Lifecycle Cost and Carbon Emission Analysis of Offshore Mechanical Systems – Comparing Traditional vs. Optimized Maintenance Approaches: Linking Cost Savings to CO₂ Reduction

Abstract

Pressure to achieve cost reduction whilst meeting stringent decarbonization targets is growing on the offshore energy industry. The lifetime cost and carbon emissions of offshore mechanical systems such as pumps, compressors and turbines are significant. These are driven by high power demands, high maintenance costs and involuntary downtime. This study assess two maintenance strategies as alternative control inputs within an integrated lifecycle cost-carbon emission system dynamics model for offshore mechanical system behavior. The outcomes of the simulation at representative offshore environment show the proposed strategies deliver a 17-22% reduction in cost and an 18-21% reduction in carbon emissions over a lifetime of 20 years. The result from sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the magnitude of the cost saving varies only by 3% even the discount rate changes by 4% in a range of 2% - 6%. However, carbon saving reduction varied by 2.5% while energy intensity changed by 10%. Benchmarking analysis conducted with known lifecycle analysis show that the proposed model is reliable to apply on the real conditions. The investigation reveals that the predictive maintenance can provide cost effective strategy and deliver sustainable outcome of offshore energy sector. In this thesis, the system dynamics model of the offshore sustainability are modeled with degradation-energy-carbon as the fundamental of physical and environmental system that is regulated with the maintenance strategies formulated as control inputs.