86
Improving Global Quality of Life
Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
Figure 9.5
Distributions of oil and gas reserves (Reproduced courtesy: TWI Ltd)
9.1.2
Power - Fossil
Every country, industrialised or not, has the obligation and is responsible for its own effort in improving the
quality of life of its citizens without negatively impacting on the condition of the environment. Any successful
developed or developing country relies on a steady and stable supply of electric power. Historically, the global
power generation industry has been a notoriously bad performer with regard to preservation of the good
health of the environment. Paradoxically, it’s also this sector of industry that can achieve large improvements
to negative side effects through perceived modest adjustments to the way the business is conducted. Some
of these include the introduction of gas conditioning plant to curb emissions of harmful species, changing
to cleaner burning fuels, and more recently, by building new plant with increased efficiency by opting for
supercritical or even ultra supercritical steam generating plant. Unfortunately, these adjustments usually
come at a great increase in the cost of generated electricity, especially when erecting new power stations
that includes recent advances in power generation technology.
For the power generation industry moving forward to 2020 and beyond, aligning welding activity strategies
will require careful evaluation and investigation of many factors that could play a major role. Promotion of
techniques with reduced negative impact on the environment, efficient utilisation of refurbished existing
assets and an intensive skills development programme are but a few of these.
It is often alleged by both pessimists and realists that most of the engineering problems of the day have been
solved already, and that from results for the majority of research projects more and more is reported on less
and less. Notwithstanding this view, history has shown that there will always be room for improvement on
finer details which if these improvements are promoted correctly and introduced in a cost effective way can
make a difference to the bigger scheme of events.
Technology Trends
The power generation industry is no exception and potentially many improvements to current designs and
technology can still be achieved through the introduction of novel welding and joining techniques. One such
field were this industry appears to be a laggard is the use of solid state welding processes for the fabrication
of power plant components. Benefits associated with this welding process are:
Superior weldment quality compared to traditional arc welding techniques.
Simple equipment requiring relatively low levels of operator training.
Reproducibility of welding parameters.
Refurbishment of component damage previously considered not viable for weld repairs.
Low impact on the environment with regard to generation of gases.
S. & Cent.
America
7.10
Proved reserves at end 2004
Trillion cubic metres
Proved reserves at end 2004
Thousand million barrels
S. & Cent.
America
101.2
Africa
14.06
Africa
112.2
Asia Pacific
14.21
Asia
Pacific
41.1
Europe &
Eurasia
139.2
Middle East
733.9
Middle East
72.83
North
America
7.32
North
America
61.0
World gas reserves World oil reserves
Europe &
Eurasia
64.02
