A Portable Plant – Smart Solutions for Deep-Sea Pipelines
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Deep beneath the ocean, off the shores of Eastern Malaysia, lie hundreds of millions of barrels of oil - enough oil to account for 20 percent of this South Asian nation's total oil production. But transporting the oil from ocean depths of 1,200 meters, and through 170 kilometers of pipes to shore, is no easy task. The Gumusut-Kakap project, one of the largest deep-sea pipeline projects in the world, requires pipe coatings that can endure extreme ocean depths and still maintain insulation properties that allow for operating temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius.
To help make this happen, Dow Hyperlast has engineered a first-of-its-kind technology to blend glass syntactic polyurethane (GSPU) coating and insulation systems for deep-water pipelines on-site in remote locations. The ETNAFLOW™ Portable Mixing Plant is designed in a closed-loop system to ensure product quality and enhance worker safety. It also minimizes a project's environmental impact by eliminating the need to transport, store and dispose of thousands of drums of premixed ingredients.
Lightening the Environmental Footprint
Large pipeline projects typically require thousands of drums of materials for pipe coatings to be shipped across the world to a customer's site. Then the material must be manually mixed upon arrival. When Wasco Coatings of Malaysia asked Dow Hyperlast about a year ago to supply coating materials for the Gumusut-Kakap project, the magnitude of the project required Dow Hyperlast to think creatively about saving resources and time.
"Dow Hyperlast experts quickly recognized the need for a reliable, portable GSPU mixing system that could expedite the project, improve materials handling and ensure quality," said Alex Lane, global business leader for Dow Hyperlast's Oil and Gas Division. "This pioneering technology allows our material to be shipped in bulk and blended in a safe, closed-loop system on site. It's a significant step forward toward increased efficiency and sustainability in the offshore flow assurance insulation industry."
Innovating To Meet Customer Needs
By enabling oil and gas pipeline coatings and insulation to be produced on-site, the ETNAFLOW Portable Mixing Plant requires fewer human and capital resources to operate, eliminates the enormous storage and disposal requirements of conventional GSPU mixing systems and, due to its closed-loop design, minimizes the potential for chemical exposure or injury to workers from moving machinery. Dow Hyperlast also provides extensive on-site support by shipping the unit to the customer's site and by providing initial set-up, training, remote monitoring and ongoing technical support.
"The ETNAFLOW Portable Mixing Plant is a good example of how Dow Hyperlast collaborates with customers to find optimal solutions to their needs," said Juan Antonio Merino, general manager, Dow Polyurethanes Systems. "The extreme demands of the Gumusut-Kakap project helped us identify the need, and we worked closely with Wasco Coatings to arrive at a solution that not only saves them time and money, but gives both management and labor an extra measure of peace of mind in the most remote, harsh locations."
"We started working with Dow Hyperlast more than a year ago on this project, and we probably wouldn't be coating it today if it weren't for that relationship," said Kevin Revere, general manager of Wasco Coatings. "We were able to go in with our engineers, design the equipment around our specifications and around our needs, and find ways to streamline the job and maximize profitability."
Today, the ETNAFLOW Portable Mixing Plant is helping ensure oil flows smoothly, from pipe to people, in a more sustainable and efficient way. It is also an example of how Dow employees across the globe are turning innovative ideas into products and services that help address not only customers' needs, but some of the world's biggest challenges.
