High Power Laser Offshore Decommissioning Tool
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for removing subsea structures are inefficient, unreliable, and pose health, safety, and environmental risks due to slow cutting speeds, incomplete cuts, and the use of hazardous materials like explosives, particularly in difficult-to-access offshore locations.
Innovation Solution
A high power laser decommissioning tool with a rotating section and a high power laser fiber, capable of making precise cuts in a controlled manner, is used to sever tubular structures, allowing for safe and efficient removal of offshore structures by propagating a laser beam with at least 10 kW of power along a defined path.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional methods (explosives, mechanical cutters) are used for removing subsea structures, then the removal can be achieved, but the cutting speed is slow and the process is inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical cutting systems (diamond saws, abrasive water jets, torch cutters) with a high-power laser system. The laser beam delivers concentrated thermal energy to rapidly melt and vaporize metal structures, achieving cutting speeds orders of magnitude faster than mechanical methods while eliminating the need for physical contact with the workpiece.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of energy delivery from mechanical force to concentrated optical energy. By focusing high-power laser beams (kilowatt to megawatt level) through optical fibers onto the target structure, the system achieves rapid material removal through thermal processes, transforming the decommissioning process from slow mechanical cutting to fast thermal ablation.
2Reliability
If conventional cutting methods are used, then structures can be removed, but the cuts are often incomplete and unreliable
Solution Approach 1:
The laser system provides consistent, controlled energy delivery that maintains complete cuts through the entire thickness of structures. The high-power laser beam penetrates deeply and uniformly through metal, ensuring complete severance without the incomplete cuts, binding issues, and variability associated with mechanical cutters and torches.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates monitoring and control mechanisms that track laser beam delivery and cutting progress in real-time. This feedback ensures the laser maintains optimal power and positioning throughout the cutting process, guaranteeing complete and reliable cuts while maximizing efficiency through automated control.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If hazardous materials like explosives are used for removal, then structures can be demolished, but health, safety, and environmental risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces explosive demolition with controlled laser ablation. The high-power laser system precisely removes material through thermal processes, achieving structure demolition and removal capabilities without the uncontrolled shock waves, flying debris, and environmental contamination associated with explosives. This eliminates hazards to personnel, marine life, and surrounding infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potentially harmful high-energy laser beam into a precise, controlled cutting tool. By directing concentrated optical energy through optical fibers to specific locations on the target structure, the system achieves powerful material removal and demolition effects while maintaining precise spatial control, eliminating the uncontrolled harmful effects of explosives.
4Productivity
If high power laser systems are used for cutting, then cutting speed and precision improve, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs nested optical fibers to deliver high-power laser beams through complex pathways to the target structure. Multiple optical fibers are bundled and routed through the decommissioning tool, allowing laser energy to be delivered remotely to hard-to-reach locations on offshore structures, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining high cutting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses optical fibers as intermediaries to transmit high-power laser energy from the laser source to the cutting location. This intermediary allows the laser system to be separated into a remote power source and a simple handheld or mounted cutting tool, reducing the complexity at the point of operation while maintaining high power delivery capability through well-established fiber optic technology.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The high power laser system enables quick, complete, and precise cutting of subsea structures, reducing environmental impact and improving safety by avoiding hazardous materials and methods, while allowing for efficient removal and decommissioning of offshore facilities.
Implementation Method 1
capable of making precise cuts in a controlled manner, is used to sever tubular structures, allowing for safe and efficient removal of offshore structures by propagating a laser beam with at least 10 kW of power along a defined path
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided high power laser systems, high power laser tools, and methods of using these tools and systems for cutting, sectioning and removing structures objects, and materials, and in particular, for doing so in difficult to access locations and environments, such as offshore, underwater, or in hazardous environments, such as nuclear and chemical facilities. Thus, there is also provided high power laser systems, high power laser tools, and methods of using these systems and tools for removing structures, objects, and materials located offshore, under bodies of water and under the seafloor.