GE Oil & Gas and Statoil have announced the four winners in their Open Innovation Challenge which focuses on reducing water usage in onshore oil and gas production.
The challenge, "Reduced Use of Water in Onshore oil and gas operations" received over 100 submissions from across the globe with 23 countries represented and has been designed to use crowd sourcing to find the solutions.
The companies invited proposals from various businesses, institutions, and individuals.
Based on the degree of innovation, technically feasibility and commercial viability of their proposals, GE and Statoil selected four winners who presented new solutions to both fresh water usage as well as treat and reuse water from shale production activities.
The winners are Ahilan Raman from Clean Energy and Water Technologies, Australia; Anthony Duong from Battelle Memorial Institute; Karen Sorber from Micronic Technologies and Chunlei Guo from University of Rochester in the US.
The joint initiative undertaken by the companies is known as ‘Powering Collaboration’ and aims to accelerate the development of environmentally sustainable energy solutions.
GE Oil & Gas CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said: "A focus on technology helped to unlock the shale revolution. Its intense innovation now shared across industries and between companies will ensure shale development continues in the most sustainable, responsible way possible.
"The diversity of solutions and sheer volume of submissions we received show the immense talent and creativity gained."
Statoil chief technology officer Elisabeth Birkeland Kvalheim said: "We need to continue to invent new, commercial technologies and models to increase margins, and at the same time reduce our carbon footprint.
"The water challenge is a great example of how Statoil and GE, together with the winners, can fast track promising solutions to the market and take an active role in transforming the future of the oil and gas industry."
Image: The four winners presented new solutions to both fresh water usage as well as treat and reuse water from shale production activities. Photo: courtesy of General Electric.
