Blueshift International Materials, the University of Strathclyde and the Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) have collaborated to develop an aerogel product, composed of up to 99.98% air by volume, for applications in oil and gas flexible pipelines.
The product is meant to improve insulation for deep-sea pipe-in-pipe oil and gas pipelines by reducing installation costs, improving pipeline compression resistance, reducing the amount of steel in pipeline constructions, and consequently increasing oil and gas flow and assurance.
Blueshift’s initial product is AeroZero, a polyimide aerogel provided in tough and highly flexible thin films, semi-flexible wafers and thicker monoliths that are claimed to be at least 500 times stronger than conventional silica aerogels. The product’s 100% polymer construction also produces no dusting, negating the production of dangerous particulates and resultant dangerous materials handling protocols.
