State-of-the-art materials in petroleum facilities and pipelines

Abstract In the oil and gas industry, there are strict regulations in place with respect to treating produced water from oil and gas facilities prior to disposal or reuse. Currently, technologies in place to meet these regulatory standards are either expensive or not able to filter out smaller-sized contaminants effectively while maintaining an optimal output rate. Nanomembranes and magnetic nanoparticles are excellent environment-friendly candidates that can be used in produced water treatment for filtering contaminants from produced or flowback water in both onshore and offshore operations. Also, in pipelines and oil and gas facilities, efficiently monitoring equipment and components for corrosion prevention and mechanical integrity is a major challenge. Graphene-based sensors have displayed superior performance compared to current technologies for monitoring CO2 vaporization and scale formation in pipelines, especially in terms of cost-effectiveness. Silane-nanoceramic coatings have enabled improved corrosion resistance and thermal insulation in subsea riser systems. In addition, carbon nanotubes have been investigated as a replacement to copper wires in deep-sea power umbilicals. In this chapter, the application of nano-materials and sensors in addressing the aforementioned challenges will be discussed in detail, along with experimental and field studies where they have been successfully deployed.