Nextmol has been granted the project “In Silico Discovery of Biodegradable Inhibitors” funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 801342 (Tecniospring INDUSTRY) and the Government of Catalonia’s Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ).
Dr. Rémi Pétuya, the principal investigator, explains the project:
“The formation of natural gas hydrates, ice-like solids made of natural gas molecules trapped inside cages of hydrogen-bonded water molecules, and the aggregation of asphaltenes, heavy organic solids present in petroleum fluids, are the predominant flow assurance problems for the oil and gas industry. Currently, the favored hydrate management and asphaltene control approaches rely on chemical additives to inhibit these processes. In the context of both the green and the digital transition of European industry initiated by the European Commission, the project addresses the discovery of novel biodegradable surface active agents for function as inhibitors in two types of processes, namely the inhibition of natural gas hydrate agglomeration and the inhibition of asphaltenes aggregation. In that goal, innovative and transferable screening workflows combining simulation (molecular dynamics simulations) and data driven (machine learning) approaches will be developed.”
