Blue Gentoo

Intelligent Hydrate Platform (iHP)

Background

The Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) have recently announced the signing of a new industry project which sees the University of Aberdeen partnering with Blue Gentoo to develop the Intelligent Hydrate Platform (iHP).  Phil Bremner, a University of Aberdeen alumni, founded Blue Gentoo after a long career in the oil & gas industry and saw the benefits to building a mutually beneficial relationship.   

Innovation, collaboration and business growth

Blue Gentoo were in the first Grey Matters cohort at Elevator in Aberdeen, a successful entrepreneurship initiative which aimed to harness the experience, knowledge and innovation of senior oil and gas professionals who are either facing redundancy or have been made redundant. They have also been chosen as one of 10 technology start-ups selected for OGTC’s prestigious TechX Pioneer technology accelerator programme.  This collaboration representes the latest stage in a success story of innovation and business growth in Aberdeen. 

The Challenge and the Project

The industry challenge is to prevent hydrate formation, a major subsea flow assurance problem faced during the extraction of hydrocarbons using high-pressurised pipelines positioned in cold waters.  The most reliable technique to address hydrate formation is to remove water in oil and gas pipelines with dehydrators such as MonoEthylene Glycol (MEG). This project will automatically control MEG injection by monitoring hydrocarbon parameters, calculating both the MEG required and any subsequent injection adjustments in real time and without routinely human intervention.  

University of Aberdeen's Expertise

The expertise and research ability within the School of Natural & Computing Sciences at the University of Aberdeen is well placed to collaborate with Blue Gentoo to achieve iHP project outcomes.  Dr Ernesto Compatangelo and Prof Wamberto Vasconcelos will develop and implement Artificial Intelligence technologies for use within industrial-quality software to provide a suite of management functionalities.  This will allow iHP to learn effective human and computer-devised injection strategies for hydrate prevention, reusing them in the appropriate circumstances and providing a detailed justification of the adopted strategy.

"This project has the potential to solve a real industry challenge and the fit between Blue Gentoo and the team at the University of Aberdeen was quickly evident. It’s vitally important that support is given to small technology-focused businesses, so they can help push our industry forward."

Ian Phillips, CEO of OGIC