BP invests $100 Mn for research in smart coatings and advanced materials for oil and gas industry

BP is to establish a $100 million international research center known as the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials, or BP-ICAM. This center will lead research aimed at advancing the fundamental understanding and use of materials across a variety of energy and industrial applications.

The BP-ICAM will be modeled on a “hub and spoke” structure, with the ‘hub’ located within The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, which has core strengths in materials, engineering, characterization, collaborative working, and a track record of delivering breakthrough research and engineering applications that can be deployed in the real world. The “spokes” and other founder members, all world-class academic institutions, are the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The ten-year investment program will fund research into advanced materials and is expected to support 25 new academic posts, along with 100 post-graduate researchers and 80 post-doctoral fellows.

“This coalition Government is committed to putting innovation and research at the very heart of its growth agenda,” said the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. “We are ensuring the UK maintains it competitive edge in science and we are creating an environment where innovation can flourish. That’s why top businesses such as BP are investing in the UK and supporting our world-leading universities in delivering cutting edge research. And as an MP for the North West of England I particularly welcome the fact that BP’s International Centre for Advanced Materials will be based at Manchester University.”

“Advanced materials and coatings will be vital in finding, producing and processing energy safely and efficiently in the years ahead, as energy producers work at unprecedented depths, pressures and temperatures, and as refineries, manufacturing plants and pipeline operators seek ever better ways to combat corrosion and deploy new materials to improve their operations,” said Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive. “Manchester has world-leading capabilities and facilities in materials and was chosen after a global search to act as the ‘hub’ of the center, working with other world-class university departments. We look forward to deepening further the very productive partnership that already exists between our professionals in BP and the academic team at Manchester.”

The BP-ICAM hub will be based in dedicated premises which will use state-of-the-art tools to support this major international collaboration. The BP-ICAM will carry out research into seven primary areas of direct interest to industry: structural materials, smart coatings, functional materials, catalysis, membranes, energy storage and energy harvesting. Initial focus will be on: structural materials, such as new metal alloys and composites for deepwater production, and high pressure/high temperature reservoirs; smart coatings, for increased protection from the elements and improving a structure’s usable life, protecting pipelines and offshore platforms from corrosion; and membranes and other structures, for separation, filtration and purification of oil and gas, water and chemicals in production, refining and biofuels processes and petrochemicals.

“This should allow us to change the way we build, operate and maintain our equipment; manufacture cleaner and more efficient products; develop imaginative energy sources and then store that energy for when it is needed most; and increase the use of lighter metals and composites for structures and products,” said Dudley.

The universities will have academic freedom to publish fundamental science resulting from the BP-ICAM’s work, while commercial agreements will cover specific technological applications of the work.

BP works with some 200 universities around the globe and holds a number of long term strategic partnerships with leading universities in the UK, US, China, Russia.

The University of Manchester is already home to BP’s Projects and Engineering College and a major collaborator member within BP’s Inherently Reliable Facilities Research Programme and includes a BP funded research laboratory in corrosion.

The University of Cambridge has a long association with BP. Since 2000, the BP Institute for Multiphase Flow has formed an important part of the relationship and in 2010 BP funded the new McKenzie Chair in Earth Sciences.

Imperial College, London, conducts a wide range of research for BP including in the areas of reservoir characterisation, process modelling, climate change, seismic imaging and urban energy systems. In 2009 the start-up company Permasense, providing wireless corrosion and non-destructive monitoring technology, was formed based on BP funded research.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of three partners supporting the BP Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a 10 year, $500 million program supporting BP’s Biofuels business. The EBI was launched in 2007.

BP p.l.c. is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by 2011 revenues and is one of the six oil and gas “supermajors”. It is vertically integrated and operates in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has renewable energy activities in wind power and biofuels.