PTDF to Boost Local Production of Anti-corrosion Agent, Refining Catalysts
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has said it is funding a research work which if successful could help Nigeria’s oil and gas industry cut down its annual expenditure on limiting corrosion of oil production assets by about $600 million.
The fund also said it was backing a study on the local production of zeolite catalyst, which is used in refining processes. It explained that this would ensure such refining catalysts are sourced locally and subsequently serve as import substitution.
The lead researcher of the technology, which if completed is expected to diagnose and remediate problems associated with oil field and reservoir souring and corrosion using cow urine, Prof. Chuma Okoro, told THISDAY at a recent meeting in Abuja that he was close to recording a breakthrough with the plan.
Okoro, a professor of environmental microbiology from the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State, explained the technology would use cow urine as a major ingredient for the biocide solution against corrosion.
He also said the invention could bring an end to the frequent violent clash between cattle herders and farmers in Nigeria considering that it would create an incentive for people to build ranches for cows from which urine could be harvested to produce the biocides.
“The major challenge we have in the oil industry today is what we see microbial resistance to biocides used to fight corrosion and souring in the oil and gas industry, and this is what the global oil industry is battling now, not only in Nigeria,” said Okoro, on the side-line of the 2017/2018 annual PTDF oil and gas research grant competition close out seminar.
According to him, “The panic now is that there is a lot of resistance to major biocides, they call is Deoxyhypusine Synthase (DHPS), and this is making DHPS ineffective in combatting corrosion.
“Now, we are looking at the future of green biocides we can actually synthesis here in Nigeria without wasting our scarce foreign exchange and we are looking at the potency of cow urine as a major raw material for that green biocide, and if
that becomes effective, it will achieve two things for Nigeria: we will save a lot of money from sourcing foreign exchange, and we are hoping that the oil industry will massively invest in ranching because to get the cow urine, you have to massively invest in ranching and that will save the present crisis between farmers and herders.”
On what the industry could benefit from the solution if successful, Okoro said, “If you are using a natural biocide, you are saving about 75 per cent of the original cost of managing souring and corrosion and that savings translates to $600 million annually.”
Also speaking on the progress of the research, he stated, “We are almost there, the good news is that our industrial partners have already assured us that once we tidy up with PTDF which sponsored the diagnosis phase - and we are hoping they will sponsor the remediation phase and progress to the pilot phase - if that is done, then we will go to the oil industry to show trial runs and they have already assured us they will fund it because we will use their fields which have cases.