Mines Magazine Turns 100 - the Timothy and Bernadette Marquez ...

New FrontiersBP Oil Spill Prompts Hydrate ResearchAlmost immediately after the April 20, 2010, rupture at BP’s DeepwaterHorizon oil rig, scientists and engineers began asking questions about why ithappened and how to respond more effectively should it happen again. Of themany research projects launched to answer these questions, there’s one movingahead through the Colorado School of Mines Hydrate Center that could shedlight on processes never before observed.The Center for Hydrate Research received funding through two NSF RAPIDgrants to produce the Deepwater Oil and Gas Well Blowout Simulator. Alaboratory-scale apparatus with visual and electronic monitoring capabilities,the DOGWB simulator will offer improved risk-assessment of hydrate formationin deepwater gas/oil blowout scenarios, enabling engineers to design bettercontainment systems and more effective crisis-response protocols.“The simulator was designed in direct response to what happened in the Gulfof Mexico,” says Amadeu Sum, a co-director of the Center for Hydrate Research.“It’s going to provide information that’s not currently available to help us understandwhat happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.”The device will yield new insight about the formation of hydrates—crystallinestructures consisting of water and natural gas molecules that readily formunder low temperature and high pressure—the conditions found in deepwaterblowouts, and elsewhere. In fact, hydrate formation is a menace in many oiland gas operations, where cold, pressurized pipelines are often used to transportboth oil and gas.Hydrate formation foiled BP’s initial effort to contain the Deepwater Horizonblowout. “The first containment device BP deployed was a 100-ton domestructure,” explains Carolyn Koh, co-director of the Hydrate Center. “But theClockwise from Top: A precisely modulated downward current in CSM’sDOGWB simulator prototype keeps a gas bubble stationary. By varyingtemperature, pressure and chemical composition, researchers are able toobserve phenomena such as oil/gas dispersion in water and the formationof gas hydrates, such as those encountered in an oil/gas well blowout;a hydrate plug is removed from a pipeline; hydrate encrusted gas bubblesform in a high pressure water column, leading to blockage of thechannel; illustrations of containment and response in the Macondo well.Zach Aman ’09, Sanjeev Joshi and J. Levine, CSM10 Fall/Winter 2010