Advancing technology, growing innovation

At Keppel, innovation and the need to adapt are becoming a way of life. Technology innovation is vital to sustain and further the Group’s long-term growth. To succeed in meeting the needs of the marketplace, and to enable us to grow beyond, we are committed to invest in the research, design and development of products and processes in our businesses. Our financial strength and business leadership have placed us in a solid position to invest and increase our capability and resources in R&D. To this end, we are setting up technology centres in Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) and Keppel Integrated Engineering (KIE). We will carry out investments in these centres in a disciplined and prudent manner to maximise returns. Research priorities at these centres will be determined in consultation with line managers to ensure meaningful commercial contribution to the businesses, with the aim of creating shareholder value. Leveraging our core businesses and global network, we are collaborating with our business partners, academia and industrial research institutions to exploit innovative technology to develop new products and processes that can deliver robust results. With the advice and guidance from our Keppel Technology Advisory Panel (KTAP) comprising eminent business leaders, academic professionals and industry experts, we aim to cultivate a culture of innovation, where R&D talents are nurtured, groomed and rewarded.

		Keppel Technology Advisory Panel From left to right: Dr Brian Clark Professor James Leckie Professor Minoo Homi Patel Dr Yeo Ning Hong Dr Tan Gee Paw Professor Cham Tao Soon (Chairman) Dr Malcolm Sharples Professor Sir Eric Ash Professor Tom Curtis

		The Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, (fourth from left) graced the inauguration of the Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant built on Keppel Seghers’ technology. With him are (from left) Mr Khoo Teng Chye, Chief Executive of PUB; Mr Tan Gee Paw, Chairman of PUB; Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Environment and Water Resources; Mr Lim Chee Onn, Executive Chairman of Keppel Corporation; and Mr Chua Chee Wui, Chief Executive Officer of Keppel Integrated Engineering.

We believe that technology innovation is the key to strengthen our business leadership and unlock value in our core competencies.

Keppel Technology Advisory Panel (KTAP)
The KTAP continues to provide strategic leadership for the Group’s focus on technology and innovation, serving as an expert counsel to the Group’s drive towards cultivating an innovative environment, fostering lively cross-fertilisation and rigorous sharing of ideas and applications across business units.

KTAP serves to provide:

• strategic leadership in the Group’s R&D and its core businesses;
• support in creating a Group culture of innovation and an environment conducive for nurturing R&D talent;
• alternative insights into industry developments and customer needs;
• guidance for a clear process from identifying new research areas to commercialisation of new products or services; and
• progress reports of SBUs’ existing R&D operations.

Chaired by Prof Cham Tao Soon, the Panel, which consists of eminent technology experts, academic professionals, industry specialists and corporate leaders, has since grown from seven members in 2005 to nine in 2006.

Panel members Dr Malcolm Sharples, Prof Minoo Homi Patel and Dr Brian Clark bring with them extensive experience and industry knowledge for offshore and marine, while Prof James Leckie, Prof Tom Curtis, and Mr Tan Gee Paw are academic and policy experts on environmental engineering. Prof Cham Tao Soon, Dr Yeo Ning Hong and Prof Sir Eric Ash, with their wealth of expertise, will provide guidance on broad technology trends.

A disciplined process has since been instituted with the formation of KTAP for the evaluation of R&D proposals. This process sets out the necessary steps Keppel’s business units have to take for initiating business and technology evaluations, securing internal funding and exploring partnerships with external specialists where necessary.

In its role as a facilitator, KTAP provides a strategic perspective of the myriad issues raised through discussions. The Panel advises on technology trends and their impact on the future. The Panel also plays the role of a mentor in advising on the acquisition of expertise or improvements of technology development processes that will help to sustain the Group’s leadership position.

The Panel members also maintain active discussions and collaborations with one another and the Group’s senior management through a secure web portal.

To further encourage a culture of innovation in the Group, inter-SBU meetings are organised by the KTAP secretariat. They are held monthly for our people to share knowledge on technologies, processes, techniques and business operations.

Sub-groups, which have been formed, have addressed topics such as shiprepair technology, knowledge management and process engineering. The inter-SBU meetings are also platforms for discussions with external bodies such as government research bodies. Avenues to test-bed and pilot projects are also explored and initiated.

Technology centres
In 2007, we are establishing technology centres in Keppel O&M and KIE to spearhead the growth of our in-house competencies to conduct application R&D, products and process development and technology foresight. In technology foresight, we aim to build a knowledge base in the sciences of the industry and encourage research of medium to long-term industry trends to determine
market requirements.

Keppel Offshore & Marine Technology Centre will manage, stimulate and perform longer-term research and product development in the offshore and marine businesses where we currently have strong business leadership.

Prime Minister Lee reviews Keppel Seghers’ engineering capability at the Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant.

The centre will augment Keppel O&M’s existing technology business units, Offshore Technology Development (OTD), Deepwater Technology Group (DTG) and Marine Technology Development (MTD), which will continue to concentrate on design and engineering. Keppel Environmental Technology Centre (KETC) will drive and direct research initiatives in environmental solutions. It will focus research efforts on energy recovery from solid waste and wastewater treatment, recycling and minimisation of residual by-products from waste and wastewater treatment, and membrane applications for producing water from non-conventional sources. Keppel is the only company in Singapore to possess its proprietary solid waste treatment technology. KETC will build upon these technologies to further augment our portfolio of technologies to meet some of the toughest environmental challenges.

These centres will collaborate with leading academic and industrial institutions in Singapore and around the world to leverage global expertise and resources while tapping on the resources of KTAP members who will provide guidance on macro industry and technology trends.

Environmental engineering
KIE aims to provide innovative and cost-effective environmental solutions. In its bid to achieve this goal, KIE announced in early 2007 its plans to set up the KETC to drive and co-ordinate KIE’s research and development programme.

Current R&D efforts are mostly geared towards application development and process improvement, with a number of projects at the pilot/demonstration stage. In Singapore, KIE has research collaboration agreements with both National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. Some of our global research collaborators include Cranfield University in the UK and Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in Holland.

KIE’s investments in technology have begun to yield results. In water solutions, we succeeded in the design, construction and operation of the world’s second largest wastewater recycling plant in Singapore and carried out the pilot run of the promising new Memstill^® desalination technology.

In solid waste solutions, the company strengthened its portfolio of 130 intellectual properties (IPs) and trademarks in 2006 with the successful patent of three new IPs for solid waste technologies, one of which is for Keppel Seghers’ PRISM for waste-to-energy (WTE) installations. The company also won the landmark project from the Qatar Government to design, build and operate the first integrated waste management facility in Qatar.

Second largest water reuse plant in the world
The project was secured in January 2005 as a Design-Build-Own-Operate (DBOO) contract for its superior technology, innovative design and operational excellence.

Inaugurated by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 15 March 2007, the Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant supplies up to
148,000 m³/day of NEWater, equivalent to over half of Singapore’s NEWater needs. Occupying a footprint of only 2.6 hectares (ha), it is also the most efficient NEWater plant in Singapore.

The treatment process in the Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant consists of Microfiltration, followed by Reverse Osmosis (RO), and finally Ultraviolet Disinfection.

The Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant has a number of innovative engineering features differentiating it from other NEWater plants in Singapore. Modular process design allows modifications to be made to portions of the plant without affecting the rest of the plant. Faced with the engineering challenge of fitting the plant into the available space of 2.6 ha, Keppel Seghers built the RO systems on top of the water tank and designed the RO modules in stacks of nine instead of the usual five. This plant is equipped with RO inter-stage energy recovery turbines, which is a first in Singapore for NEWater plants, as well as Variable Speed Drives (VSD) for all feed pumps that increase energy efficiency when handling variable loads.

Pilot run of Memstill^® desalination technology
Keppel Seghers, together with TNO and six other consortium members, has developed a membrane-based distillation concept called Memstill^®.

This Memstill^® technology is envisaged to offer a much more economical alternative to the existing desalination technologies for seawater and brackish water. It utilises low-grade waste steam and heat of power stations, refuse incineration plants and other heat-generating plants to produce desalinated water using a membrane barrier. The process is driven by minor temperature differences so relatively less energy is required.

Artist’s impression of the integrated solid waste management facility in Qatar.

Another benefit of this technology is that it does not produce greenhouse gases since it utilises waste heat and requires less energy than conventional desalination processes. This could potentially attract credits for emissions reduction in countries with relevant schemes. Potential application for the technology includes large-scale production of drinking water from seawater, co-generation of electricity and water, concentration of brine and waste streams, production of fresh water on ships and in the offshore industry, and production of ultra-pure water and boiler feed water. Its technology can also be used in mobile units for water supply in emergencies and for the consumer market. The Singapore government has funded the Memstill® Pilot Plant project through the Innovation For Environmental Sustainability Fund.

The plant in Singapore was the first pilot study in processing seawater and had operated for over one year. It consistently produced product water of very high quality (better than RO) from seawater. A concurrent pilot study was operated by Keppel Seghers in the Rotterdam Harbour with brackish water as feed. Further pilot studies are being planned for in the Netherlands and Singapore for 2007/8.

Integrated solid waste management solution for Qatar
KIE, through Keppel Seghers, has won the confidence of the Qatar government to adopt its technological solutions for the management of the country’s solid waste. In October 2006, Keppel Seghers was awarded a significant contract by the Qatari goverment to design and build an integrated domestic solid waste management centre to handle 1,550 tonnes/day of waste in Qatar. The project will comprise four offsite waste transfer stations, waste sorting and recycling facilities, landfill, composting plant and a 1,000 tonnes/day WTE incineration plant.

The WTE plant utilising Keppel Seghers’ proprietary water-cooled grate technology is the heart of the project. Other proprietary technologies deployed are the DANO DRUM system for recycling and pre-treatment of waste, the Rotary Atomiser semi-dry system for flue gas treatment and the Unibrane™ membrane bioreactor system for wastewater treatment.

PRISM’s life-cycle enhancement for WTE plants
Keppel Seghers has developed and patented a secondary air PRISM’s technology package to increase the energy efficiency of WTE plants while enhancing the life-cycle of these incinerators.

The PRISM technology constitutes a novel and innovative means of increasing combustion and boiler performance, based on the invention of a prism-shaped body in the first empty boiler pass. The PRISM allows a highly-optimised secondary air injection and combustion control strategy. This leads to more homogeneous flue gas conditions at a very early stage and is virtually independent of the heat release profile on the grate. This not only improves performance in new boilers, but also helps to solve the severe corrosion problems in the radiant and superheater sections that many existing plants are suffering from.

WTE plants in operation for a number of years face problems as the waste that they treat has considerably higher heat value than they were designed to handle originally. The PRISM offers owners and operators of such plants a cost-effective solution to deal with these problems, thus extending the plant life, increasing plant throughput and lowering maintenance cost. The PRISM can be retrofitted
into most incineration plants, regardless of the supplier of the original incinerator design.

Based on performance data from a customer who had installed the Keppel Seghers PRISM, availability of each line was increased by 500 hours a year, and corrosion of the boiler was decreased by a factor of 10 to 0.05 mm per 1,000 hours in the critical zones. In addition, the interval between manual cleaning of the boiler was extended by 50%, while the overall maintenance costs were reduced by 14%.

Offshore & Marine
Keppel O&M’s technology strategy is geared to provide reliable and affordable solutions for its customers, with focus on four inter-related aspects:

• Commercial Viability – Providing our shipyards with competitive edge by offering proprietary designs of rigs and ships that have been identified to have commercial potential;
• Customer Needs – Adapting, customising and optimising our designs to meet customer requirements;
• Knowledge Building – Developing and acquiring knowledge through technology foresight and market feedback; and
• Process Improvement – Improving our business processes through innovation and efficient use of materials.

This strategy has achieved results for the Group in 2006, with market acceptance of various new product designs.

Launched in 2000, the KFELS B Class design has gained market acceptance with 13 units now in operation.

The significant products include: the KFELS N Class jackup drilling cum production rig created for extreme weather conditions; the cost-effective DSS™ 38 ultra-deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig (semi) for the deepwater regions of Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM); the high-specification DSS™ 51 ultra-deepwater semi; and an Ice-Class Floating Storage Offloading (FSO) facility with innovative construction methods.

In process development, Keppel O&M took one further step in enhancing its engineering strength. The company has synchronised its Global Engineering Management System (GEMS) with the American Bureau of Shipping’s 02E webbased system to expedite the review and approval of plans. GEMS is a secure online system empowering project members to communicate, control and share information
across geographic boundaries.

Innovative KFELS N Class for North Sea
First conceived by Offshore Technology Development (OTD), the KFELS N Class jackup rig design would be the biggest drilling rig ever built by Keppel FELS. It will have the capability to operate in the most demanding climatic conditions of the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

As the design evolved during the product development stage, the potential for the KFELS N Class rig was discovered. With its huge size and capacity for harsh environments, the rig could also be used as a production unit. This potential met the customer’s vision to launch an innovative rig for marginal fields in the North Sea. The design was then modified to have the flexibility to accommodate a production module on the rig when required and to carry out drilling and production operations simultaneously.

The modifications required creativity from the engineers of OTD. The main challenge was to ensure that the addition of the production facilities on board the KFELS N Class would not compromise the required environmental ratings for the rig. The OTD team was able to re-engineer the design and allow for optimum usage of the production facilities, thus meeting the owner’s needs.

Compact DSS™ 38 semi for Brazil
Brazil is today the world’s largest deepwater region after the GOM. With its promising hydrocarbon fields lying under thousands of feet of water, the search for Brazilian oil is largely the province of deepwater rigs. The nation’s stateowned oil company, Petrobras, has been boosting its domestic reserves and production, and is in need of rigs for its drilling programmes.

Recognising this need, Deepwater Technology Group (DTG) has created a fifth-generation deepwater semi, the DSS™ 38, for operations in Brazilian waters. This rig design has been accepted and contracted by Brazilian drilling contractor Queiroz Galvão Perfurações (QGP), which has secured a seven-year drilling contract with Petrobras. To be built by Keppel FELS, the rig is due for delivery in the third quarter of 2009. QGP supplies the drilling and subsea equipment while Keppel FELS will undertake the design, engineering and construction of the hull and supply of marine equipment.

This cost-effective DSS™ 38 design is a derivative of the DSS™ 20, DSS™ 21 and DSS™ 51 designs, all co-designed by Keppel DTG and Marine Structure Consultants. It is a compact unit with enhanced deck load capacity, layout and station-keeping capability. Apart from the Brazilian deepwaters, it is also suitable for West Africa and the GOM.

High specification DSS™ 51 semi for GSF
The new DSS™ 51 design has been chosen by GlobalSantaFe (GSF) after extensive evaluation. One unit, the Development Driller III, is currently under construction at Keppel FELS.

GSF picked this rig for the high variable deck load of 8,500 tonnes, superior motion characteristics of the hull, high power generation capacity, increased safety features and ability to meet the 100-year storm specification in GOM.

GSF will provide the drilling and subsea equipment while Keppel FELS undertakes the design, engineering and construction of the hull and supplies marine equipment. It is due for delivery in early 2009.

The rig is suitable for operation in offshore Brazil, the GOM, West Africa and Southeast Asia.

The MTD engineers and naval architects work with LUKoil to create the FSO design.

Principal dimensions of FSO Length overall: 132.8 m Breadth overall: 32.0 m Depth: 15.7 m Max. operating draft: 10.0 m Crude oil capacity: 6,500 tonnes/day Max. cargo offloading: 1,500 m3/hr Min. cargo oil temperature: +10°C Accommodation: 32 crew Class: ABS +A1, FSO +AMCCU, C0 Flag: Russian

Singapore’s first FSO design for LUKoil
First established as the marine technology arm of Keppel Singmarine to support the specialised shipbuilding division with in-house capability for offshore support vessels and tugboats, Marine Technology Development (MTD) has been expanding its capabilities.

In 2006, it succeeded in designing a 28,000-dead weight tonne Ice-Class FSO for LUKoil-Nizhnevolzhskneft which will deploy the vessel in the Yuri Korchagin Field in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea. This MTD 13028FSO-IC design will be the first FSO to be built here in Singapore.

The vessel is a follow-through of Keppel Singmarine’s strategy to enhance its design and construction capabilities and expand into related product lines to meet the demands of the offshore logistics market.

The FSO had to be created such that its two longitudinal hull strips could be towed through the famous but narrow Volgo-Donskoy canal which has strict restrictions on length, breadth and draft including the air draft.

Keppel O&M’s “Near Market, Near Customer” strategy scored another success for the group when the owner agreed to have the two strips of hull mated and joined at Keppel’s Caspian Shipyard Company (CSC) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

When completed in 2009, the FSO will be moored in an area with 60-cm thick ice and water depth of 20.5 m. It has to withstand a maximum 2-min average wind speed of 40.6 m/sec, wave height of 8.8 m with a corresponding wave period of 9.0 sec and surface currents of 1.84 m/sec. The air temperature ranges from –20°C to 30°C, with minimum water temperature of 0°

Increased productivity with GEMS and the ABS 02E system
Global Engineering Management Systems (GEMS) is a powerful tool that allows Keppel O&M engineers to work on a common web-based platform across geographic boundaries, without compromising security. Its features were enhanced when Keppel O&M synchronised it with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) 02E electronic plan review system.

Keppel engineers can now release drawings directly to ABS plan review engineers through a collaboration link. The plans flow between the two parties as if each were logging in and downloading from each other’s websites.

The sovereignty and integrity of the individual systems are maintained. Governance has also improved with the automatic management and control of electronic copies of reviews, responses and stamped approved drawings.

The collaboration results in faster turnaround of review and approval of drawings leading to better customer service and improved productivity.