Carbonaceous build up within the oil and gas industry contributes to a wide range of failure modes leading to down time, replacement costs or possibly catastrophic failures. The chemistry of extracted crude oils is quite complex, including a wide range of carbonaceous species of various functionalities, sizes and so on. All of this complicates the prediction of build-up because it can be difficult to isolate specific mechanisms of deposition during extraction, refinement or use.
We are currently working with industrial partners at BP, through the BP International Center for Advanced Materials, and academic partners at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College and the University of Manchester to develop surface modification routes for conventional structural alloys to mitigate carbonaceous build up.
Relevant publications:
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P. Shetty, S. Daryadel, B.T. Haire, C.S. Smith, Z. Tucker, T. Wu, V. Subramani, J. Morrison, P. Quayle, S. Yeates, P.V. Braun, J.A. Krogstad. “Low-temperature pack aluminization process on pipeline alloy steel to inhibit asphalting deposition.” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (2019). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b17430
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P. Shetty, R. Zhang, B.T. Haire, C.S. Smith, L.M. Kenny, T. Wu, V. Subramani, J. Morrison, P. Quayle, S. Yeates, P.V. Braun, J.A. Krogstad. “Effect of surface chemistry and roughness on the high temperature deposition of a model asphaltene.” ACS Energy & Fuels. 33 [5], 4104-4114 (2019). DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b00386
People contributing to this area
Jessica Krogstad
Pralav Shetty
Soheil Daryadel
Zoë Tucker