Aquastructure Solutions Inc. will be responsible for the water related research and development activities of INCAS³ in Canada. With nearly two decades of experience in the water industry, Aquastructure Solutions Inc. founder and CEO, Syed Imran, expressed optimism about the cooperation with INCAS³: “This partnership will give my company access to the research and development capabilities required to solve some of the most complex challenges in the safety, security and protection of Canadian water resources”.

John van Pol, Managing Director of INCAS³, indicated his agreement with Dr. Imran, “This relationship is a great opportunity for INCAS³ to put to use its expertise with cutting-edge sensor technology. We look forward to providing the initial means for Aquastructure Solutions Inc. to grow and build its project portfolio”.

With this enterprise, INCAS³ continues to expand its cooperation with Canadian businesses. In addition to existing partnerships with the PTRC, CanNorth, and the University of Saskatchewan, INCAS³ also has two joint ventures: the PTRC/ INCAS³ Innovation Centre Inc. and, with this latest development, Aquastructure Solutions Inc..

Canadian oil fields, particularly those in Eastern Alberta and Western Saskatchewan that experience very low recovery rates, high waste water production from reservoirs, and other environmental and production issues, are main targets of the consortium. With Saskatchewan’s two universities and research council experienced in the development of processes to help address these issues, tapping into that knowledge will be crucial for taking these state-of-the-art sensing and control technologies – which have been successfully deployed to identify problems in other industrial processes –to unique oilfield situations.

“Of Saskatchewan’s 45 billion barrels of oil reserves, some 25 billion are heavy oil deposits that are very difficult to exploit,” noted Malcolm Wilson, CEO of the Petroleum Technology Research Centre.  “We know that recovery rates average 8% in heavy oil fields. Even here, recovery increases by producing sand along with the oil.  This leaves holes in the reservoir that we need to understand better in order to recover more of the oil.  Sensors will help us do this.  We already illustrated in a field trial late in 2012 that Dutch microsensors can travel successfully through heavy oil formations and potentially help identify the location of those gaps.”

The creation of the consortium is the culmination of a two-day road-mapping workshop hosted by the PTRC/INCAS³ Innovation Centre (PI Innovation Centre for short) which included several research partners in the workshop – the Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan, the University of Groningen, Eindhoven University of Technology, and the Saskatchewan Research Council (along with input from select oil and gas companies). The workshop helped to identify key opportunities for improving recoveries and reducing environmental impacts of oil production.

“The economic prize for Canada in the application of these new technologies is enormous. Even an increase in production from Saskatchewan’s heavy oil reservoirs from 8 to 15% would mean two billion more barrels of oil produced annually, or at today’s rate, almost 200 billion dollars in economic impact,” said Dr. Wilson.

The newly created consortium will develop work plans and projects that will facilitate collaboration between all partners, in both Europe and Canada, and will establish dedicated funding for development and deployment (RD&D) activities leading to commercial applications.

The signing ceremony creating the new consortium was held on February 1^st at the PTRC building in Regina, Canada, and included MLA for Regina Walsh Acres Mr. Warren Steinley on behalf of the Saskatchewan Government, Dr. Dennis Fitzpatrick (Vice President of Research from the University of Regina), Dr. James Basinger (Associate Vice President of Research at the University of Saskatchewan), Professor Sibrand Poppema (President of the University of Groningen), Professor Hans van Duijn (Rector Magnificus of the Eindhoven University of Technology), and representatives from Innovation Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy, and the PI Innovation Centre.

“The University of Regina is excited to be part of this consortium,” said Dr. Vianne Timmons, President.  “International collaborations such as this provide important opportunities to enhance the engineering and technological research being done at Saskatchewan’s universities, while helping realize environmental and economic benefits in our province and around the world.”

“The Dutch Top Sector policy is all about creating sustainable economic growth by aligning industry and social challenges with university research. This initiative provides an excellent opportunity to do so in an international context.” noted Professor Van Duijn.

About the PI Innovation Centre

The Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) – INCAS³ Innovation Centre (PI for short) is a not-for profit research collaboration between two of the premier R&D organizations from North America and Europe. The PTRC conducts research into improving the efficiencies and environmental impacts of oil recovery in Canada and the world. INCAS³ develops sensor technologies for monitoring industrial processes, infrastructures and environmental monitoring. The synergies were recognized between the two companies through initial meetings in 2011, and in 2012 both came together to create PI – specifically to develop sensor technologies to help the oil and gas industries become more efficient and extract resources using less energy and with fewer environmental impacts.

This exciting result is from a field trial conducted by the PI Innovation Centre – a joint venture of the Canadian Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) and its Dutch-based partner INCAS³ – in collaboration with Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), which provided field access. The successful experiment is the first step towards mapping the structure of heavy oil reservoirs with micro sensor technology.

Heavy oil recovery challenges

Using existing recovery methods such as CHOPS (Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand), heavy oil reservoirs in the Saskatchewan-Alberta border region of Canada see only a five-to-eight percent recovery rate. In CHOPS production, a sand and oil mixture is extracted from the heavy oil field; the produced sand that comes up with the oil leads to the creation of empty spaces or ‘wormholes’ in the reservoir. These ‘wormholes’ form a potentially immense network of channels in unconsolidated sandstone preventing pressurization of the reservoir and, thus, influencing the efficiency of oil production. If the Canadian oil industry can better characterize these reservoirs, extraction methods can be improved, which could lead to a substantial increase in yields up to 20% while lessening deleterious effects on both the environment and extraction efficiencies such as excess water production.

The challenge is to better understand the structure of these reservoirs. If this network of wormholes exists, sensors should provide information about details as to their number, diameter, direction and location. For this purpose INCAS³ is developing sensor motes that can be injected into heavy oil reservoirs, collect relevant data, and return to the surface. The main issues to overcome are the size of the sensors, the extreme conditions they face, communication with the sensors from the surface, and retrieving the sensors out of the reservoir.

Unprecedented success in first field test

November 12^th to 16^th saw the first proof of principle. The initial results indicate that between 10% and 20% of the injected sensor motes – those with a diameter of 7 mm or less – successfully passed through the reservoir. Dr. John van Pol, Managing Director of INCAS³, is positive about the results. “The fact that the sensor motes traveled through the reservoir is a promising start for this innovative research,” he noted.
Dr. Malcolm Wilson, CEO of the PTRC, commented on the importance of this first field success to the future of heavy oil recovery. “With the kinds of recovery rates we experience in CHOPS production,” said Wilson, “to actually be able to see and better understand these wormholes will enable us to develop improved recovery techniques.”

The next step is to closely analyse the obtained results. The PI Innovation Centre, a not-for-profit company founded by the PTRC and INCAS³ to develop and deploy micro sensor technology to the oil industry, will set up a research program to move to the next phase of trials, namely establishing good communication between the sensors and surface.

About the PTRC-INCAS³ Innovation Centre (PI Innovation Centre)
The PI-Innovation Centre was founded in 2012 by the PTRC and INCAS³ to take Dutch micro sensor technology to the oil patch in Canada, adapting and adjusting the technology to face the unique environmental and economic challenges facing the resource. PI is jointly operated by the two founding organizations.

About PTRC
The PTRC is a not‐for‐profit research and development company founded in 1998 that directs world‐leading scientific and engineering research into hydrocarbon energy production and carbon storage. Located in Regina Saskatchewan, the PTRC uses R&D to advance and support the recovery of western Canada’s rich but often difficult to access and monetize oil resources. Its Business‐Led Network of Centres of Excellence in enhanced oil recovery (STEPS network) is expanding its research from heavy oil to tight and conventional oil as well as extra‐heavy resources like oil sands.

About INCAS³
INCAS³ is an independent, private, non-profit research institute dedicated to solving challenging industrial and social technological problems by combining academic and engineering excellence. All research is performed by doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and senior scientists in collaboration with a team of skilled engineers from the headquarters in Assen, The Netherlands, as well as within internationally renowned partner institutes. INCAS³ is co-financed by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Province of Drenthe, the European Fund for Regional Development and the Municipality of Assen.

INCAS³ is looking for researchers with the ambition to solve complex societal and industrial problems with innovative scientific research. These include, for instance, open problems arising from the effects of a rapidly ageing population or the unsustainable demand of natural resources. INCAS³ is convinced that these problems are best addressed by multidisciplinary teams of excellent researchers and engineers and collaboration with science, industry and government. Examples of projects that INCAS³ is currently carrying out include elderly fall prevention through balance training and new sensor systems for monitoring water quality.

The five researchers with the best ideas will be given six months to work on their research proposal. During this time, they will benefit from collaboration with the INCAS³ scientists and engineers and have access to both INCAS³ research facilities as well as those of her partners. Moreover, the researchers will benefit from the INCAS³ international network of academia and industry.

Frank has performed his experimental research in the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen under supervision of prof. dr. ir. Bart van Wees. He and his co-workers have published their results in the renowned journals Nature Nanotechnology and Nature Physics.

On March 5th and 6th a delegation from Saskatchewan – headed by the Honorable Rob Norris (Minister of Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration) and including Dr. Malcolm Wilson (CEO of the Regina-based Petroleum Technology Research Centre), Mr. Mike Monea (President of Carbon Capture and Storage Initiatives with SaskPower) and Mr. Jerome Konecsni (CEO of Innovation Saskatchewan) – was in The Hague, the Netherlands for meetings with different companies and research organizations leading to the signing of agreements in the areas of enhanced oil recovery and carbon capture and storage (CCS) research.

The PTRC – current manager of the largest CO2 storage project in the world with the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Programme Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project – is also a world leader at improving recovery rates and environmental impacts of oil production particularly in difficult-to-access deposits like heavy and tight oil formations. Two of the key meetings in the Netherlands were with officials from CATO-2 (a research consortium of some 40 partners conducting carbon capture and storage R&D in the Netherlands) and INCAS3, a not-for profit company established to develop Dutch sensors that could have significant impacts on oil recovery in Canada and globally.

At a ceremony hosted at the Official Residence of the Canadian Ambassador to the Netherlands on March 5th, Minister Norris and Dr. Wilson signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with INCAS3 towards the creation of a not-for-profit company to develop and deploy micro-sensor technology to the oil industry.

“The research being conducted by the PTRC and INCAS3 could have significant implications for the oil industry in Canada, and in particular Saskatchewan. The cooperation is a great example of two not-for-profit companies sharing knowledge and expertise to solve key industrial and environmental issues,” said Mr. James Lambert, the Canadian Ambassador to the Netherlands. “As in many other industries where our institutions and companies work collaboratively, both countries can benefit from the research and improvements initiatives of this nature bring.”

“Through this new Canadian/Dutch company we have the opportunity to apply our expertise to challenging measurement problems, like oil reservoir charting, in an environment that provides the ultimate test for the robustness and reliability of our sensor systems”, says John van Pol, Managing Director of INCAS³.

March 6th saw the signing of a second MOU between CATO-2, the University of Utrecht, the PTRC and University of Regina at the head offices of TNO (the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) in Delft. TNO is the organization that manages the CATO consortium. The MOU covers a wide variety of potential collaborations related to CCS, from exchange of graduate students and researchers, to sharing of research results and collaborative projects.

“Linking the PTRC’s world-class research into carbon storage and enhanced oil recovery with two organizations in Europe that offer potential solutions to major challenges in Saskatchewan in particular is a win-win situation for both Canadian and Dutch researchers,” noted Dr. Wilson, “and of course the PTRC has a wealth of knowledge to share with our colleagues in Europe about the successful implementation of CCS projects.”

Dr. Jan Brouwer of CATO-2 concurred.

“Whereas climate skepticism seems to be the buzz-word nowadays, it is good to see that some countries take their responsibility and invest in technology development that will help us in the transition to a clean and sustainable society. I welcome the cooperation between PTRC and CATO and trust that the formalization of such cooperation through signing an MOU will encourage interaction of, and be beneficial to, R&D communities in both countries.”

About the Organizations

TNO

TNO is an independent innovation organisation. TNO connects people and knowledge to create innovations that sustainably boost the competitive strength of industry and the welfare of society.

TNO’s more than 4000 professionals work on practicable knowledge and solutions for the problems of global scarcity. TNO focuses its efforts on seven themes including Energy Through Innovations. TNO is working to ensure a sustainable, efficient and secure energy supply.

CATO-2

CATO-2 is the Dutch national R&D programme for CO2 capture, transport and storage in which a consortium of nearly 40 partners cooperate. The CATO-2 programme is a demand driven R&D programme and focuses on facilitating and enabling integrated development. This means that government and industries set the priorities within the research programme: the ‘problem owners’ are leading. The core of the CATO-2 programme consists of 11 sites that each offer opportunities for applied research on CCS.

INCAS³

INCAS³ is an independent, non‐profit research institute founded in 2008 to create a bridge between basic knowledge and the practical applicability of sensor systems. INCAS³ focuses on the reliability, reduction of energy usage and the applicability of sensor systems in open environments. The research is carried out on its premises in Assen by doctoral students, postdocs and senior scientists in combination with a team of excellent engineers.

INCAS³ is co‐financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Province of Drenthe, the European Fund for Regional Development and the Municipality of Assen.

PTRC

The PTRC is a not‐for‐profit research and development company founded in 1998 that directs world‐leading scientific and engineering research into hydrocarbon energy production and carbon storage. Located in Regina Saskatchewan, the PTRC uses R&D to advance and support the recovery of western Canada’s rich but often difficult to access and monetize oil resources. Its Business‐Led Network of Centres of Excellence in enhanced oil recovery (STEPS network) is expanding its research from heavy oil to tight and conventional oil as well as extra‐heavy resources like oil sands.

The award ceremony took place on January 20 in The Hague during the IMDI-Talent symposium. Mike received a nice plaque and 1,500 euros from chairman of the jury Cathy van Beek (University Medical Center Nijmegen). The other members of the jury were Josée Hansen (Health Care Inspectorate) en Hans Hofstraat (Philips Research). It is the first time that IMDI, the Innovative Medical Devices Initiative NL, granted this award.

Mike is honored that his thesis again has won a prize. In 2011 his thesis was awarded with the Thesis Prize of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) Netherlands. (read Mike’s blog) Details on the project and results can be found on the ISPO website.

Currently Mike is doing his PhD research at INCAS3 in the SPRINT project that aims to reduce falls in elderly people by using sensor systems and serious games to train balance right in their home environment.