Mexican given Scottish award for designing submersible drilling rig

Mexican Elsa Ramírez has been recognized at the Young Professionals Green Energy Awards in Scotland for her design of a drilling rig to help with the installation of marine infrastructure.

The project by this Mechanical Engineering graduate from Tec de Monterrey’s Chihuahua campus was chosen as the best out of 100 participating projects because it was the first of its type and for the advantages it brings.

The awards were given by the organization “Scottish Renewables“ to recognize young professionals who are putting innovative ideas into practice within the Scottish renewable energy industry.

Elsa was nominated by Leask Marine, the company where she works, which offers marine construction, maintenance, and infrastructure services.

THE PROJECT

The drilling rig is used to replace the concrete blocks, weighing 300 tons, which are currently used to anchor platforms and vessels.

This drilling rig reduces costs by weighing less than 20 tons and taking up less space.

“(The drilling rig) works like a screw: it both drills and supports the same weight as the enormous 20 x 16 meter blocks that are used, reducing the area to a diameter of 800 millimeters.

“What’s more, the drilling rig has retractable legs which allow it to be transported in a 40-foot container, greatly reducing the cost of any freight,” Elsa told CONECTA.

“It works like a screw: it both drills and supports the same weight as the enormous 20 x 16 meter blocks that are used, reducing the area to a diameter of 800 millimeters.”

In the next few days, the drilling rig will be completely assembled, and testing will begin.

“I learned everything about engineering at the Tec. The workshop practicals on how to weld gave me a different perspective. I think it’s the equal of any university in the world,” said the Mexico City native.

On completing her degree in 2016, Elsa moved to the northern Scottish island of Stromness, where she studied for a Master’s in Marine Renewable Energy at Heriot-Watt University’s Orkney campus.

“I learned everything about engineering at the Tec. The workshop practicals on how to weld gave me a different perspective. I think it’s the equal of any university in the world.”

In October 2017, after completing her master’s degree and doing professional internships for 4 months, she was hired by Leask Marine as a project engineer.

She was in charge of digitizing machine work processes, as well as taking charge of the project for which she won the award.

Her plans include continuing to work at the company to develop new projects and make a name for herself in the marine renewable energy industry.

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