10/17/97
ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University researchers and students in the Corrosion in Multiphase Systems Center have spent the last few years shuttling between a cramped research lab on the Athens campus and a facility six miles out of the city. But a new $2.3 million facility will give them plenty of room to conduct their studies of multiphase flows of oil, water and gas and their effect on pipeline corrosion.
The researchers and students will join university officials and representatives from many of the world's major oil and gas companies Tuesday, Oct. 21 for dedication ceremonies at the new facility on West State Street, behind Ohio University Central Receiving. The program will begin at 11:30 a.m. A public open house will be held at the center from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23.
Since it was founded in 1990, faculty and students in the center, the only one of its kind in the world, have worked out of two 6,000-square-foot labs -- one in the Research and Technology Center and the other in a leased building on Baker Road, said Paul Jepson, director of the center and Russ Professor of chemical engineering at Ohio University.
"The new site will remove the duplication of certain services and excess travel between the two places," Jepson said. "It will also provide a central location where all the students and faculty can easily exchange ideas and experiences, while making supervision easier."
The center was created to study the types of flow in oil and gas pipelines and how these contribute to corrosion. From their studies, ways to understand and prevent corrosion in gas, oil and other types of industrial pipelines have been established.
In addition to gas and oil that might move through pipelines at high speeds, water and sand also are present. This combination can cause scouring on the inside of pipelines, corroding and eroding pipes at a rate as high as a half-inch a week, Jepson says. When a pipeline fails, the fluids escape and can cause human injuries and environmental damage from oil spills or gas leaks.
The center is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC). Researchers collaborate with engineers at 22 companies, including almost all the major oil companies, oilfield chemical companies and other companies with natural gas pipelines.
The new 20,000 square-foot building will house several pieces of new equipment, including two specially designed multiphase pumps used to recirculate large amounts of gas used in corrosion testing. This means the center will use fewer materials to do more studies, Jepson said.
The facility also will have an environmental chamber, which will allow researchers to study the impact of toxic chemicals on corrosion buildup in pipes. Until now, the research labs lacked the safety features needed to do such tests. In addition, a special section of the new building will house an inclinable facility that will allow researchers to study vertical flow up to 70 feet in height.
One of several research centers in the Ohio University Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the Corrosion in Multiphase Systems Center allows two faculty from chemical engineering to work with more than 20 postdoctorate, graduate and undergraduate students on a variety of research projects.
"The scope and magnitude of the work done in this center over the past few years has been constrained by the size and capabilities of the facilities that the researchers have had to work with," said Warren Wray, dean of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. "This new building will provide the center with 20,000 square feet of floor space, high capacity pumping equipment, one of the largest environmental test chambers in Ohio and the computational space that heretofore has been lacking in the laboratory area. It will not be long before more than $2 million of research will be conducted in this facility each year."