THREE chemical engineering graduates from Loughborough University have been given an insight in to the workings of a major integrated energy company after winning a competition.
Thando Sibanda, Adeleye Adewole and Peter Oladimeji impressed judges on the BP Ultimate Field Trip competition panel with their proposals for extending the potential life of the North Sea’s oil and gas fields, beating 140 other teams of students to the prize of a seven week internship with BP.
Their proposal was to use the temperature gradient between seawater and geothermal fluids in depleting oil wells to generate electricity.
Using water and the electricity generated, they argued that they would be able to commercially produce hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy carrier.
Jen Veevers, marketing manager with BP’s graduate resourcing team said: “This year’s UFT competition attracted 140 teams, each with three members, from UK-based universities and they had to be able to prove that their ideas were practical, scalable, workable and financially viable.”
As part of their internship, the team have undertaken multiple industry training courses, including offshore safety training for an eight-day visit to a BP’s Clair platform.
Thando said: “The 12 hour long working days were hardly noticed, in fact most days we worked for 14 hours because we wanted to make the most out of our time while we were there, the passion and the great atmosphere around made it all easy.”
The trio also visited the Sullom Voe terminal on Shetland and spent a week in Norway at BP’s Stavanger office.
The BP Ultimate Field Trip is a team competition aimed at science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates.
“We created this event to give early-stage undergraduates the opportunity to better understand the energy industry’s challenges of meeting an ever-increasing demand sustainably and also to understand more about us as a company,” added Ms Veevers.
“In return, we want young people to see a career in the energy sector with BP as an opportunity to make a difference to the world”.