(November 29, 2010)
IFandP was invited recently to Shell Lubricants’ laboratories in Hamburg, Germany. Throughout the day, visitors from the media were thoroughly briefed on the importance of R&D combined with both in-house testing and field trials and how Shell’s commitment to these activities has resulted in the products that have made it the global leader in the lubricants market for four consecutive years.
The day began with a presentation from Dr Cameron Watson, Global Technical Manager, which underlined the resources Shell uses to ensure it retains its position in the market. According to Dr Watson, the Shell Group invests over US$1.3bn a year in R&D, the highest of any international oil company, whilst its Lubricants Technology Group employs 230 people and has over 70 years of experience in the lubricants business with 150 patents for lubricants, base oils and greases.He mentioned that four years ago Shell was equal to ExxonMobil Lubricants, but is now 10-20% ahead in terms of market share.
Dr Watson explained that a key part of its strategy was the co-development and design of lubricants along with their intended application. Although guests were quick to ask as to whether this led to any intellectual property issues, Dr Watson explained that with partners and big buyers there is no real conflict of interest, while with OEMs, sometimes there are discussions, but on the whole, the dividing line between original equipment and lubricants is clear, “if it’s mechanical, it’s them, if it’s liquid, it’s us.” However, he made the point that in Japan, the tradition of co-patenting calls for a different strategy.
“We think that technology, technology leadership differentiates us from our competition and allows us to get close to our customers. Getting close enables us to understand their business better and by that we hope to add value to our products and services. Technical intimacy is a key part of our strategy for driving business growth and by doing not only do we have to convince ourselves, our customers and our stakeholders that we’re industry leaders, but we have to actually be able to follow through and demonstrate our competency in this area. We certainly believe that many of the people we’ve got are world-class in the field.”
“Getting close to the customer is the catalyst for innovation. When you’re getting the insight into what problems the customer is having, that becomes a huge technology advance for us. So we’re not doing technology for its own sake, it’s part of a platform that delivers growth.”
Dr Watson held up Shell’s relationship with Wärtsilä as a prime example of cooperation, explaining that “We helped Wärtsilä , through our joint research into oil stress in 2-stroke engines, to understand how to further optimise and adapt the lubrication systems of today’s large two-stroke engines. In addition this work also provides a sound basis for Shell formulators to design more effective cylinder lubricants that focus on combating more aspects of oil stress than just dealing with acid neutralisation and detergency“. He also made the point that Shell is active in a number of industry committees (such as API, ASTM, ATIEL) and is therefore playing an active role in steering the future of the industry.
In the longer-term, the industry as a whole is expected to shift from mineral oils to their synthetic equivalents, due to a combination of demands for ever better performance and increased availability. The latter owes a great deal to Shell’s world-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar, which produces synthetic hydrocarbons from natural gas via the Fischer-Tropsch process and which will produce 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of natural gas liquids and 140,000 barrels per day of GTL products. Those GTL products are cleaner-burning diesel and kerosene, base oils for top-tier lubricants, a chemical feedstock called naphtha, which is used to make plastics, and normal paraffin. Tantalisingly, nanotechnology was mentioned as a key means of delivering additional performance going forward, but the Shell team were loathe to give away details at this early stage. However, they did say that they have been finding some advantages in fine particles, such as higher penetration, reduced friction and wear and that they are in the early stages of the R&D pipeline. The speakers also said that producing such particles on a large scale would probably be the biggest barrier to commercialisation.
An interesting point was that the industry is experiencing a never before seen pace of innovation, driven by new fuels, the use of new materials particularly in seals, the need to reduce CO2 and other emissions and that this creates a real challenge given the amount of substantial incremental change, which is having to be managed without full experience of the implications of the previous round of design changes. This in turn, in Dr Watson’s mind, is increasing the need for greater collaboration between lubricant manufacturers and their customers – essential if the expected benefits in energy efficiency are to be delivered.
In terms of general efficiency, the team mentioned that improvements of around 2% are manageable, but we are already getting towards a plateau and delivering further improvements via better lubricants will require lots of changes to optimise each system in its entirety. Shell Lubricants is also working to help deliver performance improvements to electric cars and the next generation of hybrids. In particular, they are developing the coolant systems for fuel cells.
Wind: reliability is key
The topic of wind energy was also presented by Dr Watson. He began by pointing out the extreme range of conditions under which turbines operate, such as wide temperature swing, a lot of slow motion, the fact that bearings can be static for long periods of time. Another key point is that the increase in wind turbine size, from a few hundred kilowatts to 5-10MW in just a few decades, has required novel designs and the introduction of new materials, such as the use of super alloy steels. He compared it to when the oil and gas sector began working in the North Sea for the first time, in terms of the lack of experience in the current operating environment. As with other sectors, Shell Lubricants has been directly involved in the wind turbine design process and has been working closely with OEMs, with a strong leading position in China. A key issue is that many hydraulic fluids have their properties enhanced by the use of polymers, which can break down under severe conditions. Another challenge is the fact that modern pitch (blade) turbines, over the operational life of a turbine, undergo many small movements in a narrow range to reduce blade vibration, as opposed to the full rotational motion, typically handled by bearing systems. Such motion is much more wearing on a bearing, given that it effectively pushes the grease within it away, without providing a chance for redistribution. For this challenging application, Shell developed Rhodina BBZ which effectively protects against this specific wear effect and at -50˚C is still soft enough to be pumped. It has also been designed to resist seawater, courtesy of of oxidation and corrosion inhibitors. For the main bearing, Shell has developed Stamina HDS, which is a synthetic polyurea-based grease, which can operate in a -40 to 180˚C range and has been successfully tested in wind turbine applications. The company’s products for wind turbine gear boxes have an 80% market share in China.
Dr Watson raised several interesting questions, such how much more could the load on bearings be increased and whether there is a natural limit on wind turbine designs. He also suggested that there might be an upper limit on what could be done with existing lubricants and that further increases in wind turbine size could well require a move to a radically-different design, both in terms of the overall turbine but also in terms of bearings. However, he made the point that the increasing environmental and visual impact could prove to be the limiting factor. He also indicated that current performance requirements are so high, that that mineral oil based lubricants are expected to be phased out in the next 14-20 years, with fully-synthetic lubricants taking their place. He said that there is growing demand for lubricants to be biodegradable, but presently there remains considerable confusion over what constitutes an acceptable definition.
Transformers, roll out…
Dr Peter Smith then gave a briefing on Shell’s oils for transformers. He began by explaining that the underlying fundamental design technology hasn’t changed dramatically, but that the scale of transformers has increased, with some requiring 150t of oil and having ultra high voltages for long distance power transmission. Dr Smith made the point that with intended operational lifetimes of 30-40 years, this is another application where reliability is absolutely critical and where operating conditions are severe, courtesy of high temperatures and electricity. A critical issue is the need to prevent degradation from producing volatiles. One of the primary qualities required for oils in this application is low viscosity to maximise their ability to cool the coils through convection currents. Insulating properties are also key, with purity and low water content aiding in this regard, as particulates can be conductive. There has been a shift toward oils with lower sulphur content as certain sulphur species can lead to the formation and precipitation of undesirable conductive copper sulphide under specific conditions. In terms of the company’s in-house testing and screening regime, tests are performed at far more severe conditions than the typical field operating conditions, such as at 120˚C and in the presence of catalysts and oxygen, to obtain a better idea of how the oil will perform over its operational lifetime, in an acceptable product development timeframe. Dr Smith also indicated that Shell’s research efforts in this area are being driven by customers requiring oils to last for longer with maintained performance.
Turbines: smoothing the way
Dr Smith subsequently turned the attention to Shell’s activities in fossil-fuelled power generation, focusing on immobile land-based turbines. These can feature journal bearings of up to 1 metre in diameter supporting rotors which operate at 3000-3600rpm for around 4-5 years between scheduled maintenance intervals. He explained that turbine bearings are fitted with thermocouples, which if the oil temperature reaches a trigger temperature typically around 115˚C, trigger an unplanned shutdown or outage, potentially costing operators hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions a day. As a result, choosing the right oil for the job can deliver significant savings. For example, one UK power company was able to obtain savings of around US$72,000 in avoided downtime, by selecting Shell Turbo GT 46 for its hydroelectric turbines, which had been previously experiencing operational temperature increases on their turbine bearings, as well as taking advantage of Shell’s LubeAdvisor assessment service.
Introduction of the new oil resulted in an 8˚C reduction in thrust bearing temperatures, giving the company time to work on an engineering fix.
The subject of the future direction of lubricants in this application was also discussed, with Dr Smith saying that there has already been a shift away from American Petroleum Institute defined Group 1 based mineral oils, to more highly refined Group 2 and 3 oils, as they are more synergistic with additives and are lower in heterocyclic sulphur and unsaturated compounds which are susceptible to more rapid degradation. There has also been a trend towards higher oxidative resistance. In the case of turbine oils, testing and R&D focuses primarily on the use of screening to simulate deposit formation as this reduces the ability of the oil to function as a lubricant, increasing the temperature within the bearing and leading to a cascade effect in deposit formation. A key point is that the low amounts of additives within turbine oils can make them somewhat vulnerable to contaminants (eg hydraulic or engine oil) which can be introduced during production, which can wreck the surface properties, by creating foaming or a stable emulsion. As a result, Shell uses dedicated manufacturing facilities and stringent quality control systems to ensure high purity and that the additive systems remain consistent no matter where in the whole World the turbine oil is purchased. Dr Smith finished by pointing out that not every company in the industry is so rigorous in this regard.
Later on, IFandP was able to talk with Dr Smith for some time on the particular challenges facing turbine operators and how they can look to reduce unplanned outages via consideration of lubricant issues. Dr Smith made the point that modern systems are operating at higher temperatures and that this increases the severity of the operating conditions for the oils, requiring them to be more robust, along with the additives. The trend towards rapid cycling had meant that many systems are operating with smaller reservoirs and that this reduces the time for entrained air to leave and for water separation to take place. This requires base oils of a higher quality to ensure more rapid air release and high performing demulsifiers to remove the water.
He explained that: “All oils will break down and degrade. There is no oil that will last forever. But what we can do as formulators and manufacturers of oil is to slow that rate down and control it. There will always be a finite lifetime for a user production in normal lubricated applications.” Dr Smith explained that adequate flushing and filling is essential in the first instance, due the the fact that “often there’s all sort of debris in the turbine after its been made and there can be solid or liquid contaminants, which can wreck the properties of a turbine oil.” It is also vital during an oil change, as dead-ends in the system can potentially store oil deposits, which if not removed can catalyse fresh oil degradation. Dr Smith concluded by emphasising the importance of oil condition monitoring, which involves frequent monitoring of the oil’s parameters, such as its viscosity, acid value and oxidative stability. An important point was that the absolute value is less importance than its performance against a benchmark over two to three years of previously acquired data.
Gas engines
Thijs Schasfoort gave an overview of Shell’s activities in the gas engine sector, beginning by pointing out that lubricants used in this application are exposed to combustion gases and high temperatures. In the gas engine sector as a whole, Mr Schasfoort said that the general trends are towards higher output and greater efficiency, which in part are limited by knocking. The situation is complicated further by the fact that as some oil will be burnt by the engine, the amount of additives that can be used in its formulation is limited as they form ash when combusted. Thanks to Shell’s extensive R&D capability, its Mysella XL product for gas engines is currently the market leader in Pakistan and is considered to be the industry benchmark, despite more recent offerings from competitors. The main characteristics behind its success are a combination of long life, good deposit control, and often a significant reduction in oil consumption (32-50% according to customers). According to Mr Schasfoort, a CNG business in India using Caterpillar & Waukesha gas engines for its compressor sets were able to extend its oil interval by 60-70%, by using with Shell Mysella XL, resulting in annual savings of around US$83,000 a year.
Mr Schasfoort also said that the increasing use of biogas has increased the demands on such lubricants, given the amount of contaminants that can enter the system, particularly if the biogas was produced from a landfill site and contains acidic compounds and siloxanes that can promote deposit formation. Shell is looking to launch a new product next year, specifically formulated to handle biologically-produced sour gas applications. The product is being developed with the aim of a significantly longer oil drain than the company’s internal benchmark (Shell Mysella MA) or that of established competitor products. All lab development has been completed and the product has clocked up 6000 running hours in the field with very good results. The oil drain will be dependent on fuel quality, but Shell has already seen it extended by 50%. Shell is working with selected customers to further obtain performance data. The product is due to launch early next year.
Future fuels
Jerry Hammett followed, giving a quick overview of how Shell expects the energy sector to change going forward and what implications this will have for the global fuel mix. He made the point that the possible transition of the maritime sector to cleaner fuels, which could be driven by tighter environmental standards and the shift in refining to maximise distillate production at the expense of bunker fuel, could have a dramatic impact on the downstream sector and also on other businesses currently dependent on distillates such as the trucking industry. Even if this does not occur, lower NOx and SOx limits will mean significant challenges for both maritime engine manufacturers and lubricant producers (in terms of formulation). While significant reductions in these pollutants can be achieved via exhaust gas recirculation, catalytic reduction and lubricant design changes. An important issue is the relatively long lifespan of assets in the shipping sector (20-25 years) and the resulting slow rate of turnover. Mr Hammett made the point that Shell Fuel Oil Plus, which has been designed for large industrial boiler applications has already resulted in a 80% reduction in particulate emissions, a 3% improvement in fuel consumption and higher local air quality. It’s cleaner burning nature also translates into lower maintenance costs and an extension in equipment life.
The tour
During the tour of Shell Lubricant’s laboratories, IFandP was shown some of the many different types of tests developed by Shell better characterise the performance of its lubricants and develop the next generation of its products. The scale of some of the facilities was impressive, such as the presence of two 800kW four-cylinder diesel engines, complete with a huge fuel storage building, which allows the company to attain economies of scale in terms of fuel purchasing and handling. The company’s commitment to the safety of its employees was equally impressive, in the form of rigorously-enforced regulations and dedicated facilities, such as a system designed to ensure continuous supervision of personnel involved in polyurea manufacture (due to the necessary use of isocyanate compounds). Also clearly on display was the expertise and enthusiasm of the staff, who took every effort to clearly explain the intricacies of their work and the added value it generates for Shell and its customers.
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