Impact case study database

Context and history of impact

Corrosion in pipes is a serious problem in many industrial sectors, particularly in oil and gas. It is estimated that such corrosion problems cost developed countries 3.4% of GDP (Source A). It has also been reported that in the US oil and gas industry alone, the annual cost is estimated to be about USD8,000,000,000 (Source B).

BP contacted Cawley in 2006 wanting a method that would allow them to monitor internal wall loss due to corrosion or erosion in pipes and vessels operating at high (>400⁰C) temperatures during operation. The waveguide concept had recently been patented [R1] and BP funded a trial deployment of waveguide sensors at Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany. At this stage they were deployed on hot plant, but readings were taken manually by plugging in a standard ultrasonic test set. This was successful and BP then funded the Imperial team to develop a wireless system that involved installing custom electronics and a battery on the cold end of the waveguide, measurements typically taken every 12 hours being transmitted to a base station via a low power mesh network, so providing ‘data to desk’. This concept worked very well and intrinsic safety certification was obtained, enabling it to be operated on refineries and other plant.

The IP was owned by Imperial Innovations and following the success of the trial, they agreed to the formation of a spinout company, Permasense Ltd, to market the technology, initially to BP who had exclusive rights to use it in return for funding the development work. Cawley was chairman of the company, Cegla was a director and two of the original employees had been involved in the development work. BP placed an initial order for 3000 sensors to be delivered in 2010 and this enabled the company to ‘bootstrap’ without requiring capital funding. In 2011 an agreement was reached with BP for the technology to be marketed worldwide to other companies in both the oil and gas and other sectors.

Impact in the current REF period

1. Further developing a successful spinout company Permasense Ltd

During the current REF period, Permasense Ltd has “… *achieved global success and its technology has become the market leader and a global standard.*” (Source C). In 2015, Permasense featured as one of the 10 ‘Ones to Watch’ in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list. The success of this spinout company, whose technology is derived entirely from the research from Cawley and Cegla, is clearly evidenced when in September 2016, Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, purchased the company for GBP32,400,000 (Source D). This synergetic acquisition provides Permasense (and the impact of our research) the opportunity to extend its reach by integration into the sales force and distribution channels of a large multinational company.

The pipeline for translation from research to impactful industrial applications between our team and Permasense continued over the current REF period. Before the publication of Cegla’s research [R4] and [R5], the original waveguide sensors were sometimes applied on lower temperature plant, but it became clear that sales in this market were restricted by the difficulty of installing over a coating such as fusion bonded epoxy as the waveguide tips tended to damage the coating and so create a potential corrosion site. This led Permasense to license the patent [R6] and adopt the EMAT system based on Cegla’s underpinning research described in Section 2 above.

1. Generating revenue and employment in the UK

Over 20,000 corrosion sensors have been deployed in over 200 installations including 135 refineries, 33 upstream sites and other industrial plants worldwide (Source E, see figure). Most of these sales and deployments happened since 2014. The sales value of sensors and associated services exceeded USD72,000,000 over the current REF period (Source F). The company now employs over 50 highly qualified staff at its Crawley site including 3 PhD graduates from the Imperial College group.

1. Providing economic benefits and enhanced safety to companies

In addition to economic impact from direct sales of the monitoring system by Permasense, deployment of our technology has also enabled refineries to optimise their feedstock and to reduce the use of corrosion inhibitor chemicals. Higher TAN (acidic) crude oil is more corrosive than ‘sweet’ crudes and so if processed without appropriate corrosion inhibition and/or monitoring could lead to plant failure with huge human safety and economic implications. Our technology has become a major tool in BP’s strategy for corrosion prevention (Source G). As an example, the installation of the system at BP’s Gelsenkirchen refinery enabled the operator to reduce feedstock costs and process low cost but high TAN acidic crude without the risk of corroding through their pipework. This resulted in additional profit of EUR100,000,000 over a 2.5-year period, i.e. EUR40,000,000 per year (Source H).

Another example is the PTT Global Chemical Company Rayong refinery in Thailand where savings of USD300,000 per annum in inhibitor chemicals by installing a Permasense monitoring system have been achieved (Source I).

A further advantage of the permanently installed monitoring system is that it enables improved equipment life management. This is beneficial because it reduces the number of unplanned outages and enables better scheduling of remediation work. This leads to shorter outages and hence less lost production and lower costs for the remediation work as components can be ordered in advance at better prices. Depending on the application, the installation of a small (~25) sensor network can result in savings of EUR1,500,000 to EUR4,000,000 per installation. (Source H).

The monitoring system also leads to major savings in the upstream oil industry. For example, Shell Brunei had a well that was prone to producing sand, leading to severe erosion problems. Installing a Permasense monitoring system meant the well no longer had to be classified as high risk and an extra 80 m³/day (~500 barrels/day) of oil could be produced at a value of USD11,000,000 per annum; a similar volume of gas was also produced. (Source J).

The four example applications discussed above are drawn from over 200 installations at customer sites. These four cases to date led to savings or increased production benefits of over USD50,000,000 per annum. Therefore, while it is not possible to compile an exact figure, it is not unreasonable to estimate that the overall financial benefit to industries from the 200 total installations is in the region of hundreds of millions of US dollars per annum. Additionally, the deployed systems have resulted in enhanced safety assurance and reduced the need for human personnel to enter hazardous environments.