by Kelli Whitlock
Paul Jepson has built a career on exploring why oil and water don't mix. More to the point, he's devoted his time to understanding what happens when these often incompatible substances are thrown together in oil and gas pipelines, resulting in internal corrosion that can cause severe damage to pipes and, in some cases, spills, leaks or explosions.
Jepson is director of Ohio University's Corrosion in Multiphase Systems Center, among the only facilities in the world designed to study ways to understand and prevent corrosion in gas, oil and other types of industrial pipelines. Such corrosion is responsible for several fatal accidents at power plants in the United States.
The combination of gas and oil moving through pipelines at high speeds with water and sand that also may be present can corrode the inside of pipes at a rate as high as a half-inch a week, Jepson says. If a pipeline at a power plant is fractured, the immense pressure within the pipes is released, and human injuries and environmental damage can occur.
The Corrosion in Multiphase Systems Center is the only center in the world that studies corrosion resulting from multiphase flow in pipelines, and the only center that has the range of pipelines that operate under similar conditions as those in the field.
"Without a good corrosion control program, an oil company could lose millions of dollars every year," says Robert Mack, a senior research engineer with Shell Oil in Houston and a member of the center's advisory board.
The center got its start in 1990 with a collaboration between Ohio University and six industry participants. Two years later, the center became a National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, a program that funds centers unique in their mission and research focus. The Corrosion Center has found a niche &emdash; one that is valuable to its industrial members, which now include 21 businesses representing all major oil and gas companies. Industry participants in the center each contribute $25,000 a year. The center's NSF support is about $50,000 a year.
"When we started, most research had been carried out using small-scale equipment and, when applying this to field conditions, it did not always predict what really was happening," says Jepson, Russ Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. "We knew if we were to be successful, we would need to build facilities that would be the same as what is found in the field. When we do testing, we are very confident that we can take the results and apply them to field conditions."
Since the center was founded, faculty and students 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 in Athens. But a new 22,000-square-foot building behind the university's Central Receiving Building on West State Street will give the researchers more room to move around. Construction of the $2.3 million facility began in December and is scheduled for completion in August. Besides office and conference space, there will be nearly 17,000 square feet for research equipment, including inclined test rigs, which will be constructed inside a 65-foot-high section of the center.
Two faculty from chemical engineering and more than 20 graduate and undergraduate students work in the center on a variety of projects. In fact, it was the center's research possibilities that persuaded Bob Wilkens to choose Ohio University for his doctoral program in chemical engineering. Wilkens completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Dayton, and was looking at other schools when he learned of the Corrosion Center.
"The level of funding support for research in the center was one thing that interested me, as did the opportunity to work with engineers in industry," says Wilkens, who received his doctorate in June. He will begin work as a post-doctoral research engineer with Shell Oil in July, a position he says his training with the Corrosion Center made possible.
"Working with the center, I've gained a lot more practical experience than other students in the field might get," Wilkens says.
This type of experience is not only a benefit to students, Mack of Shell Oil notes, but also to the companies that want to hire skilled engineers who can make the transition from school to the workforce without hesitation.
"A benefit, to both industry and the student, of a university program designed to study problems for industry is that students are presented with real problems," he says.
Since the facility opened, faculty and student research efforts have resulted in two U.S. patents on methods and technology to fight corrosion in pipes. One patent, a slug-flow eliminator, is for a method that allows the flow of materials inside a pipeline to expand into a larger piece of pipe, preventing blockages and corrosion. The other patent, a gas/liquid separator, is for a technique that removes corrosion-causing liquids in gas lines. This device aids in the prevention of damage to furnaces in homes and businesses caused by liquid in the pipes.
Ohio University researchers have applied for four more patents on newly developed instruments designed to reduce and control corrosion, one of which has already received a European patent.
Future plans include a study of bacteria that forms inside pipelines. Bacteria eats through the pipes, leading to spills and leaks. But perhaps more dangerous is the production of hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic substance, that is caused by a buildup of bacteria. "We find that bacteria occurs in certain areas of pipelines, but we don't know why," Jepson says. "Once we understand why it forms, we will be able to find ways to control it."
Jepson and the center's researchers also will begin studies of drag reduction agents, chemicals that reduce pressure in pipelines and speed up the flow of oil or gas.
The new facility on West State Street will house several pieces of new equipment, including two large compressors to recirculate large amounts of gas used in corrosion testing. An environmental chamber in the new facility 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.
"We will be able to do studies on methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and other noxious gases that are of major concern to our industrial partners," Jepson says.
The expanded facilities will allow researchers to make full use of the government and industry support provided by the center partners, says Madan Gopal, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Ohio University.
"Government funding for academic research has been on the decline, and for us, the industrial support has been vital," he says. "But the best benefit is the hands-on work. What we do here has a direct impact for industry, and for an engineer, that's very rewarding."
Kelli Whitlock is the science writer and a managing editor in the Office of University News Services and Periodicals.
