2009 JTM Study Tour Report

APIA / Australian Gas Industry Trust / Orrcon

Study Tour Report

Europe 2009

Australian Gas Industry Trust / APIA / Orrcon Study Tour 2009

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Table of Content 1. Executive Summary................................................................... 3 2. 17th Biennial Joint Technical Meeting on Pipeline Research, Italy ...... 4 3. TenarisDalmine Dalmine Pipe Mill, Italy .......................................11 4. Centro Sviluppo Materialia SpA, Italy ..........................................16 5. National Grid Grain LNG, UK ......................................................19 6. BP Wytch Farm, UK ..................................................................22 7. Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH, Germany......................25 8. Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann, Germany.................................28 9. Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech, Germany ...............................30 10. SMGB Plate Rolling Mill, Germany ............................................30 11. SMGB Pipe Bending Mill, Germany ...........................................32 12. Europipe GmbH, Germany ......................................................34 13. Mulheim Pipe Coatings, Germany.............................................37 14. GDF Suez, France..................................................................40

Authors

Ben Cooper

Craig Clarke

Cameron Dinnis

AJ Lucas APA Group Orrcon

Lara Kayess

David West

Oil Search WorleyParsons


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1. Executive Summary The Study Tour was conducted through Europe in 2009. It encompassed the Joint Technical Meeting of the pipeline research organisations, European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG), Pipeline Research Council International (USA) (PRCI) and Australian Pipeline Industry Association Research and Standards Committee (APIA RSC), and site visits to several gas and pipeline industry companies and utilities in Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The five authors of this report were awarded scholarships for the tour thanks to the generous support of the Australian Pipeline Industry Association, the Australian Gas Industry Trust and Orrcon. The tour was a tremendous opportunity for the five young employees of APIA RSC member companies to gain an in depth understanding of the European Gas Industry from both a technical and commercial point of view. The opportunity to meet professionals from the European and North American Industry provided a very personal understanding of the issues faced. It also provided exposure to other cultural and business styles. Invaluable professional networks were established which will benefit the individuals but also the Australian Gas Industry. Knowledge gained from the tour and these contacts will be integrated into Australian businesses and disseminated throughout the industry. The tour provided a broad exposure to the issues relating to safe and reliable gas pipeline design and operation. The interaction with technical experts and the opportunity to discuss current research areas provided a unique opportunity to understand the “grey” areas. These areas, involving considerable uncertainty exists, are often stumbling blocks for young engineers and take years of experience to appreciate. Key learnings from the tour which may be applied in the short to medium term to the Australian Gas industry include polyethylene barriers for the protection of buried gas pipelines, innovative equipment for lower cost installations of domestic gas supplies and fibre optic pipeline monitoring systems. Finally, the authors would like to thank APIA, AGIT, Orrcon and the participating European companies for making this tour possible.


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2. 17th Biennial Joint Technical Meeting on Pipeline Research, Italy

(11th – 15th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Gerhard Knauf Title: Secretary General, EPRG Phone: +49 2039993160 Email: [email protected]

Overview of JTM Meeting The 17th Biennial Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) on pipeline research was held on 11th – 15th May 2009 at Starhotel Rosa, Milan, Italy, hosted by the European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG). The Biennial meeting brings together members and researchers from EPRG, the north-American Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) and APIA Research and Standards Committee (RSC) in order to facilitate technical exchange of research programs outputs, share member experience and issues and plan research focus areas for the coming period. The 17th JTM included 30 papers presented in 6 technical categories and 5 workshop sessions on research needs, issues and opportunities. The technical categories included: • Pipe Manufacture and Properties • Design • Girth Welding and Installation • Corrosion and Corrosion Protection • Environmentally Assisted Cracking • Mechanical Damage The workshop streams to identify research gaps and opportunities were consistent with the technical presentation categories. The workshop sessions aimed to achieve a unified strategic plan for global industry research requirements; identifying research priorities and mapping how the organizations could work collaboratively to achieve the project objectives. Five presentations were made through the course of the technical sessions on recent APIA RSC research projects and four APIA members co-chaired workshop sessions. The scholarship winners, Figure 1, participated in both technical presentations and workshop sessions.


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Figure 1. Scholarship winners with RSC Executive members at the JTM 2009 L to R: Max Kimber, Ben Cooper, Richard Robinson, Lara Kayess, Leigh Fletcher, Steve Dobbie, Cameron Dinnis, Craig Clarke, David West

Overview of Participant Members The European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG) was founded in 1972 and is a registered association of pipe manufacturers and gas transmission companies. It provides a forum for identifying, prioritizing and undertaking collaborative research. EPRG has 17 member companies based in 7 countries responsible for over 100,000km of high pressure gas transmission pipelines and 2M tones/yr of pipe manufacturing capacity. Current research focuses include crack arrest for high pressure (>10MPa) and high strength (> API 5L X80) gas transmission pipelines and pipelines for CO2, development of materials specifications and performance standards as well as a range of projects targeting increased integrity and safety of gas transmission pipelines including mechanical damage, corrosion and corrosion control and damage assessment. The Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) was established in 1952 and is a not-for-profit organization for energy pipeline companies and associated service providers undertaking research to “enhance the safety, reliability and productivity of the energy pipeline industry”. PRCIs members include 39 pipeline operating companies, 3 associate members and 12 technical associate members (including pipeline service providers, pipe manufacturing and pipeline equipment/supplies companies). Members are made up of 68% USA-based companies and 32% non-USA-based. Current and recent research has included projects in corrosion/corrosion management, design and construction, operational integrity, compression and pumps, and measurement systems. PRCIs 2009 research budget is over US$20M of which US$8M comes from direct member company subscriptions. Funding is also gained externally through government agencies and non-member co-funding for specific projects.


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Technical Presentation Sessions Pipe Manufacture and Properties: Eight papers on pipe manufacture and properties were presented. The forum commenced with a presentation from Europipe on the Nord Stream project. The project consists of twin 1200km 48” natural gas pipelines to secure the alternate natural gas supply lines from Russia to Germany and Western Europe by bypassing former Russian states. Issues in large scale manufacturing and logistics of pipe handling for the project were presented along with innovations in quality control given the stringent line pipe specification. Four papers were presented on current issues and development of techniques for strain based design. An emerging issue with SCC in ethanol that has potential to impact future pipelines for ethanol transportation in the new-fuels economy was reported. Research findings on chemical, mechanical and weldability properties of high strength high niobium steels for spiral welded line pipe were reported. One presentation of particular interest was work on toughness testing requirements of the longitudinal seam weld and heat affected zone (HAZ). Erdelen-Peppler questioned the value of extensive HAZ testing for failure behaviour evaluation with the results of various laboratory tests being found to be inconsistent with full scale test results. The overall failure behaviour predicted by the measured low toughness values was not supported and the toughness independent criterion was found to give improved results. It was concluded that extended HAZ testing did not lead to benefits in pipeline safety and resulted in increased production times and costs for new pipelines. Design: Four papers on design were presented. Venton reported on four APIA RSC projects including projects on transition joints, fatigue of storage pipelines, low temperature excursions and understanding hydrostatic testing uncertainty with regard to the pressure and leak testing requirements of AS2885. Work was also presented on the stability of submarine pipelines outlining improvements to soil models for lateral stability and accumulated displacement models, proposing changes to the existing offshore pipeline code where shortfalls have been identified. A presentation was made on assessment methods and acceptance criteria used internationally for wrinkles in cold bends. One report of current relevance to Australian pipeline operators was work by PRCI in developing guidelines for managing risks to pipelines from landslide and subsidence hazards. The work, which has been published as PRCI Report L52292, contains recommendations for case-by-case risk evaluation of landslide and subsidence hazards and methods for assessing and responding to permanent ground displacements including ascertaining pipe strain using in-line inspection tools.


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Girth Welding and Installation: Four papers on girth welding and installation were presented. Linton from University of Adelaide began the session presenting the findings and recommendations from APIA RSC work into the effects of boron in welding consumables. PRCI presented work on welding and integrity assessment of high strength steels in line pipe grades above X100 using multi-wire gas metal arc welding (GMAW) for higher productivity in new pipeline construction. EPRG presented findings of a review on EPRG-Tier 2 guidelines for assessment of defects in girth welds recommending updates to the guidelines including inclusion of X80 steel, improvements to co-planar defect interaction criteria and selection of weld metal strength mismatch. Discussion was included on a return to workmanship standards from the current engineering critical assessment. Abes presented a paper on alternatives to pre-service hydrostatic testing and examined defects identified by hydrostatic testing and alternate methods to manage and mitigate these, the conclusion that technical procedures and quality management could provide a viable alternate to hydro testing caused much debate during the question session. Corrosion and Corrosion Protection: Eight papers were presented on corrosion and corrosion protection. A number of papers were considered to have direct relevance to current Australian issues. Two papers were presented on current or recent APIA RSC projects, elemental sulphur in gas pipeline systems by Pack and a report by Edmonds on work at Monash University on holiday testing of FBE coatings, the affect of anodic transients on pipeline CP and liquid applied coatings for cold damp pipe work such as gas pipeline let-down stations. Other papers of interest to the Australian pipeline and gas transmission industry were: assessment of corrosion damaged pipes subject to cyclic pressure loading and local buckling, development of an adhesion assessment criterion for 3 layer polyolefin pipeline coatings (tri-laminate), and the development of reliability based corrosion management tools and evaluating the significance of ILI uncertainty. This paper examined formal guidelines for RBA for operational pipelines including CSA Z662 appendix O and its potential adoption in ASME B31.8S and discussed uncertainties related to probability of detection and identification from in-line inspection tools. One report of particular interest with relevance to Australian pipeline assets and a current topic of discussion in the gas pipeline industry and AS2885.3 standards committee was work on corrosion growth rate assessment and the use of multiple metal loss ILI surveys to evaluate corrosion growth rate and sites of active corrosion damage for integrity assessment. The presentation described the development of a 6 step process for determining corrosion growth rates from repeat ILI runs. Environmentally Assisted Cracking (EAC): Three papers on EAC were presented including one from the APIA RSC summarizing the findings of recent and ongoing SCC programs and their application to the Moomba


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Sydney pipeline. King reported on an ongoing PRCI project to collate data from different pipeline operating companies internationally to develop improved guidelines for evaluating pipeline SCC susceptibility and SCC inspection intervals. Bosch presented work on laboratory hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) testing aimed at better defining the parameters involved in HIC to evaluate the use of C-Mn line pipe for sour service. Results were presented in the form of a HIC severity diagram identifying where sour service materials must be used and where C-Mn steels might be considered, some conflict between the findings and NACE MR0175 were identified. Mechanical Damage: The final session consisted of 3 papers on mechanical damage. Mechanical damage is an ongoing threat for Australian pipelines and is of particular interest to gas transmission pipeline companies with new requirements under AS2885.1 for high consequence areas. All papers touched on issues relevant to the Australian pipeline industry. A PRCI project evaluating the currently available ILI technologies for detecting and sizing mechanical damage was presented. The research concluded that no currently available technologies were fully able to detect and size mechanical damage although magnetic flux and calliper tools provided some information the results were subject to interpretation. Dinovitzer and Zarea presented on an ongoing project using full scale testing to evaluate numerical models developed for assessing dents and dent-gouge damage. Current evaluation techniques for dents and dent-gouge combinations are generally considered unreliable. Initial results show favourable correlation between test data and numerical models although a wider range of material properties and toughness’s is yet to be completed. Cosham reported on an EPRG project to evaluate time delayed failure from mechanical damage under constant pressure. It was concluded that the ductile flaw growth model reasonably predicted the failure pressure of low and moderate toughness steels but an alternative model based on linear-elastic fracture mechanics was proposed to better account for time dependent response. Workshop Sessions The workshop sessions groups scoped the R&D needs for the global industry in the six technical categories through a mini gap analysis, identifying the current status of technology and what would be required to address these gaps. The groups developed a ranking of projects by producing a needs-benefits-effort chart. The top three research projects were identified and reported back to the JTM identifying the project deliverables and benefits to industry.


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The workshop findings were: Topic: Advanced Design Methods Research Objectives: Develop and standardize methods to achieve safe and reliable pipeline design when conventional stress based design is inadequate. Top R&D Gaps Identified: • Practical Application of Reliability Based Design Assessment (RBDA) • Characterization of Strain Demand • Compressive and Tensile Strain Capacity Topic: Pipe Materials Research Objectives: not stated Top R&D Gaps Identified: • Fracture Arrest Prediction – High toughness, high strength materials. • Deep Water Pipelines • Strain Based Design Topic: Welding and Construction Research Objectives: To identify and prioritise technology gaps in field welding and construction of pipelines and to provide solutions addressing the gaps. Top R&D Gaps Identified: • A Dedicated Automatic GMAW and AUT Standard • Welding Contractor and Personnel Competence – implementation of

ISO3834 into the pipe industry • Welding X80 Pipelines • Defect Acceptance Criteria – rationalisation and decreased

conservatism • Prediction and control of weld metal hydrogen cracking Topic: Corrosion prevention and Management Research Objectives: To provide operators with understanding, tools and technologies to prevent the occurrence of corrosion during service, and to address threat of corrosion to pipeline integrity Top R&D Gaps Identified: • Standard for Unpiggable Pipelines • Standard for Integrity Management for Subsea Pipelines • Corrosion Growth Rates Topic: SCC Research Objectives: To enhance security of supply, instil public confidence, close off areas of SCC knowledge, formally adopt agreed knowledge. Top R&D Gaps Identified: • Improvements in ILI Crack Detection – improvement is current USCD &

EMTAT tools and development of next generation of tools • Global Data-Mining of SCC Experience to Feed Model Development • Consistent Assessment Method for SCC


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The workshop sessions concluded with a summary of the workshop session findings and an initial executive breakdown of research focus areas for each of the groups.

Key Learnings The quality of research and presentations from all three research groups was very good and relevant to the issues faced by all areas of the pipeline and gas transmission industry from design to pipe manufacturing and operations. The issues and research discussed were relevant to members from all three research groups. The results presented by the APIA RSC and the response received confirmed that work being undertaken by the RSC matched that of EPRG and PRCI in terms of quality and value/benefit to industry. The needs analysis showed that, in general, issues for pipeline operators were often similar within the different groups. The issues identified or being addressed in current research in the international community are consistent with those faced by APIA members, examples include management of risks such as subsidence, integrity evaluations and corrosion growth assessment, fracture arrest predictions in high strength steel as just a few examples. The value of co-operative research and participation in the JTM was very clear. The JTM technical sessions, meal breaks and social activities offered the scholarship participants a fantastic opportunity to network (and debate) with colleagues from the international community within their own fields of work and from others in the pipeline and gas industry. It provided opportunities to gain contacts in areas of common interest and develop networks for future dialogue.


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3. TenarisDalmine Dalmine Pipe Mill, Italy (15th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Dr Giuseppe Cumino Title: Product Development Manager

Power Generation and Petrochemical Products Phone: +39 3556028965 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company TenarisDalmine is the Italian steel pipe production operations of Tenaris S.A. TenarisDalmine has an annual production capacity of 950,000 tons of finished product (pipe and tube), employing over 3000 staff across 5 production sites in Italy. The company was founded in Milan in 1906 (The Societa Anonima Tubi Mannesmann) with first production at the Dalmine site in 1907. In 1996 Dalmine became part of the Techint Group with Tenaris S.A. being formed in 2002. The Techint Group consists of 6 businesses units ranging from engineering and construction to pipe manufacture. The company turn-over in 2007 was US$20 Billion of which the Tenaris group was the largest contributor at 47.5%. Tenaris has an annual worldwide manufacturing capacity of 6M tones of steel pipes of which 3.4M is seamless and 2.6M welded pipe. Tenaris has manufacturing facilities located across 15 counties worldwide employing 24,000 people. The Dalmine Plant has a production capacity of 800,000 tons and produces mechanical tubing, seamless line pipe for oil and gas pipelines, tube for petrochemical plant, pipe for high and low temperature service and structural tubing. Research and Development forms a key part of the Tenaris business with Dalmine holding stock in Italian research group Centro Sviluppo Materiali (refer to Section 4), and integrated research centres located in Argentina, Japan, Mexico and Italy. At the Dalmine site a joint R&D centre with CSM opened in 2002 focusing on rolling processes and mechanical and power generation products.

Facility and Process Data Seamless Pipe Production The TenarisDalmine seamless pipe mill is located at Dalmine near Bergamo and covers some 1.5M square meters with 540,000 under cover.


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The plant produces seamless pipes in diameters ranging from 17.2 to 711mm OD in carbon and alloy steels. The site is an integrated production facility including steel plant, continuous casting and rolling mill, and forming mills. The site employs over 2200 staff. Steel is manufactured in an electric arc furnace and cast into bars of 145-395mm diameter via a continuous casting machine with an average production capacity of 98 ton/hr. Once the bars enter the forming mill they are cut into shorter sections called billets which are heated in a rotary furnace to 1300oC. The heated billets are first pieced in the piecing mill. The pierced material then passes to one of three rolling and expanding processes depending on the diameter required:

Method External Diameter (mm)

Thickness (mm)

Continuous Rolling Mill 17.2 - 95 2.35 - 17 Retained Mandrel

Rolling Mill 139 – 406.2 4 - 44

Rotary Expander Mill 406.4 - 711 8 – 30 A schematic of the production process is shown overleaf in Figure 2. The final stage of production is testing including NDT and destructive testing according to customer requirements. Line pipe products for oil and gas pipelines are manufactured at the site to a range of standards including DNV OS F101 and API 5L / ISO 3183. Unfortunately on the day of the site visit the production facilities at the Dalmine site were on a short term production halt due to the economic climate and the visit to see production facilities was cancelled.


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Figure 2. TenarisDalmine Production Process

APIA / Australian Gas Industry Trust / Orrcon Study Tour 2009

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Research and Development Facilities At the Dalmine site, Tenaris University operates as part of the Tenaris training and development program. Tenaris University gathers and codifies knowledge and best practices from across Tenaris and disseminates it throughout the business through training and knowledge transfer programs.

Figure 3. Members of the JTM are introduced to TenarisDalmine at Tenaris University The Dalmine site is also home to one of Tenaris’s integrated R&D centres opened in 2002 in collaboration with CSM. The centre boasts a range of modern research tools comparable with those found in modern university materials research departments. Research at Dalmine is undertaken in conjunction with CSM at their Rome facilities. Research focuses on rolling processes, mechanical and power generation products including full scale testing of connections and tubes, physical modelling, product design and testing, physical metallurgy and welded line pipe. A short site tour of the Dalmine Tenaris University, Figure 3, and R&D facilities was undertaken. Along with typical mechanical production testing equipment such as tensile, fatigue and toughness test equipment, a range of specialist tools was also available to researchers. Examples of equipment used included: • Plastometer – (Gleeble machine) allows measurement of flow stress

and investigation of microstructural changes in steels/alloys under plastic deformation at high temperatures (hot rolling & forging simulation)

• Dilatometer – used to measure volume changes during controlled cooling and heating cycles and the critical temperatures at which phase transformation occurs, used in the study of thermo-mechanical rolling processes.


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• Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) – for examination of fracture surfaces, metallic phases and non metallic inclusions (30-1,000,000x magnification) identified by chemical analysis and crystallographic examination techniques

Key Learnings The European pipe production market has been similarly hit with the financial downturn as the Australian pipe manufacturing industry. A temporary production suspension was being employed at the time of the site visit, a method recently employed by two leading Australian pipe producers to reduce costs. However, the production downturn was seen as short term only and discussion suggested that improvement and new orders were expected to pick up in a 6-12 month window. Research forms a key strategy in the company’s customer service and business development plans. The integrated approach between internal and external expertise such as collaboration with private research groups such as CSM and local universities along with focussed research centres across the globe was seen as key to the business in maintaining its competitive advantage. The integrated research approach allows the business to effectively and efficiently undertake research and development of new products and processes. The level of investment in R&D technology was impressive, more consistent with the likes of university research facilities than that seen in typical Australian production facilities. The concept of Tenaris University which was established by Tenaris to integrate the internal training processes and ensure effective knowledge transfer throughout the Tenaris business units was a formalised process of a size and commitment not typical for the pipeline and gas industry in Australia and reflects the size of the Tenaris business with some 24,000 employees.


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4. Centro Sviluppo Materialia SpA, Italy (18th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Guiseppe Demofonti Title: Senior Scientist, Mechanical Metallurgy Phone: +39 06 5055456 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Initially serving Italy’s steel industry, Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM) was privatized in 1996 and is now a leading European research centre for materials innovations servicing the steel, oil and gas, energy, aerospace and manufacturing sectors worldwide. Operating from its headquarters near Rome (Castel Romano), CSM is a polycentric company with facilities in Dalmine, Terni, Naples, Pula (Sardinia), Mefli and Perdasdefogu. CSM employs 326 researchers with an annual budget of 35 million Euros per annum of which 10% is for the oil and gas industry. The shareholders of CSM are predominantly large industrial companies including ThyssenKrupp and Tenaris. These companies are the main customers of CSM.

Facility and Process Data CSM’s facilities, and the expertise of their researchers, enable them to undertake pipeline research in key areas including strain-based design, reliability-based integrity, excavator damage, environmentally assisted cracking, high-pressure high-temperature corrosion, full-scale burst testing, and welding. Three interesting capabilities are 1) full-scale ductile fracture propagation test facility, 2) a multi-axis load-displacement testing machine, and 3) an Excavator Damage simulator with defect characterization. The full-scale fracture propagation test facility is a burst test facility located in Pula, on the island Sardinia, shown in Figure 4. The area was previously a bombing range used by the Italian military indicating the hazards associated with full-scale testing. These burst tests may be performed on up to 52-inch diameter pipe, with lean or rich gas, up to 25 MPa, and with a variety of backfills to a depth of 1 m. Measurements of crack velocity and decompression during a fracture event, as well as backfill properties, are used to study the interrelationship of steel toughness, gas decompression and backfill causing ductile fracture. CSM is bidding for a research contract from the European Union to perform the first large diameter CO2 pipeline full-scale tests.


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Figure 4. CSM’s full-scale fracture propagation test facility at CSM Another full-scale pipeline testing capability is the combined loads test rig capable of applying axial-bending and torsion loads (Figure 5). This machine can apply complex loading to a pipeline sections up to 14-inch diameter, with axial forces up to 13 MN. The aim of the rig is to simulate service conditions in extreme environments such as deep subsea. This apparatus enables CSM to study real pipeline behaviour and validate their strain-based design models, which is an important growth area of pipeline engineering.

Figure 5. Full-scale combined loads test rig at CSM Since excavator damage represents the largest pipeline integrity threat in Europe, CSM designed and commissioned an excavator damage simulator (Figure 6). The simulator can dent and gouges at a variety of angles, lengths and forces, on pipe up to 52-inch diameter. Strain gauge measurements of an excavator were used to design the simulator so that a true excavator damage was simulated which included a limit on the maximum force applied by an excavator due to excavator lift. The


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simulator mimics damage from 15 t to 35 t excavators. The resulting defect can be scanned with laser optical sensors to create a 3D model and finite element analysis used to determine the stress state due to the excavator damage.

Figure 6. Excavator damage simulator at CSM

Key Learnings CSM possesses significant expertise attractive to the gas and pipeline research communities. This is particularly so in the areas of strain-based design and ductile fracture. CSM has published a continuous stream of work in these areas with innovative models of line pipe plastic stress-strain behaviour and fracture resistance post-plastic deformation. These two areas require dedicated people and reliable funding to achieve the level of expertise at CSM. The full-scale testing capabilities at CSM are another key feature. Mathematical models and laboratory data are valuable but full-scale data provides unmatched confidence. CSMs investment in full-scale testing is a valuable resource for gas and pipeline research worldwide.


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5. National Grid Grain LNG, UK (20th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Keith Dennis Title: Community Relations Phone: 01926 656046 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company National Grid is an international gas and electricity company servicing customers mainly in Great Britain. National Grid Grain LNG (NGG LNG) is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Grid with LNG importation and storage facilities located in the Isle of Grain, 60km east of London. Historically, the United Kingdom’s gas demand was met by North Sea’s production but declining production required alternative sources to meet gas demand. Following deregulation of the UK gas markets in 1997, NGG LNG positioned itself to enable a variety of energy companies such as BP, Centrica and GDF Suez to enter the UK gas market via the NGG LNG facilities. The NGG LNG facility currently handles 9.8 million tonnes of natural gas per annum (12% of the UK demand). Due to the increasing need for gas supply to the market, National Grid Grain plan to have the capacity to supply 20% of the UK demand by the end of 2010.

Facility and Process Data The facility has been operating as a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) importation terminal since 2005. Prior to this the facility was a refinery and liquefaction plant with four above ground, cryogenic LNG storage tanks each with a capacity of 20,000t, Figure 7. This legacy facility has created a unique plant layout with the LNG storage tanks being an unusual 4.7km from the terminal and necessitates a pipeline, 4.7km long, to be kept permanently at cryogenic temperatures, -161oC by circulating LNG via a loop line to the terminal. The terminal receives ships with a nominal capacity of 217,000m3. The LNG is unloaded via five connection arms using the ships pumps. Unloading a ship usually takes 12-hours. Natural gas weathered from the storage tanks is pumped at 2bar via a 4-inch pipeline back to the ship to fill the volume void. Four additional storage tanks each with a capacity of 80,000t were commissioned in 2007. All storage tanks operate at -161oC and 150milliBar.


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The LNG is regasified to supply the National Transmission System (gas grid) at 70bar or to the regional grid at 37bar. The regasification process involves four main steps:

1. LNG from the cryogenic tanks is pumped to 80bar; 2. Nitrogen is blended with the LNG to achieve the required Cv and

Wobbe Index; 3. The blend is converted from liquid to gas using Vaporisers (gas-

fired water baths operated a 30oC) to achieve temperature requirements; and

4. The gas product is continuously metered and sampled for quality. The Nitrogen is supplied by a co-located but separately owned and operated Nitrogen plant. The LNG off-gas displaced from the storage tanks due to ship unloading is compressed using 3-stage, electric powered reciprocating compressors. The gas is then blended to the required specifications before being supplied to the regional gas grid.

Figure 7. National Grid Grain LNG Facility Construction of a new larger jetty (265,000m3 ship capacity), a single 80,000t storage tank and associated degasification facilities are currently underway. These are expected to be on-line late 2010. The new tank is constructed with a multi layered wall; the outer layer of one-meter thick concrete reinforced by tension wires, the middle layer of carbon steel sheet and the inner wall of nickel steel sheet. A one-meter gap between the two steel sheets is filled with pearlite insulation.


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Key Learnings Gas demand in the UK has been predicted to rise by at least 15% over the next 10 years, making the NGG LNG facility one of National Grid’s key assets. Transformation of the Isle of Grain facility conquered a number of technical difficulties including how to maintain the low temperature in the pipeline over the long distance (4.7km) from the terminal to the tanks. This was overcome by installing a 16-inch recycle line in parallel with the 36-inch unloading line and circulating LNG from storage to keep the pipeline cold. These pipelines created considerable engineering challenges particularly when commissioning to the operating temperature. State of the art optical fibre technology was employed to monitor the strains in the pipeline during commissioning; this technology continues to operate providing real-time temperature and strain feedback to the control room. A number of expansion loops were also required to accommodate the huge movements (8-inches) experienced as the line was chilled. The close-knit operations and engineering team continues to looks for value-add opportunities. Work is underway to use hot water (at 50oC) from a nearby Power Plant instead of the gas fired burners to heat the water for the Vaporisers. This will reduce fuel gas usage at NGG LNG and cooling energy requirements at the Power Plant providing both economic and environmental advantages to both companies.


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6. BP Wytch Farm, UK (22nd May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Jim Francis Title: Integrity and Engineering Team Leader Phone: 01929 476523 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company BP’s Wytch Farm Upstream Oil and Gas facility was purchased from British Gas in 1983. The revenue streams are natural gas, LPG and crude oil.

Facility and Process Data Peak production was over 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) but production is now in decline and is currently at 25,000bopd. Over 100 wells located on 10 well sites supply the plant. The oil is stabilised and dehydrated before being exported via a 16-inch, 90km pipeline to the Hamble Oil Terminal. Gas from plant inlet separators is compressed to 30bar and dehydrated using molecular sieve technology. The overhead gas stream from the De-ethaniser, used to produce sales gas, is further compressed, odorized, metered and sampled to ensure it meets quality specifications. Gas sales to British Gas are approximately 1.5 PJ/annum and the gas enters the Regional gas grid at near by Sopley. The key gas specifications for BP are the heating value (as the gas is well within CO2 content), N2 content, water content. The gas specifications for the UK grid appear quite similar to the Australian specification for example the heating value is approximately 41MJ/Sm3. Propane and Butane are fractionated and stored separately in underground storage tanks. Total storage capacity is 6,000m3 and the product is exported via road tankers. Water is used to provide pressure support to the reservoir. A total of 275,000bpd is re-injected at 110bar. The re-injected water is a combination of produced water and treated water from the local harbour.


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Figure 8. BP Wytch Farm Facility

Key Learnings The facility operates under very strict Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Guidelines as it is located on some of Britain’s rarest and most valuable wildlife habitat, heritage sites and prime real estate. Along with the standard HSE management, the facility also operates to ensure that it is not heard, smelt nor seen. To achieve this, Wytch Farm facilities are painted dark brown, the fractionation vessels and flares have been designed with height limitations, the equipment have been segregated and surrounded with a Corsican pine forest and extensive acoustic engineering completed to meet a requirement of 35dB 100m from the plant, Figure 8. BP has been granted Approval from the Waste Regulation Authority to re-inject drilling waste material back into the reservoir. This provides BP with a very neat solution of waste disposal which would otherwise be quite involved and costly. BP is currently completing a major pipeline repair project related to the integrity of the gathering flowlines. The flowlines are 20 years old and in-line inspection revealed hundreds of CO2 corrosion defects. Due to the stakeholder concerns for the sensitive area additional care and forethought was taken to ensure no subsequent work in the area. This required BP to look at all future needs for gathering and re-injection through that area as well as a comprehensive review of the defects in the existing 10-inch, X52 pipe.


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The gathering flowline network is a fundamental part of gas and oil production. The integrity of these pipelines can be managed, in part, by the utilization of in-line inspection tools (ILIs). It is imperative that ILI technology and data collection and analysis methodologies are correctly selected. BP found that tethered ILIs provided the best data however it was important that the pipe internal surface is very clean. To extend their knowledge of the effectiveness of ILIs and accuracy of the data produced BP are commencing a study to compare different ILIs data for a known pipeline section.


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7. Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH, Germany

(25th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Gerhard Knauf Title: Head of Mechanical Engineering Phone: +49 203 999-3160 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH (SZMF) is the primary research group servicing the Salzgitter AG group manufacturing operations. Salzgitter AG is the second largest manufacturer of steel in Germany. In 2008, SZMF employed approximately 300 people and annual revenue was 34 million Euros. The research facilities of SZMF are located in Salzgitter and Duisburg, close to the manufacturing operations of Salzgitter AG. SZMF research and expertise is aligned with steel and pipe making processes – steel production, continuous casting, hot-rolling, pipe fabrication, and application. SZMF operates within Salzgitter AG on a “black zero” basis, that is, it is not expected to make a loss nor a profit. The value of SZMF is indicated by the continuing demand for their research services, which was highlighted by the group’s 75th anniversary in 2009. Revenue outside the Salzgitter AG group is pursued on a contract bid basis.

Facility and Process Data SZMF possesses many of the materials testing and characterizing capabilities expected of a large modern facility. The research areas of SZMF are driven by the Salzgitter AG steel and pipe business particularly focused on steel and plate production, Figure 9, with the aim of increasing production efficiency. Two typical projects being conducted by SZMF on improving efficiency are 1) automatic welding simulation, and 2) 3-dimensional ultrasonic defect characterization.


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Figure 9. Experimental rolling mill at SZMF Production rates of large diameter pipes require rapid welding of longitudinal seams. Production parameters such as line pipe material, wall thickness, electrode material, heat input can affect weld integrity. SZMF are developing weld simulation software to predict the effects of production parameters. Their welding laboratory includes a 5 wire automatic welding rig, Figure 10, where parameters can be changed and the resulting weld studied. For Europipe, one of SZMF’s customers, this software allows the factory to quickly alter welding parameters with confidence so that production delays associated with weld qualification are minimized.

Figure 10. Experimental 5-wire automatic welding rig at SZMF


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Europipe perform 100% ultrasonic testing of longitudinal weld seams. This testing can identify irregularities in the weld but it requires a skilled operator and time to determine the severity of the defect. SZMF are developing a multi-angle ultrasonic apparatus, Figure 11, to characterize welding defects in 3 dimensions. It is expected that a representation of the defect will be generated on a visual display for an operator resulting in reduced interpretation time and judgment errors.

Figure 11. Multi-angle ultrasonic defect characterization experiment at SZMF

Key Learnings Similar to CSM, a key learning of the SZMF visit was realization of the expertise available. This alone is invaluable for ensuring Australia’s engineering knowledge and standards are aligned with the world’s best practice. The scholarship holders now have contacts who can be the first port of call to help answer difficult technical questions. SZMFs activities demonstrated a real commitment to continuous improvement. From an outsider’s perspective, the level of detail pursued may seem excessive with no obvious economic benefit. However, SZMF is building a body of knowledge and technology for the Salzgitter AG group that should maintain a competitive advantage within the steel and pipe market. When the market changes Salzgitter AG will be well positioned to adapt. Facilities like CSM and SZMF are unheard of in Australia. Their size and capability and the large research market in Europe allows them to operate as private enterprises. In Europe, research contracts are let in an analogous way to construction contracts in Australia. The appreciation of research and vast potential of new technology is not lost on the Europeans. They realize without innovation their industries will not survive. As a result, they are prepared to invest in dedicated, intelligent people and the required facilities to produce profit-generating innovation.


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8. Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann, Germany

(25th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Jörg Nanz Title: Quality Manager Phone: 0203 9992278 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) is a steel maker. The shareholders of HKM are Thyssen Krupp (50%); Salzgitter Mannesmann (30%) and Valourec and Mannesmann Tubes (20%). All of HKMs steel production goes to its shareholders in about the same proportion as their ownership. The HKM steel plant is located on the Rhine River in the Duisburg region of Germany. It formed due to consolidation in the European steel industry in 1990 by the merger of Krupp Stahl and Mannesmannröhern-Werke.

Facility and Process Data HKM currently produce 5.6 million tones of steel per annum in both slab (rectangular) form and round form. The slabs are used by Thyssen Krupp and Salzgitter Mannesmann for the production of plate and coil and the rounds are used by Valourec and Mannesmann Tubes for the production of seamless pipe. HKM operate a coking plant and sintering plant to produce raw materials for two blast furnaces. Blast furnaces operate at temperature in excess of 1500oC to reduce iron oxide to liquid iron. The liquid iron is transported to the converter plant to make steel. It is firstly desulphurised before being added to the converters. Steel is made in converters by blowing pure oxygen to refine a mixture of liquid iron and scrap metal. Additional refining and alloying are carried out in secondary metallurgy stations. Typically for linepipe steels, this will involve calcium injection (for sulfide modification), vacuum degassing, and microalloying. The molten steel is then continuously cast as either slabs or rounds. Continuous casting helps ensure uniform solidification and optimum structure. HKM operate three slab casters and two round casters. Two of the slab casters, Figure 12, and both the round casters are bow-type casters while the third slab caster is a vertical bending caster. The vertical bending caster assists with steel cleanness and therefore achieving very high fracture toughness which is important for gas linepipe.


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Figure 12. Continuous casting of slabs

Key Learnings In many ways the HKM steel plant is similar to Australia’s BlueScope Steel. The basic equipment and production output is similar, except BlueScope Steel only have 3 slab casters and no round casters. The grade mix of HKM is biased towards the high-strength end more than BlueScope Steel. This is driven mainly by the markets of each steel maker. HKM are able to achieve very low sulphur levels through high quality feed material and efficient treatment. Low sulphur levels are very important for steel quality and toughness.


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9. Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech, Germany

(26th May 2009)

10. SMGB Plate Rolling Mill, Germany

Key Contact Name: Dr Christine Beltrami Title: Manager Hot Rolling Department Phone: +49 208 4584529 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech (SMGB) Plate Rolling Mill turns slabs from HKM into plates via hot-rolling. The rolling process reduces the thickness of the slabs and increases their length and width to form plates. SMGB’s plate mill can produce up to 800,000 tonnes of steel plate per year. They have a turnover of €690 million and 466 employees. Approximately 60% of their output is used by Europipe in the manufacture of large diameter linepipe for gas transmission pipelines.

Facility and Process Data Slab dimensions: 100-300mm thick x 1000-2400mm wide x up to 12,000mm long Plate dimensions: 6-150mm thick x 1200-4800mm wide x 4,000-28,000mm long Slabs are heated in a walking beam furnace before entering the rolling line. The plate rolling mill, Figure 13, is a single-stand 4-high reversing mill that uses thermo-mechanical rolling processes. “Single-stand reversing mill” means that slabs are rolled backwards and forwards through the rolling stand over a number a passes to achieve the required dimensions. “4-high” means that rolling stand has two working rolls (i.e. rolls in contact with the hot slab) and two support rolls (i.e. rolls to give the working rolls additional stiffness and support). “Thermo-mechanical processing” is a technique that uses the combination of deformation and temperature to achieve specific microstructures in the finished plate. An accelerated cooling line is installed downstream of the rolling stand to provide additional control and refinement of the microstructure. Mechanical properties (strength, ductility, fracture toughness) of rolled plate are determined by the microstructure of the steel. Slabs are not rolled to plate one at a time. During the visit, at least three slabs/plates were being rolled on rotation. While a slab is cooling to the


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temperature required by the next rolling pass, another slab/plate would be undergoing rolling. After the plates are rolled and trimmed to size, 100% of the surface is visually and ultrasonically inspected. The dimensions of the plate are automatically measured by laser.

Figure 13. The single-stand 4-high reversing plate rolling mill

Key Learnings Germany is behind Australia in a number of aspects of occupational health and safety. Cigarettes were smoked in control rooms that we visited. Smoking in the workplace, especially in confined rooms, has been banned in Australia for some considerable time. Despite technological advances in inspection equipment, the inspection of the plates for surface defects is performed by humans walking on top of the plate. This suggests that even in a plant as automated as this one, the human eye is still the most sophisticated and cost effective inspection device. Automated devices are employed for checking the dimensions of the plate, examining the internal structure of the plate, and controlling the rolling process but the discrimination required to identify surface irregularities is still the domain of the eye.


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11. SMGB Pipe Bending Mill, Germany

Key Contact Name: Raimund Bϋlte Title: Manager Production and Maintenance Phone: +49 208 4584739 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech (SMGB) Pipe Bending Mill is an induction bending plant. SMGB’s bending plant can produce bends in pipe from 114-1626mm OD and wall thicknesses up to 170mm. They can form radius from 1.2-12 times the pipe diameter.

Facility and Process Data The induction bending process makes it possible to accurately shape steel pipe. Induction bending is a largely automated process in which a narrow circumferential band of the pipe is heated by an induction ring. The bending force acts axially on the pipe, whose front end is clamped to a pivoted arm. Set to the desired bending radius, this bending arm describes a circular arc around its pivot point. The induction ring moves along the arc of the bend, heating adjacent segments of the pipe and allowing it to bend further. The pipe bending mill also has facilities for post-bend heat treatment, end preparation, and coating (blasting and painting).

Figure 14. Section of pipe being prepared for induction bending


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Key Learnings During the visit, the Pipe Bending Mill was fulfilling a contract to supply several bends to a French nuclear power plant. The pipes were approximately 1m in diameter and had a wall thickness of approximately 100mm, Figure 14. The bend sections were about 4m long and required to be bent through 90°. To achieve this SMGB did several interesting things:

• An eccentric hole was machined in the pipe to give a thinner wall at the intrados and a thicker wall at the extrados. This resulted in the wall thinning on the outside of the bend and the wall thickening on the inside of the bend giving approximately equal wall thicknesses after the bending process. Figure 15, shows a cross-section through an induction bend that demonstrates the degree of thinning and thickening on the extrados and intrados, respectively.

• A long segment of pipe was used as a moment arm to apply greater force to bend such a large pipe over such a short distance.

• Hand-grinders were used to remove the “wrinkles” from the inside of the bend. This appeared to be a very labour intensive and time consuming process.

Figure 15. Section through an induction bend highlighting wall thickness changes caused by the bending process.


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12. Europipe GmbH, Germany (26th May 2009)

Key Contacts Name: Dr Hans-Georg Hillenbrand Title: Director Sales Phone: +49 208 9764100 Email: [email protected] Name: Dr Christoph Kalwa Title: Senior Sales Manager Phone: +49 208 9764823 Email: [email protected] Name: Arzu Budak Title: Quality Engineer Phone: +49 208 9764735 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Europipe is a manufacturer of large diameter linepipe. They claim to be the largest U-O-E pipe mill in the world. They produce grades up to X120. Europipe’s Mulheim facility has a U-O-E mill and a three-roll bending mill. The U-O-E mill can produce pipes up to 18m long while the three-roll bending mill can produce pipes up to 12m long. On the day of the tour, Europipe were producing 1219mm OD API 5L X80 linepipe for the Nordstream pipeline project. Nordstream is an offshore pipeline that will run the length of the Baltic Sea to deliver gas directly from Russia to Germany.

Facility and Process Data The U-O-E process is so-called because of the main steps it uses to form plate into pipe, Figure 16.

• U – the plate is first bent into a “U” shape • O – the plate is next bent into an “O” shape • E – the pipe is mechanically “E”xpanded


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Figure 16. The U-O-E process (Source www.europipe.com) After O-forming, the edges of the pipe are tack welded with Gas Metal Arc Welding. The pipe then travels to the internal welding station where a 4-wire submerged-arc welding process deposits the internal weld bead and the external welding station where a 5-wire submerged-arc welding process deposits the external weld bead. Multi-wire submerged-arc processes are used for very high productivity. Essentially it means that 27mm thick pipe (as was being manufactured on the day of the tour) can be welded in two passes. The mechanical expansion occurs after the pipe is welded. The expansion devices are segmented shoes which fit inside the pipe and expand radially outward. Frictional forces hold the steel onto the shoe and therefore deformation occurs between the shoes. The expansion is non-uniform due to the design of the expansion devices. The results of this can be seen as


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“lines” along the bore of the pipe after it has been blasted in the coating plant. Pipes are hydrostatically pressure tested and non-destructive tested (NDT). Europipe use a combination of NDT technologies for weld inspection. The major inspection technique is ultrasonic inspection (UT). When the UT system identifies a defect in the weld seam, the pipe is sent for radiographic inspection. The radiography system at Europipe is filmless. Radiographic images are stored electronically. The dimensions of the pipe ends (diameter, out-of-roundness, squareness and thickness) are measured automatically by a laser measuring device.

Key Learnings There were several impressive things at Europipe:

• The O-press was a very impressive piece of equipment to observe in operation. It is essentially a 60,000 tonne hydraulic press that stands at least two-storey’s high.

• Each pipe weighs 15-20 tonnes. Europipe employ a method to safely move the pipe laterally (rather than letting it roll under gravity) which involves two beams that have sinusoidal profiles. The beams pivot back and forth which moves the pipe along in a controlled manner.

• The automatic laser measuring system performs a set of measurements in a matter of seconds that would normally take one or two people minutes to perform. This is particularly interesting for application in a high productivity ERW pipe mills (like the pipe mills in Australia) where the number of pipes produced is much higher but the tonnage output is much lower.

• The connection between the work done at Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung (SZMF) and the operations at Europipe is obvious. For instance, SZMF have a SAW welding head that replicates the welding conditions at Europipe. This is used by SZMF to develop and test weld procedures on Europipe’s behalf (amongst other things). It is very interesting to see the direct application of research and development work in a factory setting.


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13. Mulheim Pipe Coatings, Germany (27th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Stefan Groß Title: Project Manager Phone: +49 208 4596239 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company Mulheim Pipe Coatings is at Mulheim not far from the steel, steel plate and pipe mill facilities in Duisburg. Mulheim Pipe Coatings is 100% owned by Europipe. Approx 2 years ago this plant was part of Eupec. Eupec is still owned 100% owned by Europipe, but Europipe has sold the naming rights and all Eupec plants outside of Germany to a Korean firm.

Facility and Process Data The facility has a capacity to coat pipe up to 64” in diameter and is predominantly used for coating gas pipelines. The plant is capable of applying the following coatings:

• Internal (flow) coatings: o liquid epoxy

• External coatings: o Single of Dual Layer FBE o 3LPE or 3LPP

The coating process begins with the pipe being heated through an induction coil with the temperature varying depending on the coating to be applied. Heating is undertaken to remove any residual moisture, to prevent rust blooming after blasting and to start the curing process of liquid epoxy flow coatings. Visual inspection of the pipe is carried out for oils or other residue that may affect the coating process prior to the pipe being blasted, if required the pipes will be cleaned prior to heating. If internal coating is required the pipe is then internally blasted using grit. Recently a pre-blasting machine was added to the facility to reduce bottlenecking caused by pipes that required re-blasting. The addition of the pre-blasting line has resulted in an increase of production of 25 to 30%. Another initiative has been to manually install masking tape to the ends of the pipe prior to coating. This tape is easily removed post coating to provide the perfect cutback at each end. The internal coating is applied in a single pass using a multiple head pneumatic spray unit


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The pipe is then sent to hot air furnace for curing for 2 hours at 90 degrees Celsius. After the internal coating is cured it is manually inspected for quality by sending personnel down the pipe on trolleys. The pipe is then end-capped, to prevent damage to the end faces, and directed to the external coating line as a continuous line of pipe, where it is blasted externally, heated to 180 degrees Celsius and feed into the coating line. The pipe is continually rotated through the coating line and differing coating heads can be used depending on the external coating process, Figure 17. During our visit the line was coating 3LPE, as such the first head was applying 150microns of FBE, followed by an extruded layer of adhesive (200 microns) and an extruded layer of PE (3.85mm) with a combined thickness of 4.2mm. As the pipe was to be used offshore, a rough coat was required and this is achieved by applying granulated PE just after the PE extruded layer. This built the total coating thickness to 8mm.

Figure 17. Schematic showing external coating process (Source www.europipe.com) If dual layer FBE coatings were to be applied the adhesive and PE extruders would be replaced with a second FBE head. The pipe and external coating is then cooled using a water spray. In a similar manner to the internal coating, the cutback is achieved by manually applying special heat resistant tape in the correct width prior to coating and then removing tapes prior to final checks. No thickness checks are done on individual layers during the application process. Calibration runs are undertaken at the beginning of each week to ensure that the process is meeting the minimum thickness requirements


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for each layer. Quality checks are made routinely after coating application to meet the Client Specification and Standards.

Key Learnings The plant predominantly produces 3 layer coatings. These coatings are preferred in Europe in contrast to the single or dual layer FBE coatings preferred in USA/Canada and Australia. As per the steel & pipe mills, visual inspection is still used in some instances and some areas of work still require manual labour as automated process are not as effective. The author was particularly interested in the rough coat being applied. The additional thickness of coating provided by this method whilst using less PE than extruding a full HDPE layer of this thickness may be of use in HDD applications.


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14. GDF Suez, France (28 & 29th May 2009)

Key Contact Name: Laurent Bourgouin Title: Engineer Phone: +331 49225174 Email: [email protected]

Overview of Company GDF Suez is the result of the merger of Gas De France and SUEZ which occurred in July 2008. The aim of the merger was to create one of the top energy providers in the world. Gas De France was previously a government owned utility that privatized 10 years ago. SUEZ was an Energy and Environment (water & sewerage treatment) provider predominately in France & Belgium. GDF Suez relies on a diversified supply of energy sources as well as flexible & highly efficient power generation assets to provide innovative energy solutions. Currently GDF Suez is:

• Leader in Natural Gas in Europe o No 1 purchaser o No 1 transmission & distribution o No 2 storage provider

• World Leader in LNG o No 1 importer and buyer in Europe o No 2 operator of LNG terminals o Leader in Atlantic basin o Owns 20 LNG ships

• Leader in Electricity o No 5 producer & supplier in Europe o No 2 producer in France o No 1 provider of Independent Power Production in the world o Focus on solar, biomass, geothermal and wind generation o 60,000MW generation capacity

50% Natural Gas 19% hydro 13% other 11% Nuclear 7% coal

• World Leader Environment o No 2 supplier of environmental services in the world


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Facility and Process Data We visited GDF Suez Research and Development facility opposite Stade De France in Paris. Across the various research centres there are 7 R&D programs:

1. CO2 capture & storage 2. Centralised Renewable Energies 3. Energy Storage 4. Desalination & associated energy technology 5. Offshore LNG Storage 6. Smart Metering 7. The Sustainable City

The facility we visited is primarily dedicated to Gas R&D and has four main focus areas:

1. LNG 2. Gas utilization & new services 3. Transmission & Underground Storage 4. Distribution

The Gas R&D area has 560 engineers & technicians over 2 sites in Paris and had a budget of €90 million in 2008. We spent some time with personnel looking at the Transmission focus areas and the Distribution focus area. Within the Distribution area, the main development that was presented to us was the ICARE Project (Inspection, Corrosion, Assessment & Repairing) which has been developed for both transmission and distribution networks. The ICARE Projects major objectives are:

• To develop decision making tools • To identify and evaluate NDE techniques and performance (focus on

intelligent pigging) • To improve management of corrosion • To develop repair techniques without disruption to the network.

The Project is split into sub-Projects:

1. Inspection 2. Corrosion 3. Defect Assessment 4. Repairing & Welding

At the facility we were shown all of the testing laboratories available which were similar in nature to the other testing facilities we had visited in Italy and Germany.


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The point of difference noticeable at GDF Suez was that the R&D facility was heavily involved in using the results of its testing to develop software and other decision making tools for GDF Suez Operation and Maintenance personnel. Of particular note was the demonstration of the Pipeline Integrity Assessment Software GADLine, which is a tool developed by GDF Suez to guide Operation and Maintenance personnel in assessing pipeline defects and guides them in the most suitable repair method to be utilized. We were also briefly shown around the R&D laboratory dedicated to HDPE distribution and household connections. Of interest were tools for creating new junctions from the surface avoiding the need for personnel to enter the trench, hence making the excavation much smaller, the affected area smaller and the over work cheaper. Also displayed were tools and equipment that have been developed to install high flow slam shut devices retrospectively into household lines so that if the line is cut between the house and the distribution main, the gas flow from the distribution main is cut off.

Key Learnings The focus of research and development appears to be much more orientated towards developing tools for use in ever day gas transmission and distribution networks, such tools being based on the results of the R&D work being undertaken. This is a result of the R&D personnel being part of a company involved in gas transmission and distribution compared to other R&D companies visited which targeted more specific problems directly related to steel pipe manufacture and associated properties.

Documents

2009 JTM Study Tour Report