The pipeline industry spends nearly $40 billion per year maintaining assets and expanding networks. The data produced to keep track of these networks is a phenomenal amount, and companies are exploring ways to use that data more efficiently to manage existing pipelines. This data helps reduce the risk of an accident by alerting companies sooner to small faults in giant pipelines.
Every 30,000 miles of pipeline produces approximately 17 terabytes of data, around the same size as 4,000 high-definition films. Where an office worker would produce 4 to 10MB of data per day through emails and documents, and a consumer using Netflix may download a couple of gigabytes per film, a single gas turbine may produce 800MB to 1GB of data per day.
“It’s all images, and the images have a high density to them,” said Matthias Heilmann, chief digital officer at GE Oil & Gas.
GE is working on algorithms and software applications to recognize pattern detection, so a computer can detect a crack without needing to store and transmit an image of it. “We don’t have to use the normal way of going through a massive amount of footage,” Heilmann said.
Lightening the workload
Rather than transmit all the information through a network, another approach is to locate the computer doing analysis at the source. “You’re gonna need that amount of data to make decisions, but where you’re processing that data and where you’re moving it is not a hard requirement,” said Brett Burger, principal marketing manager at National Instruments.
National Instruments developed an intelligent sensor gateway connected to a pump. The gateway measures a number of variables, like vibrations, where it takes 50,000 samples per second. Overall, the machine produces a few megabytes per second, which can quickly add up. Instead, the gateway analyzes the data at the pump to see if there’s an issue.
The pump sends a “heartbeat” every 15 minutes to say that everything’s okay, but if an issue is detected, the gateway can send a signal to the central server requesting that an operator be sent out to inspect the fault. The gateways work with existing infrastructure, bringing aging pipeline assets into the 21st century and alerting companies to assets that require attention faster than ever before.
Even if a company reduces the amount of data it’s transmitting, infrastructure is still a big concern. If that “heartbeat” doesn’t make it back, it could spell trouble for the pipeline.
AFL develops fiber optic cables for pipelines. These cables utilize light signals, rather than traditional copper cables that carry an electric current. Because of this, these cables are fast. The Fiber Optic Association says that typical fiber systems can transmit 100 times further and over 1,000 times faster than traditional wire.
A more localized approach to data analysis may seem to make fiber optic an unnecessary expense, but there are other benefits. AFL has developed cables able to withstand extreme conditions, cryogenic temperatures as low as -321 Fahrenheit and geothermal conditions as high as 932 Fahrenheit. AFL is currently researching cables capable of even higher temperatures.
Data-collecting infrastructure
These cables are also providing data of their own. Fiber optic cables can detect changes in temperature, to a 1 meter spatial resolution in a cable over 50 kilometers. The changes can alert a company to leaks in a gas pipeline, for example, without extra monitoring equipment. This is due to the Joule-Thomson effect, which means gas stored in a pipeline cools when passing through a valve.
“What drives the demand is the utilization of fiber, not just for communications but also for sensing,” said Craig Stratton, business development manager at AFL. “You can use it to do so many different things.”
New data handling methods are enabling managers to get a better sense of the current state of pipelines, detecting issues sooner rather than later. It’s not necessarily the amount of data that will help pipelines improve efficiency, though, but rather how that data is used and where it is analyzed.
“When it comes to pipeline development, the amount of data and amount of insight we’re generating with the newest technology when it comes to pipeline inspection overall, has certainly helped reduce the risk level,” Heilmann said.
Michael Brown is a technology reporter and editor. He has written for the International Business Times and the Sunday Times in London, and holds a master of science from Columbia University School of Journalism.