In this information session, Dr. Jordan MacKenzie, Co-Founder and CEO of Bioform, will provide an overview of the challenge associated with moving heavy oil through pipelines and the science behind its novel approach to pipeline drag reduction. The application of pipeline drag reduction technologies with respect to key challenges facing the oil and gas industry will be explored, including the impacts on capacity, economics and environmental impact.
A focus on Heavy Crude Drag Reduction Technologies
The transportation of Heavy Crude is a significant cost in the production of today’s petrochemical products and the transport of heavy oil generally. More importantly, for land-locked Canadian oil, with pipeline expansion almost at a standstill, the capacity constraints of the heavy crude takeaway system are creating an unnatural price depreciation for WCS against benchmark WTI. The Fraser institute estimated that this pricing differential cost the Canadian economy $21B in 2018, or 1% of its GDP.
Various technologies; heating, dilution, emulsions, water lubrication have been deployed to reduce drag and increase capacity within the existing pipeline network. We compare the existing technologies to our continuous multilayered capsule (CMC) technology and present early findings from our operational pilot facility.
CMC Technology
The webinar will explore several solutions and highlight our patent pending drag reduction technology that offers an economically viable solution to Canada’s crude oil export industry by increasing the capacity of existing crude pipelines by at least 2X while maintaining an 85%+ reduction in pressure drop compared to standard operations. The company has demonstrated a reduction in pressure drop of over 90% when applied to the transport of heavy crude oils and liquid-solid slurries at its operational pilot facility. Greenhouse gas emissions at pump stations and the need for viscosity modifiers, such as diluents and heating, are also anticipated to be significantly reduced.
About Jordan MacKenzie
Jordan MacKenzie is the co-founder and CEO of Bioform Solutions Inc, a sustainability focused technology company based in Vancouver. Prior to Bioform, Jordan was a post-doctoral fellow at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, where he developed drag reduction technologies for energy efficient transportation of complex fluids. He returned to Vancouver in 2016 as a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Chemical and Biological Engineering where he led the development of Bioform’s core technology and the company’s $2.25M pre-seed financing. Jordan holds a PhD in Chemical and Biological engineering from the University of British Columbia with a specialization in complex fluid dynamics, multiphase flows and applied mathematics.
For more information, find us on www.bioform.tech.