DragX Featured in NETL’s FY21 Science & Technology Accomplishments Book

Oceanit has worked on many projects with the NETL in recent decades and is honored to be included in the FY 2021 Science & Technology Accomplishments book for our work on DragX™ omniphobic pipeline surface treatment.

Oceanit corrosion MIC research and field testing

IN THE NEWS | Tests Show DOE-Backed Nanocomposite Surface Treatment Effective Tool to Fight Microbiologically-Induced Corrosion

Oceanit has successfully demonstrated a new surface treatment to protect metal surfaces against corrosion, deposition, and degradation, especially against Microbiologically-Induced Corrosion (MIC), which has eluded industrial researchers for decades.

Water Pipelines and the ADB Asia Water Forum 2018

Dr. Vinod Veedu at the ABD Water Forum in October, 2018

The 2018 Asia Water Forum was held from October 2-5 at the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) headquarters in Manila, Philippines. This year’s conference was focused on themes of “Information, Innovation, and Technology”, and was attended by Oceanit’s Sterling Yee, Director of Strategic Consulting, and Vinod Veedu, Director of Strategic Initiatives.

The Asia Water Forum (AWF) is a biennial conference that addresses the region’s growing water needs in an effort to prepare for or avert water crises in the future. At the conference, Dr. Vinod Veedu delivered a presentation titled, “Functional Surfaces for Highly Efficient, Low Carbon, Low Cost Desalination” which focused on how nanocomposite surfaces can greatly increase the efficiency of desalination processes.  Current desalination efforts are typically high-cost in that they consume a lot of energy in order to desalinate saline water. This high energy cost of course correlates to higher carbon emissions from the amount of energy that must be consumed.

Functional nanocomposite technologies, such as Oceanit’s HeatX and DragX, have shown that by mitigating issues like corrosion, fouling, and surface roughness functional surface treatments can deliver a huge efficiency increase to industrial processes. Dr. Veedu also joined a panel to discuss innovation in water production and diversification of resources.  He shared Oceanit’s S&T vision of developing transdisciplinary solutions to impactful problems, break through, and transition – delivering a better future.  Oceanit successfully completed three applications of DragX to water pipelines in 2018 and are now working to expand that work on several major water diversion projects around the world in 2019.

Read our full article here.

Oceanit launches DragX, a Revolutionary Nanocomposite Pipeline Treatment

March 1st | Houston, TX – Oceanit hosted more than 60 experts from the pipeline industry for the launch of DragX, our novel nanocomposite pipeline surface treatment technology.

More than 60 subject matter experts from the energy industry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, and National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), joined Oceanit in Houston or via webcast to learn more about this breakthrough technology.

DragX is one of a number of advanced nanocomposite surface treatments that have been recently developed at Oceanit. When applied, DragX creates a water- & oil-repellant, low-friction surface; even on corroded and de-rated pipes.

Oceanit Director of Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Vinod Veedu, along with CEO Dr. Patrick K. Sullivan, led the DragX showcase event. Partnered with industry veterans, Robert H. Winters and Andy Santalucia, Oceanit presented DragX’s numerous benefits and case studies to the event attendees.

DragX enables increased pipeline efficiency & throughput, reduced pressure drop, reduction of pumping energy used, prevention of corrosion, prevention of debris deposition (such as paraffin or black powder buildup) and reduced costs of inspection, cleaning, and maintenance.

During the event, Oceanit presented the findings from a pipeline demonstrationg which included fabrication, application, and monitoring conducted in 2017. The results show that DragX is easily applied using traditional pigging techniques on pipes of all diameters, and that the coating can be evaluated using Oceanit’s novel digital video-pig that provides data on surface coverage, adherence, thickness, and uniformity – all of which is processed in real-time.

Oceanit’s solution overcomes the many shortcomings of previous epoxy flow-coating and in-situ rehabilitation solutions. DragX overcomes these hurdles by requiring minimal surface preparation before application, being effective at a fraction of the thickness of past coatings (only 2mil), and combining a 72-hour pot life with a cure-time of less than two hours.

Though in-situ pipeline coatings have been around for decades, these characteristics make DragX a breakthrough in both benefits and reduction of service disruption which has inhibited wide adoption of past in-situ coatings. DragX is shown to be easy to apply, improves the economics, and boosts performance of pipelines.

The Oceanit team and our partners would like to thank all of those who joined the showcase event, whether in-person or via our webcast.