Speaker: Robby O’Sullivan, Company Technical Representative, Strohm
Thermoplastic Composite Pipelines (TCP) has been deployed predominantly in subsea oil and gas applications, but has also found applications in onshore oil and gas fields and has inherent advantages in energy transition applications such as Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide transportation.
This presentation will provide a short history of the growth of Strohm as a company and TCP as a product. The design concept of combining polymer layers with fibre (glass or carbon) to produce a fully bonded pipe with no steel layers will be described. This concept results in a pipe capable of withstanding very high temperatures and pressures in corrosive environments where equivalent carbon steel and traditional flexible pipe may be constrained.
The manufacturing process for TCP is self-contained within an onshore facility in Holland where cleanliness and quality control are guaranteed. This, combined with an extensive qualification and testing program has resulted in zero pipe failures in factory acceptance testing and there have been no known failures in service.
Field applications can include wellhead jumpers, flowlines and risers. Installation of TCP subsea can be by reel or basket, each of which are considerably more effective in terms of cost, energy and carbon footprint than traditional pipelay methodologies. The applications and benefits of the various TCP installation techniques will be described in detail.
Finally, the absence of steel in a TCP pipeline renders it particularly suitable for the transportation of corrosive fluids. This is a considerable differentiator for energy transition applications such as Hydrogen transportation and Carbon Dioxide transportation for Carbon Capture and Storage developments.
