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.

In the News: NETL Partnership Accelerates DragX Development

Over the past four years, Oceanit has been working alongside the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in a private-public partnership to develop and test our ultra-thin pipeline surface treatment, DragX. Through this partnership, Oceanit has performed several field tests of varying complexity, with fantastic results. William Fincham, project manager in NETL’s Technoloy and Development and Integration Center said, “This project has created a cost-effective product that has tremendous potential to help maintain our vast pipeline network. It also could prove extremely useful to mitigate leaks and other environmental issues that can occur due to damage caused by pipeline corrosion.”

This collaborative effort was recently reported on by WVNews and Daily Energy Insider. Click through to read their full stories.

DragX 2019 OTC Technology Showcase

Oceanit 2019 Technology Showcase

Oceanit’s 2019 Technology Showcase event is being held in Houston, during the Offshore Technology Conference.

DragX will be featured alongside other groundbreaking technologies from Oceanit that range from disruptive innovations to scalable turnkey solutions. DragX is a nanocomposite surface treatment system for pipelines that creates a low-surface energy, hydrophobic internal pipe surface to provide flow efficiency.

Oceanit scientists will be demonstrating the latest in Oceanit’s advanced nanomaterials, subsea IoT laser communications, smart pipelines, artificial intelligence, and more – all of which can make significant impacts across Energy and many other industry sectors.

The event takes place on Tuesday, May 7th from 5.30-9:00pm at the Houston Exponential building (formerly The Houston Technology Center) for technology demonstrations, food, and drinks. Meet the Oceanit team and learn about the cutting-edge work and products transitioning from Mind to Market at Oceanit.

Click here to RSVP!

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 at the Pipeline Simulation Interest Group 2018 Conference | Deer Valley, UT

Oceanit is attending the 49th annual Pipeline Simulation Interest Group (PSIG) 2018 Conference in Deer Valley, UT.   Oceanit Director of Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Vinod Veedu is in attendance to discuss all subjects related to fluid pipeline systems with the world’s leading experts. The Conference is held May 16-18 and highlights the latest in pipeline simulation technology.

PSIG was formed in 1969 with a mission to facilitate the exchange of information and advance the state of the art in pipeline modeling, simulation, and optimization. The three-day conference is attended by over 170 professionals representing major gas companies, oil companies, specialized consultants, and universities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

At the 2018 conference, presentations will be held on topics such as, ‘A Comprehensive Model for Predicting Efficiency of Drag-Reducing-Agents (DRA) in Liquid Pipelines’ and ‘Real-Time Sand Deposition Prediction in Multiphase Flow,’ two issues that DragX can directly address.

‘A Comprehensive Model for Predicting Efficiency of DRA in Liquid Pipelines’ was presented by Wei Zeng and introduced a mathematical model for predicting the efficiency of DRAs.  His model correlates drag reduction as a function of pipe diameter, fluid viscosity, DRA type & concentration, and Reynolds number. The presentation showed approaches for processing field test data and developing a comprehensive model. Results of the model predictions vs. the actual data was also provided.

You can visit the PSIG Conference blog to read more about the daily presentations.

Oceanit at the 50th Annual OTC 2018 in Houston, TX

Oceanit attended the 50th annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, TX. The conference, which ran from April 30-May 3, was held at the NRG Park in Houston and was attended by Oceanit’s CEO & Founder Dr. Patrick Sullivan along with Dr. Vinod Veedu and Dr. Jacob Pollock who presented on several Oceanit technologies.

Energy professionals meet at the OTC event each year to exchange ideas and knowledge on the scientific advancements and technical breakthroughs in offshore resources and environmental matters. Over 60,000 professionals from the energy and technology sectors attended the 2018 OTC. In recent years, Oceanit has developed applications for our breakthrough technologies in artificial intelligence, smart materials, and nanotechnology coatings within the energy sector – technologies that can make current resource recovery and energy production safer, cleaner, smarter, and far more efficient.

At OTC 2018, Dr. Pollock presented posters with Oceanit’s partners at Shell International E&P on ‘Acoustically Responsive Cement for Enhanced Well Integrity’ and ‘In-Field Applicable Coatings for Corrosion and Biofouling Control in Marine Environments.’ Dr. Sullivan participated in a panel session on Disruptive Innovation and Agile Technology Maturation. In addition, Dr. Pollock hosted a keynote presentation on Oceanit’s artificial intelligence development titled, ‘Machine Learning for Improved Directional Drilling.’

Oceanit’s ‘acoustically-responsive smart well cement’ was created to make offshore oil recovery safer than it has been in the past while reducing the risk of leaks. The bond between pipe and cement is crucial to the safety of offshore recovery, but often the acoustic tools used to measure uniformity of the cement filler cannot always provide a complete picture because of cement composition. Oceanit engineered a particulate filler that acts as an ‘acoustic band gap filter and contrast agent’ at specific frequencies, which makes acoustic logging far more accurate. This, in turn, ensures pipe safety can be measured and informs repair action or eliminates unnecessary action. Shell presented alongside Oceanit to demonstrate how this solution is being utilized in-field.

Corrosion and biofouling control is an important consideration for offshore resource structures. Corrosion rates for steel can easily exceed 10 mils per year when exposed to seawater and brine air if left unprotected. Meanwhile, barnacles and other bio-growth which attach in tidal zones can similarly induce heavy, accelerated microbiological pitting corrosion. These factors lead to constant maintenance of critical assets and often proves a logistical nightmare with the limited accessibility, remote locations, and the huge expense of any service interruptions. At the OTC, Oceanit demonstrated how our nanocomposite surface treatments can provide corrosion prevention and fouling-repelling properties to metal infrastructure while also being hydro- and oleophobic.

Dr. Pollock held a keynote presentation on ‘Machine Learning for Improved Directional Drilling,’ in which he described Oceanit’s development of an artificial intelligence system which ingests historical and simulation data to make slide drilling more efficient. The neural network that Oceanit has developed could replicate the decisions of expert directional drillers. Reinforcement learning was successfully used to improve the AI’s performance, particularly for conditions not previously considered. Since Oceanit’s AI algorithm has demonstrated competence in historical and simulated scenarios, it will be further tested as a real-time advisory system for control of directional drilling operations, making them safer and more efficient.

Oceanit was happy to share our ‘Mind to Market’ approach to disruptive innovation with the attendees of OTC 2018. We are excited to continue working to evolve our technologies with the energy sector to improve how we produce energy for the planet.

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.