and ensure that the tons of CO 2 capture required by 2030,” said Per Erik Holsten,
facility runs at optimum efficiency. head of ABB Energy Industries in Northern Europe. “Northern
Leveraging its distributed control system ABB Ability™ System Lights is an important development not only for its contribution
800xA, operators will gain greater visibility into the operation of to rebalancing the carbon cycle, but also for its commitment to
the Northern Lights terminal, with the ABB system analysing real- innovation.”
time and historical data and instantly showing plant metrics and Purpose-built ships will transport captured and liquefied
KPIs. As a result, operators will be able to make more accurate CO 2 from emitters to the Northern Lights Øygarden Terminal
and informed decisions and review options for optimising in western Norway, which will be remotely operated
performance of assets and processes. from Equinor’s facilities at the Sture terminal, located
“ABB is both a market leader in distributed control systems approximately 7 km away. To enable remote operations, ABB
and a long-standing partner with a thorough understanding will build a state-of-the-art extended operator workstation
of our business and expertise in both on- and offshore as well at the Northern Lights terminal which will work in tandem
as sub-sea projects,” said Kristin Glenna, project manager for with the central control room in Sture, with the two
Northern Lights at Aker Solutions. “This was key to our decision- communicating seamlessly to minimise response times and
making process. We needed to entrust our remote operations support 24/7 remote operations.
to a partner with a successful track record in reliability and ABB technology will also power the entire project, apart
optimisation to provide strong foundations for this important from the shore-to-ship solution, implementing the main
development.” electrical system via its power process management system
“The ability to capture and store industrial CO 2 emissions, and incorporating high and low voltage switchboards and
which cannot currently be prevented, is critical if the world is transformers.

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