Gas & Oil Production Support Services

This fluidized bed process plant is an example of pilot plant design & operation.

SwRI offers its abilities in "live" oil operations as a solution for your operations issues.

The Chemical Engineering Center at SwRI is a 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility.

The Chemical Engineering Center at SwRI contains 9,200 square feet of high bays and 2,000 square feet of conference space.

Example of demonstration plants

The Chemical Engineering Department at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) specializes in finding solutions to difficult problems and providing exacting services. Staff expertise and world-class facilities provide services such as wastewater cleanup, catalyst screening, pilot plant design and operation, reaction kinetics and enthalpy analyses. Many other services and capabilities are also available.

Services

Reaction Calorimetry Analysis

• Fracking fluid, proppant, and gel development and testing
• Measurement of reaction enthalpy changes
• Kinetic analyses (rate and end point detection)
• Acquisition of hazard analysis data
• Reaction optimization
• Process screening

Wastewater Cleanup

• Supercritical water oxidation process development for neutralization of waste water evaporation pond contaminants
• Complete destruction of most organic waste materials

Waste Disposal Characterization

• Methane source determination
• Spill response sampling and analysis

Catalyst Evaluation, Screening, and Testing

• Bulk composition of catalysts
• Catalyst characterization
• Catalyst poisoning testing
• Catalyst sintering analysis to identify loss of active surface areas
• Catalyst architecture testing to improve activity

Personnel Safety

• PPE training
• Personal gas monitoring equipment use and maintenance training
• Technical writing: safety and technical standard operating procedures
• Identification and installation of fixed and personal gas monitoring instruments
• Preventive maintenance program development

Corrosion Testing

• Exposure testing
• Electron microscopy
• Physical measurements

Analytical Testing

• Customized automated sampling and analysis
• Field sampling for routine and hazardous samples
• Pre-drill survey testing
• Waste disposal characterization
• Methane source determination
• Spill response sampling and analysis

Process Microbiology

• ASTM biodegradability testing
• Downstream recovery and processing of fuels and chemicals
• Biotreatability testing
• Process microbiology

Process Safety Management Support

• Compliance auditing
• General program development (i.e., lead Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), provide training and procedure preparation)
• Risk Management Plan (RMP) development
• PSM/RMP information management

Pilot Plant Design, Construction, & Operation

• Process Flow Diagram (PFD) and Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) creation
• Creation of operating and safety procedures
• Operator training
• PHA and Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOPS)
• Pilot unit commissioning
• Pilot unit operation
• Data interpretation and reporting
• Decommissioning

A Wealth of Resources

SwRI is an applied engineering research facility located in San Antonio, Texas, and conveniently adjacent to the Eagle Ford Shale Operations. As part of a long-held tradition, patent rights arising from sponsored research at SwRI are often assigned to the client. SwRI generally retains the rights to SwRI-funded advancements. SwRI has staff expertise in subsurface phenomena (hydrology), vibration analysis and diagnosis (compressors), non-destructive monitoring and testing (pipelines), and many other specialties.

For more information, visit our website at chemeng.swri.org.

Related Terminology

gas and oil  •  gas  •  oil  •  wastewater cleanup  •  catalyst screening  •  pilot plant design  •  pilot plant operation  •  reaction kinetics  •  enthalpy analyses  •  calorimetry  •  catalyst characterization  •  catalyst poisoning testing  •  corrosion testing  •  analytical testing  •  process safety management