One of the goals of subsea processing is to reduce the need for topside processing and for some fields to
move all the needed gas and liquid processing subsea. The first case, partial subsea processing, could
be a concept where the gas is treated to pipeline specifications directly and the further oil stabilization
and chemical treatment is handled on a floater or platform (which may be an existing installation). Such
a system will unload the topside gas processing making tie-back of new discoveries possible and also
make long distance gas transport possible.

The process equipment used topside today, like different absorbers for water and sour gases are not
suitable for subsea application. There is need for developing new contacting devices that are not based
on gravity and without rotating parts. Additionally they should be compact and have high reliability. The
objective is thus to establish new separation equipment and concepts capable of running over long time
intervals without maintenance or intervention.

The development of process concepts is supported by fundamental modelling and experimental investigations of fluid particle breakage.