Iran-Made Nano Product Reduces Risk of Fire in Water Transmission Lines

The company succeeded in producing polyethylene water transmission pipes containing nanoparticles which prevents fire in water transmission lines.

Based on the results of the tests conducted according to INSO 14427-2 and ASTM D635 standards, this new product has shown better performance than samples without nanoparticles. For instance, pipes containing nanoparticles have higher tensile strength; while the tensile value in the control sample was reported to be about 584, in the nano sample this figure reached 739 which indicates the higher mechanical strength of the new pipes.

Another feature of this product is the reduction in longitudinal return compared to conventional pipes. In the control sample, a longitudinal return of 1% was measured, while the pipes containing nanoparticles had only 0.6% longitudinal return. This indicates a higher stability of the structure of these pipes against the pressures resulting from installation and operation.

But one of the most important results of the tests is related to the flammability features. The ignition speed in conventional pipes was recorded at about 26.9 mm/min, while the nanotubes ignited at only 17.8 mm/min. This significant difference means increased product safety against fire risk.

In a relevant development in 2023, Iranian researchers at the Tehran-based Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) had also produced downhole corrosion inhibitors for oil pipelines that halts or slows down the corrosion process in a pipeline, which can also replace previously chemical inhibitors.

The AUT public relations said in a report that Mohammadreza Shoja, a PhD student at highly prestigous Iranian technical university and the executive director of the project "Synthesis, Identification and Performance Assessment of Hybrid Metal Organic Frameworks with Ionic Liquids As Corrosion Inhibitors In The Oil Industry," said in an interview that fuel supply is one of the basic issues in each country, and its cheap and safe transfer matters a lot.

Studies available online show that Ionic liquids (ILs) packed in metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as a hybrid solid-state material that possesses high conductivity, low flammability, and strong mechanical stability.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are normally defined as compounds completely composed of ions with melting point below 100 °C.

“One of the fast, reliable and continuous ways to transfer fuel (oil and gas) is using pipelines. In the meantime, we face a problem called corrosion; Corrosion is one of the major problems in the oil and gas industry, and due to corrosion, leakage of fuel from pipes takes place. Repairing and reconstructing pipes in traditional ways not only is takes a lot of time and is costly, but also it will cause damage to environment.”

“The main and ultimate goal of this research was to prevent corrosion in the oil industry, especially in oil transmission pipes using a selection of suitable inhibitory materials,” Shoja said, adding that, “In this research, for the first time, we used new ionic liquids with minimal database (as green corrosion inhibitors), metal-organic structures and slow release of the inhibitor over time to improve the corrosion condition of oil transmission pipes.”

 “Using these liquids as hybrid green corrosion inhibitors with metal-organic frameworks and investigating the inhibitor's slow release process was another aspect of the project's innovation,” he also explained.

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