Graphene: Is it the Material of the Century?
Engineering.com called graphene “the wonder-material of the 21st century.”
“Comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms, graphene is stronger than diamond, yet a million times thinner than a human hair. It is stretchable, transparent, super-conductive and can filter gases and liquids at the molecular level.” Graphene being described as ‘transparent carbon’ is reminiscent of a scene from the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home where Mr. Scott gives the formula for transparent aluminum to a wide-eyed 20th-century mechanical engineer at a third-tier materials plant. But this isn’t science fiction.
Engineering.com reported that graphene can be used to strengthen composite materials and as a complement to metal alloys used in aerospace, automotive and industrial manufacturing.
First isolated from graphite in 2004, graphene has not yet seen widespread industrial uptake because of its high production cost, but like most fresh-out-of-the-box disruptive technologies, there are people working on applications that could soon change that.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow have found a way to produce large sheets of graphene using the same cheap type of copper used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries found in many household devices. In a paper published in November 2015 in the journal Scientific Reports, a team led by Dr. Ravinder Dahiya shows how they have been able to produce large-area graphene around 100 times cheaper than previous methods.
Drilling, Oil Spill Cleanup, Gas-Water-Oil Separation, Osmosis Membranes?
How can graphene be used to improve costs and quality in oil and gas applications? Can its superior strength and small size take it downhole to improve the drilling process? If it’s stretchable could graphene provide an answer for an engineer with an idea that will take directional drilling to the next level? Could graphene balls improve completions or boost production?
Scientists and engineers around the planet have been researching potential oil and gas industry applications for the “wonder-material of the 21st century.” Here are some examples:
- Spills: Autonomous Graphene Vessel for Suctioning and Storing Liquid Body of Spilled Oil
- Separation: Dynamic graphene filters for selective gas-water-oil separation
- Water Treatment: A new nanocomposite forward osmosis membrane custom-designed for treating shale gas wastewater
- Water Treatment/Desalination: MIT researchers use sheets of graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the element carbon, which they say can be far more efficient and possibly less expensive than existing desalination systems
Call for Whitepapers
Do you or someone you know in the industry have an idea that will improve the process of oil and gas extraction, safety, storage or transport? Could you present your research in a whitepaper to be published on Oil & Gas 360® before July 15, 2016?
EnerCom Inc. is seeking geoscientists, petroleum engineers, drilling and completions engineers, technology developers and others who would like to submit a technical whitepaper that highlights new technologies designed to increase success in the finding, drilling and extraction, storage or transportation of oil and natural gas.
Examples might include improvements in seismic or other tools for reservoir exploration and definition, technologies for reservoir imaging and analysis, proppants, completion technologies, directional drilling, safety and environmental improvements, pipeline and energy transportation technologies, EOR, emissions monitoring, notification and capture, and other technologies designed to enhance the safe and efficient development, transportation and storage of oil and gas resources. Your idea doesn’t have to use graphene, but maybe it should. All submissions will be considered. EnerCom will select submissions to post on Oil & Gas 360®.
Please send your technical whitepaper, along with your resume, to Bevo Beaven, Editor, Oil & Gas 360®, at bbeaven@enercominc.com. For the subject line use the words “Whitepaper Submission.” Please submit original material that originated with you (or with a team working at your company) in the form of a new whitepaper submitted for the purpose of publishing on Oil & Gas 360®. Please do not submit material as it appeared in other publications.
The deadline to submit your whitepaper is July 15, 2016.
NOTE: EnerCom Inc. reserves the right to post whitepapers that it deems suitable for its global readership. We make no guarantee of publication. Further, as your submission is voluntary, there is no associated remuneration between EnerCom and the contributor for its submission of the whitepaper.
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