Morgantown, WV | Each year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) releases their book of Science & Technology Accomplishments for the preceding year. The NETL features projects and collaborations that contribute significant progress toward meeting clean energy goals and decarbonizing the energy sector.
The U.S. has joined much of the world in calling for a net-zero carbon emission electricity sector by 2035 and economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050. To achieve these goals, 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.
DragX is an ultra-thin, omniphobic surface treatment that reduces internal pipeline friction, protects against deposition or blockages, and mitigates all forms of corrosion, including microbially-induced corrosion (MIC). These characteristics add up to the overall prevention of leaks and failures in pipelines and a significant reduction in carbon emissions from pipeline efficiency gains.
In field deployments with Eni SpA, Italy’s multinational energy company and one of the seven “supermajor” oil companies in the world, data taken from pipelines treated with DragX showed that pipe surface roughness, and the resulting pressure drop due to friction, was reduced by ~15%. As a result, fuel used to pump gas through the pipeline was significantly reduced.
Eni estimates that a single compressor station can generate in excess of 33,000 Mcf of methane per year. At scale, Eni’s approximately 1,700 total compressor stations would experience a ~10% reduction in fuel usage with DragX, resulting in carbon savings of over 33M tons per year. That amount is equivalent to the annual carbon sequestered by roughly 40 million acres of forest, or the elimination of CO2 emissions of roughly eight coal power plants.
With NETL’s support over several years, Oceanit’s DragX™ has matured from a laboratory technology into a turnkey commercial solution for pipeline operators and has been deployed by multiple industry operators globally.
You can download NETL’s full FY21 S&T Accomplishments Book by visiting https://netl.doe.gov/2021-SandT-Accomplishments
DragX is part of Oceanit’s EDGE initiative (Energy Decarbonization for the Global Environment) which addresses next-generation energy challenges. EDGE is an “in-house incubator”, driving the development of advanced materials to upgrade efficiency, improve safety, and endow materials with ‘smart’ responses, building next-gen AI to safeguard and enhance infrastructure and systems, developing decarbonization technologies, and enabling clean and sustainable energies, like green hydrogen.
