The Oil & Gas Industry has the need to measure and control the physicochemical properties of its fluids, starting from the drilling and wellbore fluids, to the distribution and end-of-the-line refined products. Energy harvesting in harsh environments has a tremendous growth potential as the Oil & Gas Industry is moving towards the Industrial Internet of Things revolution. However, many times the available current technologies fail to deliver it due to the remote locations, harsh environments and extreme conditions. The usual well conditions consist in high pressure and high temperatures. In such conditions, most of the materials used for energy harvesting do not withstand their energy conversion efficiency. Most of the available prototypes (by other companies) obstruct the oil steam, require packer holes that decrease stream pressures, and hence are low efficient or simply too big and heavy. Therefore, the development of energy harvesting technology capable of feeding sensors analyzing and transmitting the fluids physicochemical data is an urgent need. This project aims for the development of prototypes composed of nanomaterials that integrate various technology combinations for energy harvesting in harsh condition (high temperature, high pressure).
The objectives defined and approved for the 1-year program is described in Table 1, which shows the specific deliverables of the whole project.
Table 1 - Deliverables defined in the beginning of the program.
Deliverables Deliverables' name Work Package Type Delivery Schedule Delivery date
1 Growth techniques and optimized materials 1 Report M4 5-Mar-2018
2 First functional prototypes 1 Prototype M6 5-May-2018
3 Optimized prototypes 1 Prototype M8 5-Jul-2018
4 Final prototype 2 Prototype M9 5-Aug-2018
5 Adaptable prototype 2 Prototype M12 5-Nov-2018
6 Report on prototypes and business plan 2 Report M12 5-Nov-2018
At this point, we have developed adaptable prototype using the novel concept of highly efficient nanomaterials that convert fluid streams into useful energy. A small number of groups are working with the proposed technologies and none of them have reported downhole power generators. Furthermore, no other work has yet used micro and nanotechnology for downhole power generation. The use of micro and nanotechnology in power generation systems would have several advantages: they would be small, light, efficient, flexible and easily adaptable and could be used to feed various types of sensors. Also, our technology could avoid the use of energy cables, packer holes and flux obstructions, which would be extremely advantageous when compared to most of the technologies reported, since it would avoid pressure drops and it would simplify the system. Our system could also be adapted to avoid the contact of the crude oil stream with the generator, avoiding its exposure to the corrosive and abrasive environments, increasing its lifetime and reliability. Therefore, we believe that at this point we are at the forefront of this kind of generators.
