Testing Facility for Next Generation Oil & Gas Pipeline
Date Announced: 29 Apr 2015
EPL Composite Solutions (EPL), a subsidiary of Haydale, has developed an in-house testing facility to measure and demonstrate the durability of a new generation of graphene enhanced composite gas pipes and pipeline materials.
EPL has for over 10 years been working closely with the oil and gas industry on the development of a process to manufacture spoolable, high pressure, fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite pipes on a continuous basis. This product is aimed at a replacement for corrosion resistant steel pipes currently in world-wide use. EPL is also working closely with parent company - Haydale Ltd. to incorporate graphene into the thermoplastic composite pipes in order to enhance the oil and gas permeation resistance of these materials as well as increasing the materials long term durability performance.
Gerry Boyce, Managing Director at EPL commented: "The setting up of a pipeline test facility at EPL will help us accelerate the long term testing of thermoplastic composite pipes as well as enabling us to fast track new materials such as graphene enhanced thermoplastics into the composite pipelines.” He added “Tests on our prototype composite pipes have been extremely successful and we are looking forward to further development and certification of a range of materials, pipes and pipeline systems for the oil and gas industry".
EPL, a subsidiary of Haydale, specialise in the design, development and commercialisation of advanced polymer composite materials with capability to cover the entire development cycle from applied research, product design, process development, product testing and certification, to setting up manufacturing plants. EPL work with specifiers, OEMs and end-users to develop and demonstrate composite solutions that provide clear technical, economic, social and environmental benefits over existing traditional materials and products. Having demonstrated these benefits and generated a demand, EPL also has the ability to identify commercial partners - either under licence or as a joint venture - to scale up and manufacture the composite solution at regional and global volume bases.
Haydale, based in South Wales, UK and housed in a purpose-built facility for processing and handling nanomaterials, is facilitating the application of graphene’s and other nanomaterials in fields such as inks, sensors, energy storage, photovoltaics, composites, paints and coatings. Haydale has developed a patent-pending proprietary scalable plasma process to functionalise graphene and other nanomaterials. This enabling technology can provide Haydale with a rapid and highly cost-efficient method of supplying tailored solutions to enhance applications for both raw material suppliers and product manufacturers. Functionalisation is carried out through a low-pressure plasma process that treats both mined, organic fine powder and other synthetically produced nanomaterial powders, producing high-quality few layered graphene’s and graphene nanoplatelets. The process can functionalise with a range of chemical groups, with the level of functionalisation tailored to the customer's needs. Good dispersion improves the properties and performance of the host material and ensures the final product performs as specified. The Haydale plasma process does not use wet chemistry, nor does it damage the material being processed; rather, it can clean up any impurities inherent in the raw material. The technology is a low energy user and most importantly environmentally friendly. The Haydale method is an enabling technology, allowing the Company to work with a raw material producer who seeks to add value to the base product and tailor the outputs to meet the target applications of the end user.
Contact
Haydale Ltd.
Clos Fferws, Parc Hendre,
Capel Hendre,
Ammanford,
Carmarthenshire, SA18 3BL
UK
E-mail: info@haydale.com
Web Site: www.haydale.com
