HOUSTON, TX, May 7, 2024 – Oceanit hosted its seventh Technology Showcase in Houston, featuring disruptive innovation demos spanning the range of Mind to Market; new projects to commercial-ready products. The Oceanit team would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our friends, partners, colleagues, and collaborators who made the 2024 Technology Showcase – and our week at the Offshore Technology Conference – a big success this year.
The 2024 edition saw Oceanit’s team back at the Houston 1940 Air Terminal museum, presenting new technologies such as BURROW, a collaboration with the University of Houston Cullen School of Engineering and the Dept. of Energy’s ARPA-E program for advanced research projects. BURROW utilizes Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) networked with AI-guided drill heads, enabling easier undergrounding of power lines by detecting and avoiding existing utilities, such as cables or pipes, in the tunneling path. The BURROW sensor suite will generate high-resolution data and real-time AI guidance for drilling paths.
The event also included commercialized technologies, like HeatX, which is now deployed across three continents at power plants and refineries, as well as upstream facilities. HeatX is nano-structured surface treatment technology that enables heat transfer surfaces to effectively repel fouling and protect against corrosion while maintaining thermal transfer properties.
Oceanit’s first Technology Showcase event was held in 2013, focused on bringing new ideas to the energy sector. Subsequent events were held in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023, each one surpassing the last in scale and commercially ready technologies.
The 2024 event featured a talk by CEO Dr. Patrick K. Sullivan covering our latest collaborations with Lockheed Martin on AeroPel Nanocomposite Protective Layer and Hawaii Gas on HydroPel. Lockheed Martin’s team was on-site to sign a historic agreement with Oceanit, enabling Lockheed’s Training and Logistics Solutions (TLS) business, part of its Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) group, to develop novel applications of Oceanit’s corrosion-fighting nanocomposite for single-seat combat aircraft .
Hawaii Gas’s VP of Operations was also in attendance. Hawaii Gas has partnered with Oceanit’s HydroPel team to further explore pipeline refurbishment and protection from hydrogen embrittlement using HydroPel. The Oceanit team would like to thank both companies for their support and partnership in moving technologies forward with us, from Mind to Market.
In addition to the Technology Showcase event, Oceanit’s Science & Technology team was featured in four presentations during the concurrent Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held at Houston’s NRG Center. The OTC 2024 Technical Program can be viewed by clicking here.
On Monday, May 6, Jake McHenry presented on HeatX in a session titled “High Temperature Compatible, Field-Deployable Heat Exchanger Nanocomposite Treatments” (ID 35384). That same day, Dr. Dylan Kobayashi presented “Intelligent Robotic Heat Exchanger Maintenance & Non-Destructive Coating Inspection,” a paper on Oceanit’s Rapid Inspection & Visual Evaluation with AI-Based Logging (RIVEAL) tool (ID 35464).
On Tuesday, May 7, Dr. Ganesh Arumugam took the stage to present on HydroPel in “Repurposing Existing Natural Gas Pipelines for the Transmission of Hydrogen” (ID 35207). Finally, on Wednesday, May 8, Andrea Mansfeld spoke on DragX in a presentation titled, “An All-in-One Internal And External Coating Material For Enhancing Water Conveyance Pipelines” (ID 35279).
Since 1969, OTC’s flagship conference has been held annually at NRG Park (formerly Reliant Park) in Houston. Oceanit established offices in Houston in the mid-2010s to bring disruptive innovation from Hawaii to the energy sector. Since then, our Houston presence has grown along with the partnerships and co-development collaborations that have flourished with traditional energy companies and service firms. Check out our event wrap video below and keep scrolling to see a complete list of the technologies demonstrated at the 2024 Oceanit Technology Showcase!
