Nanotechnology for Oil and Gas

Sunday June 1, 2008, 8:00 am - 6:00 pm, Boston, Massachusetts

Overview

Overview of nanotechnology impact in upstream oil and gas	Oil and Gas Industry Pains vs Nanotechnology Solutions

The first type of industry pain that can be addressed by nanotechnology is the increase in the lifetime of various components together with the need for downtime reduction. Specific examples include pipe and tanker corrosion, drilling-bit wear, gas hydrate formation and marine fouling. The second type of industry pain revolves around filtration solutions based on nanotechnology. This includes the separation of different gas mixtures, the filtration of heavy metals as well as oil-water separation. Finally, we will quickly survey the impact of nanotechnology in a few other areas including the increase in catalytic activity and lifetime, usage of nanofluids as drilling muds and the potential impact of in-situ catalysis on the efficient exploitation of heavy oil.

The course will end with a discussion on the activity of the most important players, intellectual property aspects and strategic options.

Goals

The course has been designed to provide participants with the understanding of three key points:

• The overall landscape of areas in oil and gas where nanotechnology can have an impact;
• A more in-depth understanding of the specifics of the projects developed in two of these areas: nanocoatings and nanotechnology-based membranes.
• The main players, the intellectual property situation and the main strategic options at this point;

Contents

1. Overview of the Landscape
   1. Recent Trends in Nanotechnology
   2. Oil and Gas Industry Pains vs Nanotechnology Solutions
2. Nanocoatings
   1. Anti-corrosion Coatings
   2. Thermal Coatings
   3. Lubricant Coatings
   4. Anti-fouling Coatings
3. Nanotechnology-Based Filtration
   1. Gas Separations
   2. Heavy Metal Separation
   3. Oil-water Separation
4. Final Discussion
   1. Who are the most active Oil and Gas players in the area of nanotechnology?
   2. What are the strategies for coping with the latest developments?
   3. Entering partnerships with existing nanotechnology start-ups;
   4. Strategies for creating competitive advantage by setting-up research and development projects with optimized risk/benefit trade-offs;

Instructor

Florin Ciontu is the President of NanoSPRINT, a leading provider of technology intelligence for nanotechnology professionals.

NanoSPRINT is a start-up of TIMA Labs, Grenoble, FRANCE (tima.imag.fr) whose founders include Florin Ciontu and Cosmin Roman of TIMA, Dr. Bernard Courtois, Director of TIMA, Joel Monnier President of Innovation Consulting and ex-Vice President of Research and Development for ST Microelectronics and the Nano Science and Technology Institute.

NanoSPRINT provides technology intelligence solutions for companies interested in understanding emergent technologies. NanoSPRINT's proprietary tools allow for an extensive analysis of specific areas in terms of technological developments, players involved in the field or funding sources. NanoSPRINT's methodology enables them to structure this data according to different perspectives: market studies, technology reports, policy guides among others.

Originating from a research lab, NanoSPRINT interacts very closely with the research community; some of the people on NanoSPRINT's team are still actively pursuing their research in Nano and Biotechnologies.

NanoSPRINT has been organizing the Workshop for Nanotechnology Transfer in Europe for the past three years.

For more information, please visit www.nanosprint.com.

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