H2Tech - Q3 2021 - 13

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT
Driving a successful energy transition:
From natural gas to H2
and beyond
ARJA TALAKAR, Senior Vice President, Industrial Applications Products, Siemens Energy
Among the many challenges the
world will face in the coming years, there
is arguably none greater than reversing
the tide of climate change. Global warming
threatens to disrupt the ecosystems
on which we all depend. At the same
time, global energy demand is expected
to double over the next three decades.
This poses an enormous challenge in
and of itself, especially considering that
today roughly 770 MM people-more
than 10% of the world's current population-lack
access to power.1
We believe solving this dilemma and
ARJA TALAKAR is Senior Vice President of the
Industrial Applications Products business unit at
Siemens Energy. As a member of the Siemens
Energy leadership team, he is responsible for the
new products business, which includes power
generation and rotating equipment for the oil
and gas industry. Arja Talakar has extensive
leadership experience that covers more than 25
years with Siemens in multiple global roles in the
U.S., Germany, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Previously, he was CEO of Siemens Saudi
Arabia, where he led large international JVs with
a focus on projects, manufacturing, solutions
and services. Over the past decade, jointly with
his team, Arja Talakar has worked on several
turnarounds and driven the profitable growth
of organizations. As CEO in Saudi Arabia,
he helped develop close ties and strategic
partnerships with the world's leading oil and
gas, energy and petrochemical companies. The
company he led also succeeded in securing
and executing large infrastructure projects.
Arja Talakar started his career with Siemens
in the fields of engineering and technology for
rotating equipment and automation systems,
prior to embarking on assignments with
increasing responsibility across the globe. He
holds an MBA degree from IMD Business School
in Switzerland, as well as an engineering degree
from the University of Braunschweig in Germany.
driving a successful energy transition will
require a diverse range of sources, including
cost-competitive renewables, natural
gas and hydrogen (as well as other e-fuels).
It will also need strong partnerships
and collaboration between private and
public sector stakeholders to facilitate innovation
and accelerate the commercialization
of emerging technologies.
Building a bridge to H2
. A large portion
of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
comes from the energy sector, specifically
from fossil fuel-based power generation.
In 2018, coal-fired power plants
alone represented nearly one third of all
CO2
emissions worldwide.2
Although some believe that the growing
use of natural gas for power generation
is at odds with the buildout of renewables,
like solar and wind, it represents
the best possible replacement for coal in
the near term and can enable significant
emissions reductions.
Not only is natural gas abundant and
inexpensive when burned in simple-cycle
gas turbines, but it also releases up to 50%
less CO2
than coal. Even greater decarbonization
opportunities are possible if
combined-cycle configurations are used
(i.e., incorporation of waste heat recovery
and a steam turbine), which can yield another
20%-23% reduction in carbon emissions.
In fact, with modern gas turbines in
cogeneration applications, it is possible to
achieve energy efficiencies as high as 85%.3
With natural gas expected to become
the largest global energy source in 2026
and to remain so through 2050,4
the critical
question is how to make its lifecycle
cleaner-from extraction to transportation
to end use.
We are working closely with oil and
gas customers across the Americas region
to address this issue. One specific
example is our recent collaboration with
TC Energy Corp. Together, our two companies
are implementing a first-of-its-kind
waste heat-to-power solution at a pipeline
compressor station in Canada. The solution,
which Siemens Energy helped commercialize,
is licensed under Echogen
Power Systems and uses supercritical CO2
(sCO2
) as the working fluid to capture
and convert waste heat from a gas-fired
turbine into emissions-free power (FIG. 1).
Enough electricity will be generated from
the system to power approximately 10,000
homes. It will offset approximately 44,000
t of GHG-the equivalent of taking up to
9,000 vehicles off the road.
I am confident these types of joint efforts
will accelerate as we work to make
more sustainable options, such as H2
, increasingly
economical. In the long term,
displacement of natural gas with hydrogen
is a viable means of enabling carbon-neutral
power plant operation, as H2
tion produces no CO2
combus.
Furthermore, if the
production to end
H2 being used is " green " or " blue, " the entire
process-from H2
use-is entirely emissions-free (FIG. 2).
At present, the major impediment to
production is the availH2Tech
| Q3 2021 13
scaling green H2
ability of renewable electricity. It is estimated
that 4,700 GW of new renewable
H2Tech - Q3 2021

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