The collaboration between Perm Tech and TU Wien started more than twenty years ago. The beginning of cooperation was published in the previous article.
Today we will tell you about present days cooperation between universities. Assistant professor of "Environmental protection" department Galina Yilinikh and two master degree students had an internship at TU Wien and in this article they tell the Perm Tech public affairs office about the visit. The internship was lasting for 4 weeks.
Galina Yilinikh "Institute of water quality and resource management TU Wien — a long-time partner of "Environmental protection department". Professor Felner, who supervised the internship of Perm Tech master degree students, visited our University before, and we hope for further cooperation. The main topic of the internship was the environmental assessment of fields and the study of opportunities to improve the performance of oil and gas fields, taking into account the principles of "green development", including the treatment of drilling waste. Oil and gas production in Austria is carried out, but in comparison with Russia in a very small amount, so there was no task to adopt practical experience. The main purpose of the internship was to understand the conceptual principles and approaches used in Europe for environmental assessment of industrial processes and environmental impact reduction.
TU Wien environmental science school, the Institute for water quality and resource management — has a fundamental approach to the analysis of industrial technologies and urbanization processes, which allows us to look at the problems of interaction between industry, society and the environment more than just as technological problems of waste disposal or minimization of emissions and discharges. Therefore, during the internship, while having discussion with specialists of the University, who are the experts in the field of waste management and resource conservation, there were studied the possibility of applying methodologies for environmental assessment of processes, such as material flow analysis and life cycle analysis, to assess the impact of oil and gas production processes and in particular technologies for waste management. As part of the internship, there were also a meeting with Professor Hofshtatter, head of the Department of oil and geothermal energy of the University of mines situated in Leoben, who told the students about the main directions of drilling waste management in Austria. Professor said that there is a fundamentally different approach to this problem that is introduced in practice the so-called "waste-free drilling", when the drilled rock and the spent drilling fluid are not considered as waste, but as raw materials for other industries. For this, even at the stage of preparation and drilling of the well, further consequences are taken into account. To ensure that the drilled rock and the spent drilling fluid can be used as raw materials in a particular technology in their composition should not be hazardous substances, therefore, special "safe" reagents are used. Unfortunately, Russia still uses a different approach, so the problem of drilling waste management is so urgent.
The knowledge gained during the internship allowed us to improve the existing system of environmental assessment of drilling waste management technologies, including the long-term effects. However, the main value of such internship is not even in specific knowledge and skills, but in expanding views on certain problems and ways to solve them, which allows to spread the information received to other areas".
Egor Korolev, master degree student of "Civil Engineering" Faculty. "During the internship, there were gained new competencies in the field of geotechnics, and more specifically in the stabilization of soil embankments and foundations. I participated in the studies on stabilization of Perm marl in the framework of laboratory tests, technical excursions, meetings with experts in various fields of construction. It turned out to find the main solutions for the stabilization of the mound of marl with confirmed strength characteristics of the bulk material, in addition, derived alternative design solutions using geosynthetic materials. The internship gave an opportunity to gain huge experience in scientific work".
Anastasia Tretyakova, master degree student of "Environmental Protection" Department: I participated in research devoted to the best method of drilling waste disposal based on life cycle analysis. It was possible to expand knowledge: to get acquainted with the literature on this topic, use the databases. The internship was an excellent experience for me in the field of scientific activity: we had a great chance to exchange knowledge with the staff of TU Wien, to collect information for master's thesis work, to learn how to work in the STAN program (modeling of material and energy flows).
The collaboration between TU Wien and Perm Tech is kicking into high gear!!!