Unique combination of electrohydraulic and electromechanical operation provides key technology to help bring about the All Subsea Factory vision for offshore oil and gas production.

Bosch Rexroth's innovative new Subsea Valve Actuator (SVA) received the Award of Merit as one of five finalists in the 2019 Woelfel Best Mechanical Engineering Achievement Award. This award was presented at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston on May 6, 2019 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The SVA was recognized as a unique, new undersea system combining an electromechanical actuator with a hydrostatic drive, providing a safer, cleaner, more efficient and modular solution for subsea valve activation.

Bosch Rexroth developed the SVA to help address some of the challenges and shortcomings associated with either purely electromechanical or electrohydraulic actuator technology used on the sea floor for oil and gas exploration and production systems.

Undersea electromechanical systems do not have the complexities of conventional topside hydraulic systems, but require more space. Hydraulic actuators save space due to greater power density. However, they also require a large HPU and topside equipment, plus long hydraulic supply lines and couplers with the potential to leak fluid.

"The SVA has the best advantages of both electromechanical and electrohydraulic actuation: It provides the power density of hydraulic actuation for large gate valves with a simpler electric interface that eliminates the need for hydraulic umbilicals," said Dr. Alexandre Orth, Bosch Rexroth AG, Sr. Manager, Marine and Subsea Technologies. "Bosch Rexroth is honored that the ASME has recognized the ingenuity and value of the SVA by receiving the Award of Merit at the 2019 Woelfel Best Mechanical Engineering Achievement Award competition."

As one of the cosponsors of the annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), each year the Petroleum Division of ASME's Energy Sources & Processing Segment grants the Woelfel Best Mechanical Engineering Achievement Award. The award recognizes a product, device or system displayed at the OTC Conference that best reflects innovation and/or practical use of mechanical engineering in solving problems, improving design or maximizing performance.

The SVA is a key component of a new concept arising for offshore production: The All Subsea Factory. This concept reflects the market trend to move all the equipment needed for the offshore exploration and production of oil and gas (petroleum hydrocarbons) down to the seabed itself. The main benefits of this technology are increased automation, safety and efficiency, with considerable reductions in both cost and negative impacts to the environment.

The SVA is designed to serve in any subsea production system—even in shallow water—but its benefits increase with the applied water depth and tie-back distance, and is therefore a good solution for ultra-deep production fields.