US tech firm Blueshift has been working with the UK’s Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) and the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, to support the development of a polymer aerogel blanket.
Aerogels are “solid materials” composed of 99.98% air by volume. In the oil and gas aerogel blankets could improve insulation for deep-sea pipe-in-pipe pipelines by improving pipeline compression resistance, reducing the amount of steel in pipeline construction, while increasing oil and gas flow assurance, according to the firm.
Blueshift’s first product is AeroZero, a polyimide aerogel provided in tough and flexible thin films, semi-flexible wafers and thicker monoliths some 500-times stronger than conventional silica aerogels, says Blueshift.
Its work with Strathclyde focused on the blanket design and validation of the selected design. It will now continue work with the university as it moves toward commercialization.