of multiple gas red boilers that gen-
erate steam for the facility; among
them are two steam turbine-compres-
sor trains. The rst train consists of a
25 MW steam turbine driving a com-
pressor, and a second train with an 8
MW steam turbine and compressor.
“Basically, it’s two electrications
in one project,” said uyderduyn.
“So, we are replacing two steam tur-
bines with two electric motors. The
steam turbines are still running well.
They had some overhauls but now is
a good time to take them out.”
Postma added: “The steam turbines
have been running continuously
without any stops. And replacing
them is a challenge. If you move to
electrically-driven motors, you have
to ensure that they can run 247 for
35 daysyear for decades, at least
until the next turnaround, without
failure.
Siemens Energy, together with
Shell, carried out a reliability, avail-
ability and maintenance (RAM) study
during the tender phase and are con-
tinuing this study during execution to
identify any weak spots.
“This helps us select the right mate-
rials, set up the necessary redundan-
cies or implement mitigation mea-
sures so that the system can be
quickly recovered if it fails,” said
Postma. “ou only have a moment
during the six to seven years turn
around to check if everything is ne.”
Special attention was paid to the
variable frequency drives and the
throughout industries. Countries and
businesses have already been shifting
towards wind and solar in the EU, not
only to combat climate change but
also to safeguard themselves in a
precarious gas market.
Postma noted: “The difference in
price between electricity and gas has
now become more in favour of elec-
tricity. On top of that, there are decar-
bonisation goals. These are for many
of our customers, the two main drivers
to change from steam to electricity
for compression. CO
2
reduction is
of course important but the cost re-
duction in industrial processes justi-
es projects like this even more.”
There will be other benets from the
project too. In addition to cutting
CO
2
, electrication of the compres-
sion process also reduces energy
consumption by approximateky 75
per cent and notably nitrous oxides
(NOx) by 30 per cent.
Albert uyderduyn, Siemens Ener-
gy’s Project Manager for the Mo-
erdijk project, said: “NOx is arguably
even more important than CO
2
. And
there will also be a signicant reduc-
tion in the particulates emissions that
you have with gas, as well as im-
provements to further reduce the heat
loss so less cooling water will be
needed. After this retrot, it will be-
come one of the most efcient liquid
crackers in Europe in terms of energy
efciency.”
The project will be challenging. The
Moerdijk chemical complex consists
E-House with variable
frequency drive, cooling
system and auxiliary systems
S
hell Chemicals Park Moerdijk
plays an important role in Shell’s
global chemical activities. o-
cated in North Brabant, Netherlands,
the complex has been producing
chemicals since the 1970s. But like
many other industrial facilities, Shell
has been striving to meet government
targets for reducing carbon dioxide
(CO
2
) emissions.
The most recent sustainability driv-
en project has seen Shell Chemicals
Park Moerdijk embark on a project
that will deliver signicant savings in
carbon emissions. In short, the project
will see the electrication of the
steam cracker process for producing
ethylene which is used as a feedstock
for the production of industrial
chemicals, a range of materials such
as plastics and food ripening process.
The project will see Siemens Energy
replace existing steam turbines driv-
ing compressors in the steam cracker
plant with electric drives in a move
that is expected to reduce Shell’s CO
2
emissions in Moerdijk by 230 kilo-
tons per year. At this scale, it could
become an industry showcase project.
Electrication has been on Shell’s
agenda for some time. It began at the
Moerdijk facility in 2018 with the
replacement of steam turbines with
electric motors at a non-critical ser-
vices part of the plant. The energy
transition journey continued with a
large solar panel park and replace-
ment of more efcient cracking fur-
naces with project Skyline. The latest
project, however, will see the electri-
cation of the core part of the chemi-
cal complex.
Peter Postma, Sales Manager, En-
ergy Solutions, at Siemens Energy,
has long been involved with the Mo-
erdijk electrication project and was
responsible for securing the contract
with Shell. He said: “The heart of the
Shell Moerdijk plant is the production
of base chemicals in the cracker with
ethylene and propylene as key prod-
ucts. The compression system is at the
heart of this production process. And
if it does not run, the whole plant
stops, resulting in aring and produc-
tion loss. So, the system must be ro-
bust. Steam turbines have therefore
been used since the 1970s to drive
mechanical compressors. These
steam turbines are driven by steam
from simple gas red boilers. It’s a
simple system that is still running to-
day; it is old but reliable.”
Using this simple but robust set-up
for compression made perfect sense.
In the 1970s there was no legislative
pressure to reduce CO
2
emissions,
and gas prices were low. Today, the
scenario is very different. Organisa-
tions and governments are under
pressure to become carbon neutral
within the space of just a few decades.
At the same time gas is now very ex-
pensive.
Extremely high and volatile gas
prices across Europe over the last
three years have certainly served as a
catalyst in the drive for electrication
Electrication nds a
sweet spot at Moerdijk
Special Project Supplement
THE ENERG INDUSTR TIMES - APRI 2025
Electrication of inustrial processes is seen as an important tool in the global ecarbonisation effort. Junior Isles
hears ho iemens Energy is helping hell to cut carbon emissions by replacing ol steamriven compressors
ith electric rives at the oeri hemicals ar in the etherlans.
Photo: courtesy Shell
Chemicals Park Moerdijk
8
THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2025
Special Project Supplement
High speed electric motor
with intermediate base frame
connected to the existing
compressor
Shell Chemicals Park
Moerdijk, located in North
Brabant, Netherlands, has
been producing chemicals
since the 1970s. Photo:
courtesy Shell Chemicals Park
Moerdijk
“The second important criterion for
the complete drive system is main-
tainability. If there is a failure, it must
be returned to service very quickly,
within hours. High system efciency
and pro-active monitoring is also very
important.”
As this is a browneld project, it
was paramount that Siemens Energy
paid close attention to space optimisa-
tion.
“The solution must be suitable for
the existing space and foundation.
Usually, the steam turbine has
smaller space requirements than an
electrical drive. So, you need to use
a specially designed high-speed mo-
tor to avoid the need for a gearbox.
We therefore selected products that
both we and Shell are familiar with,”
said Tomic. “It hits the sweet spot in
terms of reliability and sizing.” He
added: “Space also has to be opti-
mised for other areas such as the
substation and transformer.”
Siemens Energy is well positioned
to meet the numerous requirements of
the project. It is one of the largest
suppliers of rotating electric equip-
ment itself, and not only has advanced
tools for equipment design but also
for checking complete system integ-
rity, according to Tomic.
“As a leading company in the eld
of electrical engineering and inte-
grated projects in the power industry
as well as oil and gas, we can provide
complete solutions from high voltage
down to the motor. Siemens Energy is
one of the leading system integrators
for control and automation systems
for these drives,” he said. “Further,
we have a huge database [with data
and experience from similar projects
as well as from compressors and
electrical drives themselves, so we
are able to avoid potential weak
points.”
While this was one key factor in
winning the contract, Siemens Energy
also had to convince Shell that it
could execute it “awlessly”.
Postma explained: “During a turn-
around, when the plant is fully down
the turbine-motor swap will be done
with lots of preparation in advance. It
will be like open-heart surgery where
you have to do everything in time. So,
when the plant is shut down, together
with our partners, we must remove
the existing equipment and replace it
with the new equipment during this
period. So, it all must be perfectly
planned before we execute. This
means you have to put a lot of effort
into investigating and engineering so
that everything is done correctly.”
To ensure it is all completed in this
turnaround window, a number of ac-
tivities will be carried out in advance.
Initially it was planned that both
compression trains would be replaced
at the same time, but it was then de-
cided that the smaller train will be
replaced rst.
“As the smaller train is less critical
it is possible to continue production,
but just at a lower rate,” said Postma.
“If you switch off the smaller com-
pressor, you will just turn down the
total production volume. This means
the smaller train can be done without
stopping the entire process. So, it’s
like a pre-turnaround activity. And
the advantage of this is that we can
learn lessons to improve the second,
most important one that needs to be
done in the turnaround period. We
have experience with this, but every
project has its own characteristics.”
“Everything we can do pre-turn-
around, such as installation of certain
equipment, we will do pre-turn-
around,” added Zuyderduyn. “The
turnaround then includes decommis-
sioning the old steam turbine, remov-
ing it, installing the electrical motor
and connecting it to the compressor.”
The trickiest part will be the rst
startup. “You have to make sure ev-
erything is right”, says Zuyderduyn.
Everything has to be double-checked
and thought through in advance.
Siemens Energy is currently nalis-
ing the engineering. Zuyderduyn
commented: “We are focusing on the
production [of the equipment]. Then
for the middle of this year we will
start rst installations on site. And
then early 2026 is the big turnaround.”
This called for equipment to be or-
dered at an early stage, so that all
equipment is scheduled for delivery
this year. “It is our key focus that
these deliveries do not slip,” said
Zuyderduyn.
Although there will be several
milestones along the way, the key
dates are those for the turnaround –
early 2026 for the smaller 8 MW
compressor train, and a few months
later for the main 25 MW train.
On completion, the Moerdijk proj-
ect will provide a number of addi-
tional benets to Shell, in addition to
environmental and cost reduction.
Firstly, greater digitalisation will be
possible since all systems will be
electronic. “There is a goal to have
data analytics across the entire sys-
tem, so we can analyse the availabil-
ity,” said Postma. “With mechanical
drives, that’s not possible.”
“We are working on solutions to
predict and see degradation of elec-
tronics and then turn that into a pre-
diction of availability or the right
moment to replace it,” said Postma.
He also noted that greater digitalisa-
tion reduces costs.
As decarbonisation efforts continue,
Siemens Energy expects to see more
electrication projects within the
petrochemicals and oil and gas sec-
tors, especially in Europe. “Gas mol-
ecules will be replaced with green
electrons from renewables. And the
faster you can do this, the sooner you
will have sustainable productions,”
said Postma. “There are several pro-
cesses that can’t be electried, and
there you will use hydrogen. But to-
day, this electrication is the sweet
spot for CO
2
reduction.”
Accordingly, Siemens Energy is
gearing up for the surge in electri-
cation. “You see this in our compe-
tence centre, with new people joining
every month,” said Zuyderduyn.
Looking to the future, Postma
summed up: “There is a market here.
Customers are switching from gas to
electricity, which means they need
solutions like this. It’s a huge invest-
ment for Shell but the payback time is
only a few years. Sustainable solu-
tions cost money, but they pay-off in
the long run. This is a protable, sus-
tainable solution.”
cooling systems. The drives are
therefore equipped with totally re-
dundant cooling systems. All the
control systems that control the cool-
ing systems and drives are also con-
gured to be fault tolerant.
The RAM studies also demonstrate
how the solution will be implemented.
“Now the project still has to be deliv-
ered… the proof is in the pudding,”
said Postma.
Mitar Tomic, who is working as
Solutions Architect at Siemens Ener-
gy’s Centre of Competence for E-
Drives, has been involved since the
bidding stage, specifying the solu-
tions and technical scope of the offer.
He said: “We studied their situation
and made sure that the solution is reli-
able. We did a lot of work in selecting
equipment and assessing the various
solutions to translate that into avail-
ability gures; and then demonstrate
that it will work.”
Tomic added: “Unlike other indus-
tries, such as steel or mining, where
you have the opportunity to stop the
process every month or six months,
petrochemicals plants must run
continuously because any unplanned
shutdown results in production
losses and therefore nancial losses.
So, the key requirements for the
electric drive system are reliability
and availability.
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