Edinburgh-based firm LUX Assure has received a grant from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to develop technology that could mitigate corrosion in the oil and gas industry.
The grant was awarded as part of the TSB's ‘Maximising Recovery of UK's Oil and Gas Resources’ competition, which has been designed to invest £5m in 10 projects that offer solutions for improving hydrocarbon extraction.
LUX Assure's technology converts methods used for analysing cell structure and membrane-associated proteins into a light-based detection process, known as CoMic, which analyses oilfield fluids that are susceptible to corrosion.
The process is based on the similarities between oilfield corrosion inhibitors and lipids present in biological membranes to improve the analysis of oilfield fluids. The group hopes this will allow engineers to ensure that enough corrosion inhibitors have been applied to the system to prevent corrosion damage from occurring.
In addition, it claims that this process is the only method for proactively monitoring susceptibility to chemical-related corrosion in real time.
Dr Artin Moussavi, chief executive at LUX Innovate, said: 'This award is an important recognition of the pioneering work that we are conducting towards the development of novel tools in the energy sector. CoMic brings together detection solutions from the life-science and nanotechnology sectors to provide a revolutionary tool to help prevent harmful breaches in the process environment.'
LUX plans to use the additional funding from the TSB to support the next phase of CoMic development, which will see the conversion of techniques used in laboratories into a system that can be deployed in harsh oilfield environments.
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