Strohm and Evonik have secured full certification from DNV attesting that the undirectional Carbon Fibre PA12 tape used for Strohm’s Thermoplastic Composite Pipe (TCP) is fit to use for dynamic sweet and sour hydrocarbons, water, and gas injection applications.
The companies, in partnership with the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), have led the way in the development, qualification and supply of PA12 for TCP applications following an investment and testing programme over the past five years.
The novel approach introduced in DNV-ST-F119 has been trailblazing in seeking a fundamental understanding of the material to demonstrate the lifetime performance of a product operating in a challenging chemical, thermal and mechanical environment.
It has established a relationship between the functional requirements of a pipe and the performance characteristics of its materials, Strohm said.
NLR provided the main composite testing facilities which allowed parallel dynamic and long-term testing, thus significantly speeding up the process compared to traditional sequential testing.
Further expansion of the scope will include hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
“Developing a material class for disruptive technologies is always challenging. PA12 for Strohm’s TCP applications was no exception. The full application of the DNV’s standard’s approach to qualify the material has only added to the complexity but, with the help of our partners, we finally succeeded in characterising the material in unprecedented detail and unlocked its full potential,” said Carsten Schuett , industrial and energy technology leader at Evonik.
“The resulting dataset can be used generically, removing the need for material qualification in further projects which further enables us to use it for energy transition applications such as hydrogen transport and carbon capture utilisation and storage.”
According to Strohm, PA12 is a fully non-metallic, corrosion-resistant solution. Due to the use of carbon fibres, it is resistant to fatigue-based failures, enabling it for any dynamic application from jumpers to flowlines and risers, including sweet and sour hydrocarbon, water, and gas service.
The high stiffness of carbon fibres paired with the load transfer capability of PA12 as matrix also enables it for deepwater service and operating pressures up to 700 bar and temperatures up to 80°C. The material has been qualified for a lifetime of up to 30 years.