2017 Product of the Year Winners

Engineering disciplines improve safety, contribute to prosperity

12/7/2017
Kevin Parker & Amanda Pelliccione, CFE Media

What’s fascinating about innovation isn’t that it sometimes arrives in a “Eureka!” moment that fundamentally changes the world forever, but rather exactly the opposite. Most innovation arises instead incrementally and because of collective efforts. How does that happen, that we all conspire together to come upon what we need or what’s asked of us?

The winners of the very first Oil & Gas Engineering Product of the Year awards apparently have broken the code for doing just that, as their products have been identified as among the best introduced between January 2016 and July 2017. Review the winners to see if their innovative solutions can help solve one of your most pressing problems.

While a dedication to excellence is something our gold, silver, and bronze winners wear in common, their solutions are a disparate lot, reflecting the wide scope of technologies and many critical functions pertaining to the oil and gas industry. A process control system said to be daringly different and a suite of industrial software applications are both included in the selection, as are a combustible gas detector and a buoyancy module.

Join us in congratulating these technological innovators, and if you have the opportunity, mention you learned about their solutions in Oil & Gas Engineering. Tell them what challenges you need solutions for next. Continuous, incremental improvement ensures that our industry innovators will achieve the levels of agility, efficiency, and effectiveness necessary for all of us to compete—and win—in today’s global economy.

Oil & Gas Engineering staff extends appreciation to all who nominated products and took the time to vote. The 2017 Product of the Year awards will be presented to the winners at the 2018 Engineering Awards in Manufacturing dinner on Monday, April 16, 2018.


 

Data & Analytics

 

Plantweb Insight, Emerson Automation Solutions
Monitoring application family
Plantweb Insight is a collection of operational excellence applications for monitoring the health of plant assets, such as steam traps, pumps, and heat exchangers. Leveraging pervasive-sensing strategies, Plantweb Insight strategically interprets plant data to provide personnel with actionable information. The intuitive, browser-based user interface helps to ensure reliability, improve safety, and reduce energy usage. The pre-built analytics and domain expertise embedded in the applications minimize required configuration, allowing the software to be easily integrated with existing infrastructure. Abnormal situations and predictive diagnostics are presented to personnel in real-time, eliminating the need for manual calculations or periodic data collection.Emerson Automation Solutions
www.Emerson.com
Realtime Fatigue Monitoring System, Stress Engineering Services
Real-time fatigue monitoring
The Realtime Fatigue Monitoring System (RFMS) provides field measurements of stress and fatigue on drilling risers, wellheads, and other subsea systems in near real time. The RFMS calculates stress and fatigue at any location in a riser system/wellhead/conductor casing via measurements from 5 to 10 accelerometers and angular rate sensors placed at strategic locations along the riser, along with analytical riser mode shape information. Since the only required online inputs are the dynamic riser response, top tension, and mud weight, fatigue estimates may be calculated without knowledge of the impinging currents or other forcing events.Stress Engineering Services
www.stress.com

 

IIoT & Process Control

 

700-VA to 3-kVA tower-configured SC on-line UPS, Falcon Electric
Power supply tower
The 700-VA to 3-kVA tower-configured SC on-line uninterruptible power supply (UPS) protects information-technology and Internet of Things (IoT) equipment, telecommunications, servers, security systems, programmable logic controllers, and other power-sensitive electronic systems against power disruptions. The SC UPS tower features advanced digital signal processors, surface-mount device technology, multi-mode operation, intelligent self- diagnostics, and innovative battery boost circuits. These technologies enable a more robust and reliable UPS system by using fewer components. The SC UPS tower includes 5-year long-life hot-swap batteries. Optional external batter banks are available for applications requiring longer backup times during a power outage.Falcon Electric Inc.
www.falconups.com
Open Secure Automation system with Cybershield 2.0, Bedrock Automation
Control system firmware
The Bedrock Open Secure Automation (OSA) system with Cybershield 2.0 extends the benefits of intrinsic cybersecurity to networks, the Industrial Internet of Things, and third-party applications. The system enables authentication and encryption of I/O networks and field devices, and protects compliant networks and user applications such as controller configuration, process logic, and SCADA communications. OSA achieves this with an industrial-control-system certification authority that draws on the power and flexibility of public-key infrastructure and transport-layer security, delivering secure integration of third-party software applications. This open and secure platform is built for hardware, networks, and software.Bedrock Automation
www.bedrockautomation.com

 

Onshore & Offshore

 

Standardized Buoyancy Module, Trelleborg Offshore
Buoyancy module
The Standardized Buoyancy Module (SBM) is a modular redesign of the Distributed Buoyancy Module (DBM). The SBM allows smaller elements to be stacked together, enabling customized uplift requirements as specified for each project. The modular-buoyancy segments are designed to mechanically lock around the clamp, securely attaching the assembly to the desired location on the riser. The SBM can be adjusted to operate in seawater depths from surface to 2,500 meters by adding or removing elements. The design includes synthetic feet to the bottom of the finished assembly to prevent handling damage and reduce vessel installation time.Trelleborg Offshore
www.trelleborg.com/offshore
Vanguard, United Electric Controls
Gas detector
The Vanguard toxic and combustible gas detector features an open WirelessHART 7.2 communication protocol and can be used to detect the presence of methane or hydrogen sulfide. This detector was developed in collaboration with Chevron to meet the market need for a cost-effective way to add multiple gas measurement points. The Vanguard detector can be easily mounted anywhere and painlessly incorporated into any WirelessHART networks. Some applications for the detector include remote sites, plant infrastructure, and emissions monitoring in tank farms, oil and gas production facilities, refineries, pipelines, abandoned wells, and waste treatment plants. The gas detector boasts a 5-year battery life.United Electric Controls
www.ueonline.com
CoStrip, Veolia Water Technologies
Degasifying solution
CoStrip is a solution for the degasification of water containing high loadings of oil and suspended solids. CoStrip effectively removes up to 99% of dissolved gases such as BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene), carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide without the need for pretreatment. Its counter-current gas flow lowers stripping gas requirements as well as off-gas treatment costs. CoStrip’s horizontal design enables it to fit where height restrictions hinder installation of conventional towers. It is designed for easy, reliable, maintenance-free operation. CoStrip is available in standard sizes for a capacity ranging from 15,000 to 200,000 barrels per day.Veolia Water Technologies
www.veoliawatertech.com