Chapter One - Importance and emergence of advanced materials in energy industry

Abstract

Nanotechnologies and particularly state-of-the-art nanomaterials have already gone a long way toward to technological advances in many different industrial and scientific areas such as the materials and manufacturing, pharmaceutical, biomedical, aerospace, electronics, photography, and more recently the energy industries. Likewise, many revolutionary changes have been accomplished by using both nanotechnology and advanced materials in different process areas of the Oil and Gas industry (O&G industry), such as drilling, production, exploration, refining, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and distribution. For instance; more detailed and accurate information about reservoirs can be reached by using “nanotechnology and advanced materials such as nanosensors”; specifically “fabricated nanoparticles” can be useful for scale inhibition; “structural nanomaterials” can contribute to the development of lighter, more reliable, and long-lasting equipment in the O&G industry; and “nanomembranes” can be used for the gas separation and removal of impurities from oil and gas streams. New types of “smart nanofluids” can also be given as an example to the emerging applications of advanced materials and nanotechnology in the petroleum industry for EOR and drilling process. In brief, it can be said that there are many different areas in which nanotechnology can make a contribution to more efficient, much cheaper, and more eco-friendly technologies. In this regard, the importance and urgency of both advanced materials and nanotechnologies with a particular focus on nanotech-based solutions for the O&G industry will be mentioned in this chapter. Moreover, recent developments and advances in both scientific and industrial researches will be briefly reviewed, as well as some case study examples. The present problems/challenges in the O&G industry and their solutions which are obtained by applying nanotechnology and using advanced materials will also be discussed.