SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS. Future Demands of High Temperature Polymers in Harsh Environments

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1 SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS Future Demands of High Temperature Polymers in Harsh Environments Dates: October 13 th & 14 th, 2016 Location: Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA The TEES Application of Performance Polymers for Energy Applications (APPEAL) Research Consortium based at Texas A&M University in College Station is entering its 6 th year of execution of fundamental and applied research programs with major emphasis on thermoplastic materials used in harsh and corrosive environments. These programs are developed according to the needs of the consortium member companies, with the majority of interests centered in the oil and gas exploration and recovery segment. In 2016, a second group of member companies formed the APPEAL Material Producers Group (MPG) with focus on the upstream portion of the value chain. Among the objectives for the MPG is the need to better define product development targets and material qualification criteria in challenging application spaces such as HPHT, thus providing fewer and more cost effective product development cycles in meeting the specific demands of energy sector applications. Current & Past APPEAL Members Current APPEAL MPG Members The symposium program will include international contributors from leading academic and industrial agencies involved in fundamental and applied research fields. The symposium will focus on longer time horizon new material developments and enabling material technologies required to achieve success. The presentations will be on pre-competitive, non-proprietary research or protected information as assessed by the presenter. On the first day of the symposium, there will be an opportunity for attendees to participate in educational workshops that highlight some of the research undertaken or planned under the APPEAL Research Consortium. The conference organizers will provide periodic updates on the full agenda as the program evolves.

2 Program Organizers: Dr. H.J. Sue TEES Professor, Polymer Technology Center Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering Texas A&M University Dr. Tim Bremner Co-Director, TEES APPEAL Research Consortium & Vice-President of Materials Technology, HOERBIGER Corporation of America, Inc. Overview Engineered components produced from elastomeric, thermoplastic and thermoset polymer families have been utilized in a wide variety of applications in the exploration and recovery phases of oil and gas exploration. Drivers for the shift from elastomeric materials, which presently dominate this application space, to thermoplastic materials include higher temperatures, higher pressures and more corrosive or degrading use environments. To satisfy these increasingly harsh application environments, the dominant thermoplastic families have included the families of PAEK s, PPS in a variety of molecular weights and morphologies, and certain representatives from the PI, PBI, and PAI types among others. While each of these classes or families of polymers have shown success in a number of applications, it is also obvious that to fully exploit the features of these polymer families much work needs to be done to clearly understand their true engineering limits. In short, we have some good insight, but we don t know nearly enough about how these materials will behave in the myriad of environments that are out there in the end user space. The effort required to improve our understanding of current polymers of interest and to explore next generation non-metallic materials is easily justified. While the North American focus on shale gas is substantial, there still exists an absolute requirement to establish technologies to access untapped oil and natural gas resources around the globe that are technologically and financially inaccessible due in part to the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the reservoir, a condition referred to as sour gas. In 2015, it was estimated that 43% of the natural gas reserves in developed countries are sour as a result of H 2 S and/or CO 2 present in the reservoir. The Middle East region, for example, has approximately 60% of the remaining gas reserves classified as sour. The concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in many of these reserves is high enough, even at moderate temperatures and pressures, that current technologies are unable to withstand the highly corrosive environment to allow profitable recovery of the hydrocarbons. This situation exists in many offshore reserves, ultra-deep formations and the various flavors of high pressure and temperature scenarios. What we do know is that the temperatures, pressures and corrosive component concentrations are all, independently or collectively, increasing, and there is a welldefined requirement that technologies are developed that can cope with such conditions. The focus of this symposium will be on precompetitive research in the field of thermoplastic polymers, exploring the many contributing phases of such research towards the goals of viable polymer species that will

3 meet these longer term, highly demanding application environments. We will intentionally avoid overlap with other established conferences that explore more of the here and now polymers of interest, and will not consider papers that have a commercial or marketing bias to their content. We are interested in novel, courageous exploration, and even experiments that didn t work as planned yet allowed discovery or the creation of a list of salient questions. Areas of interest for papers include but are not limited to: Novel polymer structures established at the polymerization chemistry stage including unique monomer systems, catalysis, reaction profiles or polymerization technologies Post-polymerization introduction of unique structures / morphologies / properties through such means as physical blends, reactive blends, polymer chain functionalization, molecular weight enhancement, crosslinking etc. Manufacturing technologies used in the conversion of the reactor product into consolidated polymer shapes or structures, including traditional melt molding techniques, coatings, additive manufacturing technologies etc. Polymer materials showing low susceptibility to chemical attack in the environments encountered in high sour gas concentration hydrocarbon fields High Tg / Tm polymer systems where the practical requirements for a melt molding process are not presently viable, thus requiring substantially different consolidation schemes Characterization techniques that indicate unique performance attributes, measured in bulk, melt or solution state or measurements conducted under conditions that are similar to those encountered in the targeted field application Methods of evaluation or model based prediction of lifetime of materials in demanding environments New reinforcement technologies or fundamental research into the understanding of reinforcement functionality Susceptibility of polymer systems to intrinsic property modification through additives or modifiers that significantly affect such parameters as shear rate dependent melt viscosity, crystallization rates, morphologies or content, thermooxidative degradation susceptibility, solubility, hydrophobicity, blend compatibility etc. Use of modeling techniques in material design or material assessment from any stage of polymer development from polymerization to bulk property prediction

4 Sponsorships: There will be opportunities for promotional sponsorship of the cocktail reception and conference dinner (to be held on the evening of October 13), coffee breaks, and refreshments served during the student poster session. More details will be provided in the next symposium update. Exhibits: Attending companies and organizations will be able to set up exhibit tables to promote your goods and services to the attendees. Submission of Abstracts: It is requested that the attached form is used to submit abstracts. Abstract submissions may be made via to either of the Program Organizers. Please include the presenter s name and any co-authors or contributors to the paper with the abstract with affiliation. The deadline for submissions is May 31 st, The author will be expected to present the paper using Powerpoint or other suitable software formats, as well as providing a written paper containing citations and more in depth discussion of the subject matter.

5 Abstract Submission Paper Title: Presenter s Name: Address: Co-Author s Name(s) and Affiliation (use additional page if required): Abstract (Please try to limit to no more than 500 words):