The Innovation Challenge sought technologies that reduced truck trips carrying proppants and water to the shale gas fields.
Proppant is combined with water and injected into a formation to stimulate or prop open the tiny fractures for free flow of gas.
This process requires several trucks of materials, resulting in road wear, traffic, noise, dust and emissions.
Statoil research, development and innovation senior vice-president Lars Høier said: "We were seeking both a lighter or more compact replacement for currently used proppants and/or new types of fluid or fluid additives that better suspend the proppant and are more efficient.
"The end game is to develop a diverse portfolio of technologies that help reduce the environmental footprint, while enhancing operational efficiencies."
Judges of the challenge analyzed 100 submissions from over 30 countries before selecting the five winners.
Bioastra Technologies, Quebec, has developed lightweight polymer proppant that can swell up to ten times their initial size in liquid and fit into small cracks in the formations.
New Brunswick-based Biopolynet’s coiled biopolymer fluid additive enables proppants to adhere to the surface of fissures in the formation.
The X shape alumina ceramic proppant developed by Hoowaki, South Carolina, can create a drag and help fractures to stay open and prevent the proppant from flowing back.
Florida’s Semplastics has come up with a lightweight polymer proppant that is half the density of sand, resilient to corrosion, extreme heat and is crush resistant.
University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center was selected for its lightweight, locally sourced ceramic proppant, which is approximately 40% less dense than current ceramic proppants as it is made from local available non-premium ore.
"We are eager to explore these collaborative solutions more as we move toward future testing, development and potential commercialization," Høier added.
The second Open Innovation Challenge was recently announced and aims to find technologies for reducing water usage in onshore unconventional oil and gas reservoir constructions.
Image: The objective of the Sand Challenge was to reduce truck trips. Photo: courtesy of Ole Jørgen Bratland / Statoil.
