International hub

Based in Bergen – the second largest city in Norway, which is frequently ranked among the foremost maritime cities and offshore developments in the world – DNV’s Technology Centre is located at the “ocean capital of the world” and works as an international hub for industries such as aquaculture, marine research, shipping, CCS, the offshore petroleum industry, and subsea technology.

Four facilities in one location

DNV’s Technology Centre in Bergen includes four distinct state-of-the-art facilities:

1. Technology Centre Materials and Corrosion
2. Technology Centre for Offshore Mooring and Lifting
3. Technology Centre Hydrogen and CCS
4. Technology Centre Bridge Technology and Testing

Understanding corrosion

The Technology Centre Materials and Corrosion is dedicated to investigating failures, as well as testing materials characteristics and performance with respect to corrosion resistance.

The facility has improved capacity to expose samples safely to H₂S for qualifying materials for service in sour environments, an issue in many challenging oil and gas fields. The facilities have also been upgraded to test safely in hydrogen.

Furthermore, as current subsea infrastructure ages and new explorations in offshore and deep seawaters continues, corrosion risk has become a growing concern to the industry. At the same time, more emphasis has been put on optimizing offshore operations and developing innovative ways to reduce costs. Leveraging expertise within both fields, the Technology Centre excels at supporting the industry with this challenge.

Scrutinized under harsh simulated conditions

The facility is equipped with advanced metallographic facilities, including a scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) and physical testing equipment.

These tools enable DNV’s engineers to analyse general and localized corrosion, coating degradation, material compatibility, stress corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, thermal fatigue, high-temperature corrosion, microbiologically influenced corrosion and fracture mechanics.

DNV also provides independent, third-party root cause analysis to help settle claims. “Often these projects involve multiple stakeholders with different views on what went wrong,” Mads said. "Our role is to reach an unbiased conclusion so the matter can be settled, and hopefully, be avoided in the future.

Learning from failures

The Technology Centre Materials and Corrosion has a long history of failure investigations providing a valuable basis for internal and external learning. Many of the investigations benefit from DNV’s expert system knowledge of ship machinery, subsea, pipelines, mooring systems, and structures. In addition to failure analyses, DNV performs risk mitigation, verification testing and quality assurance during production, among other projects.

“Failure of the smallest component can represent a significant risk to worker safety and the environment, to say nothing of financial losses in the event an asset must be shut down for unscheduled maintenance,” said Mads. “By performing root cause analysis, we help the industry improve safety and environmental performance as well as provide solid data that helps highlight critical business risks.”

The pull of 600 elephants

The Technology Centre for Offshore Mooring and Lifting is equipped with three testing machines for fibre ropes, mooring chains, steel wires, lifting accessories, oilfield risers, cables and other components, supported by four 10-tonne cranes to lift test specimens.

The site houses one of the largest tensile testing machines in the world. It has a 2,900 ton load capacity, roughly equivalent to the weight of 600 elephants, and the extended 20m test bed is ideal for both static and dynamic tests.

Based on the testing and mooring analysis, DNV’s facilities assist operators to use securely moored oil and gas assets well beyond original design life, as well as qualifying cost-efficient mooring solutions for offshore wind.

The Technology Centre can conduct dedicated test tensile and fatigue testing of aquaculture net panels up to 15 m length being used for qualifying new innovative technologies. Tailored test rigs for qualifying cleaning systems for aquaculture and maritime applications have also been developed.

Building the future on hydrogen

The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier will be key to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. For this reason, a dedicated hydrogen testing and research laboratory was opened last year to help quantify the performance of materials used in hydrogen transportation and storage.

The Technology Centre Hydrogen and CCS provides the industry with needed knowledge and insights for the design and construction of new assets, and for the management and re-qualification and repurposing of existing assets used for gas transportation and storage.

Evaluating materials in gaseous hydrogen environments is a natural extension of DNV’s capabilities, knowledge, and experience. The hydrogen laboratory can explore how different hydrogen environments, such as pure hydrogen and hydrogen and natural gas blends, affect the performance of materials used for hydrogen transportation and storage.

Strongly engaged in joint industry projects

There is growing demand for services at the DNV Technology Centres in Bergen - both in Norway and internationally, and with each new case, new insights and competencies are acquired to the benefit of the whole industry. As the testing facility collects a lot of data on corrosion, coatings and mooring lines, the facility is frequently engaged in different joint industry projects with relevant industry stakeholders and regularly participate in industry meetings, seminars and workshops. This allows DNV, as an independent and trusted advisor, to bring key insights and knowledge to the industry and help drive the energy transition.