Oil extraction could save billions with line-cleaning robot – MENAFN.COM

Oil extraction could save billions with line-cleaning robot – MENAFN.COM

São Paulo – A problem that used to be addressed only from the outside in and could cost billions of dollars for the oil industry is on its way to a solution from the inside out. The Annelida robot (pictured above) can move around the tiny spaces of offshore production ducts. The equipment is tasked with cleaning the debris that get stuck in the walls and plug the ducts, preventing the oil from circulating. Named after the Annelida phylum, also known as the segmented worms, with species including earthworms, the robot aims at saving the money that oil companies such as Brazil's state-run firm Petrobras would spend on replacing damaged pieces and reducing the time when the equipment would remain unused. The idea came from the demand of the industry."Petrobras has always had trouble with clogged lines, both in oil production and distribution. They already have a procedure for avoiding clogging, and for quite some time they have this problem of how to recover clogged lines," said Anselmo Luís da Silva Jr, researcher of the SENAI Institute of Innovation in Embedded Systems in Santa Catarina. Annelida is focused on removing hydrates and paraffin plugs that cling to the walls