BP has announced a new agreement to collaborate with the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis in Russia, a major research centre, and leading university Imperial College London to develop a new energy-efficiency research programme. The company will join with the institutions to develop a £9.3m research roadmap, which will be co-funded by both BP Russia and the Skolkovo Foundation, a Russian non-profit foundation.
The research will particularly focus on improving efficiency in the refining process through using and recovering thermal energy. The parties will examine new catalysts, energy recovery, fouling mitigation technologies in heat exchanges and pipelines, heat exchange equipment and processes, and waste heat recycling.
“We are very pleased to team up with Skolkovo to fund Boreskov and Imperial, two of the world’s leading research institutes in this key research programme,” remarked David Peattie, head of BP Russia. Skolkovo Foundation Executive Director Vasily Belov explained that the research could make a major contribution to the refining and downstream industry. “The project may significantly impact the refining industry by potentially decreasing its energy losses by 15%. We view involvement of BP as a significant step to enhance cooperation between academia and industry that would ensure viability and practicality of the research,” he added.
Valentin Parmon, Director of the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, echoed the sentiments. "We believe, that combining our experience in development and utilization of catalysts and catalytic processes with experience of Imperial College in chemical technologies would lead to fundamentally new approaches in advancing energy efficient technologies of processing carbon fossil fuels,” he noted.
PetrolWorld 22122011
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