Demonstration of safety and reliability of novel technology for subsea seawater injection system

Short summary of the project

The aim of this PhD project is to develop methods and tools to demonstrate safe and reliable autonomous operation of a new subsea seawater treatment and injection system. The results are to target different stages of a technology qualification process, from the design basis is defined and till the system is installed and then monitored over a defined period of time. The project is planned to start around September 1st, 2024, and has a duration of 3 years. The more specific focus among the listed research topics is decided in collaboration with the SUBPRO ZERO partners.

Background and motivation

The transition period into climate neutral zero emission energy production involves oil and gas production, as a supplementary energy source and as an input to e.g., blue hydrogen production. As the access to develop new oil and gas fields may decline over the coming years, it is even more important to recover as much as possible from the existing developed fields. Here, sea water treatment and injection systems play an important role to enhance the recovery factor of existing fields.

Autonomous subsea seawater injection system is a novel, but yet not proven, system concept requiring the following capabilities:

Cover sea water treatment and chemical storage
To be operated in an autonomous way, including the control of injection tree, at an autonomy level 4, here defined as a system in full control in certain situations and where humans may supervise and intervene as needed.
Not physically tied to a floating production unit
All electric solutions, not dependent on hydraulic power supplies
Power supplied by an external source (e.g., floating wind turbines)
Can communicate and transfer essential data to the control room

This research project will have the primary focus on ensuring safe and reliable autonomous operation at level 4, where safety aspects relate to protecting environment and the critical subsea infrastructure.

The research will address a selection of the following challenges:

Safety and reliability requirements for autonomous operation
Technology qualification process
Qualitative and quantitative safety and reliability analysis methods
Modeling and simulation of autonomous control system
Simulation-based testing of autonomous control strategies
The qualification of solutions for functions to be managed or supported by artificial intelligence and machine learning
Incorporation of digital twins to support the qualification process, including exploration of industry standards like asset administration shell (AAS)

The project will involve relevant use cases from industry and active industry collaboration.

Innovation Potential.

Expected innovations include:

More efficient and higher quality of technology qualification processes from the use of digital twins and simulation-based approaches over the whole qualification process
Higher level of safety and reliability achieved with increased level of autonomy is subsea systems
Integration of autonomous control strategies and the use of artificial intelligence for decision-support.