Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Joshua Moreno Scott Marwil Danielle Miller

Introduction How can nanotechnology help the oil and gas industry? First, let’s identify the problems: Drilling equipment tends to wear down fairly quickly Normally, oil wells are only able to recover about 1 out of every 3 barrels of oil from a reservoir Current Seismic technology cannot produce high enough resolution data about the oil reservoir With peak oil fast approaching, there is a definite need to be able to fully utilize all of the resources that are available

Introduction Nanotechnology is striving to help the oil and gas industry increase oil recovery by improving: Chemicals used in recovery of oil Drilling Materials Reservoir Surveillance

Nanocoatings Anti-wear for drilling parts Anti-corrosion for pipelines and other exposed long term structures Lubricants and drilling mud Thermal coatings to lower deformation Anti-fouling for ships

Anti-wear coating Goal is to increase durability in moving parts Increased durability gives added toughness, a longer life span, and a lower equipment cost over time Coating is usually sprayed on and will bond with the host material. Drilling materials need advances to be able to reach hard to get oil reserves

Nanovar Produced by Integran Can be put on most any composite metal Coatings custom made for situation and material being applied to

Nanovar Much denser than metal on an atomic level Provides strength, hardness, and thermal resistance which are three things needed in oil drilling in the future to reach reserves

Anti-corrosion Long lasting coatings are needed to protect under sea pipes from sea water Coatings used on rigs and other platforms to prevent rust and corrosion that can cause safety issues More environmental friendly than anti-corrosion paints and cheaper

Anti-corrosion Metal surfaces are imperfect Surface penetration from the coating is vital to performance Nanocoatings can be custom made and out perform traditional coatings in this aspect

Nanofluids - lubricants Suspensions of nanoparticles in fluids that enhance its properties Main advantage in the oil and gas field is the enhanced thermal properties (performs well at high/low temperatures, transfers heat well, insulates well, etc) Highly customizable to the desired situation

Nanofluids – drilling mud Nanofluids used in drilling mud is being looked at as a solution to ultra deep drilling fluid Nanoparticles added at a low weight percentage can have a big impact in the fluid The suspension of nanoparticles can provide enhanced stability against sedimentation along with better thermal, mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties Customizable for the situation and geography/region Improvements will enable access to deeper, hotter regions in high grade formations where oil cannot currently be reached

Anti-fouling Big issue in the marine industry These bacteria and plants can increase a ships fuel costs by 40% Environmental concerns about current anti-fouling paints

Anti-fouling AMBIO project is seeking a nanocoating solution that eliminates fouling Focuses on how microorganisms attach to the surfaces of ships Seeks to combine a low drag silicon coating with carbon nanotubes

Wrap-up Still a lot of development occurring in this field Development slowed by competing companies. No free flow of information Will be greatly important as we seek harder to reach oil and gas reserves

Reservoir Surveillance Purpose: To increase knowledge about oil wells in an attempt to recover more oil from wells Rice University is working on “nanoreporters” Made up of hundreds of millions of carbon clusters Each reporter is approximately 30,000 times smaller than a human hair

Reservoir Surveillance These “reporters” are designed to change their molecular makeup depending on what they encounter – water, petroleum, hydrogen sulfide, etc They are also given tags, similar to barcodes, that can tell scientists how long they have been underground

Reservoir Surveillance Lastly, they are being designed to be able to report properties about the material that they are currently near With the ability to report temperature and pressure, they can relay valuable information to scientists

Reservoir Surveillance How does this increased knowledge help? With a better idea of the physical properties of an oil reservoir, operators will have a much easier time finding and recovering oil This would also allow easier placement of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) chemicals such as emulsifier and foamer

Nanorobots Another new technology that may have an impact on the oil and gas industry is nano-robots. The EXPEC Advanced Research Center has been looking into this new technology They have coined the phrase resbots, or reservoir robots These resbots are designed for a similar purpose as the nanoreporters; however, they are proving to be difficult due to their larger size Resbot lead technologist Mazen Kanj illustrates that one drop of solution contains more 600 billion Resbots. One milligram of the dry material holds 6 trillion Resbots.

Nanorobots In order for any particle to move through an oil reservoir, it must be able to pass through tiny pores in the rock In order for resbots to be able to pass through them, EXPEC ARC had to manipulate the physical and chemical properties of the resbots until they were able to pass through the pores Reservoir rock holds oil in tiny pores connected by “pore throats,” outlined in red, which are even smaller than the pores. Nanorobots must be small enough to pass through the pore throats.

Nanorobots Te EXPEC ARC has recently produced the first positive test of their resbots They were able to pass the resbots through a core sample and successfully recover them This is great first step in resbot technology

Nanorobots The resbots that they passed through the core sample were “dumb” resbots, meaning that they had no sensing capability yet The next step is to begin adding the sensors to the resbots Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC ARC representatives at the February Applied Technology Workshop. From left are Hiba Dialdin; Dr. Mazen Kanj, workshop chairman; Dr. Muhammad Al-Saggaf; Rami Kamal, workshop committee member; and Modiu Sanni.

Conclusions Great expectations and nearly limitless possibilities Too expensive to use in the present Will be invaluable in the future Can help delay peak oil

Questions

Works Cited “Nanotechnology advances to shed new light on reservoirs,” JPT Online “Resbots Pass First Reservoir Feasibility Tests,” Saudi Aramco News Applications of Nanofluids: Current and Future” Kevin v. Wong and Omar De Leon University of Miami “Development and implementation of plasma sprayed nanostructured ceramic coatings” M. Gell, E.H. Jordan, Y.H. Sohn http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/factsheets/rd/R&D108.pdf

Please prepare rebuttal Group S4 Please prepare rebuttal

Group S4 Rebuttal (Presentation 1) Danielle Miller Scott Marwil Joshua Moreno

General Comments First of all, thanks to all the groups for the constructive criticism. Both Josh and Scott have learned from the presentations and used the experience to develop their speaking skills.

Timing Our group presented this topic without Danielle. This explains why our presentation came up a little bit short on time. Even so, the group could have done a bit more to lengthen the presentation. In the future, more effort will be put into maintaining a good pace in the presentation.

Slide Pictures More pictures could have been used and a couple of them were a little blurry. This issue arose because the pictures we used were small to begin with. A more thorough picture search could have fixed this and will be implemented in the future.

Research Several comments arose about the amount of research done for the presentation. We feel that, due to a presenter missing, we provided more than enough information for two people to research.

Presentation: Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry By Group 4 Group S1 REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Presentation: Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry By Group 4

Positive Notes Josh had good speaking skills Slides had good format Seemed knowledgeable Good pace Slides had good format Large text, except for first slide Lots of graphics Use of humor in end question slide Presenters answered questions with further information than what was presented Showed good preparation for presentation But the presentation was information-light, so adding the info to the slides would have been helpful Two group members managed well in the absence of third member

Opportunities for Improvement Scott can improve speaking skills Rushed pace Looked at monitor more than audience Seemed like the group could not find adequate information for presentation Little detail in slides A different topic choice where information was more available would have been better Slide information was not cited in slides or at end of presentation Pictures were not cited either

Grade Slides (20/20) Educational Value (16/20) Graphics (20/20) Well designed Educational Value (16/20) Seemed more interested in quantity than details in information Graphics (20/20) Frequent and well placed Made presentation more enjoyable But replace a few pictures with diagrams Some pictures did not add to presentation Oral presentation (17/20) 1st speaker did well 2nd speaker needs some practice Group Analysis of Research (19/20) Needed a little more research on topic for thoroughness Overall (92/100)

REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Group S2 REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Chris Heflin Rachael Houk Michael Jones

Positives Very good at building slides with both pictures and words. Graphs gave good representation of the information. Provided multiple applications of the technologies available and delved into each topic. Spoke clearly and eloquently.

Negatives The presentation was a bit brief. They could elaborate more on each topic rather than moving steadily through the slides.

Michael Koetting James Kancewick Bradford Lamb Group S3 REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Michael Koetting James Kancewick Bradford Lamb

Overall Good explanations of slides Good time management Expanded on topics Nano robot discusion very interesting

Recommendations Have more information/ slides about the topics Better time management More pictures

REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Group S5 REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry Trevor Seidel Laura Young

Presentation Review The presentation needed more graphics Some of the slides were just words The oral presenters spoke clearly and were easy to understand Some of the slides were a little wordy and detracted from the oral presentation The topic was well developed and interesting to the audience

Presentation Review The team presented the information well and understood the topic thoroughly The oral presentation was good; they spoke clearly and slowly—easy to understand

John Baumhardt Daniel Arnold Michael Trevathan Michael Tran Group S6 REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry John Baumhardt Daniel Arnold Michael Trevathan Michael Tran

Review Professional slide layout and, except for a couple graphics, the graphic text sizing was easy to read. The presentation was very professional and the interest/passion felt for the topic was evident throughout the presentation. The verbal presentation was quite good overall. There was some reading straight off of the slides, which was distracting. For some of the topics, we felt, while the nanotechnology research was interesting, the shortcomings of the current industrial methods were not explicitly established.

Critique of Information We are afraid the actual drive for anti-corrosion technology was missed in the presentation. From a natural gas background, the anti-corrosion section doesn’t address the corrosion aspect of the natural gas industry. In the industry, corrosion refers to the degradation and destruction of pipelines internal walls. Whenever untreated natural gas (from a well) travels through a pipe line microbes accumulate throughout the pipeline, and some produce sulfur that corrodes the pipeline. Nanotechnology solutions are most likely focused on internal pipeline corrosion rather than low impact sea water, rust, and paint degradation.

Critique (continued) We believe that our concerns with the presentation are due to the incorporation of too many subtopics. There were so many applications discussed that a clear/in-depth analysis couldn’t possibly have been performed for the background section of every topic. This topics were extremely interesting and the nanotechnology information seemed very well researched and established.