Pig Mounted Trials for Internal Corrosion Monitoring Fluidized Sensors

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• Onshore Transmission Pipeline
• Gas Pipeline

Main Objective

Because of the successful development of a low-cost, easy to use, prototype fluidized sensor system that is capable of locating areas of water accumulation and internal corrosion in both piggable and non-piggable lines, field trials in operating pipelines is the next crucial step in refining the sensor and obtaining industry and regulator acceptance and adoption. Since this methodology has the potential to significantly reduce the discovery time and cost of detecting internal corrosion as compared to the use of existing expensive inspection techniques for identifying internal corrosion sites, keen interest has been expressed by numerous pipeline operating companies to conduct field trials. The objective of this project is to build upon a soon to be completed PHMSA project that developed the prototype system by conducting a series of validation field trials.

Public Abstract

Determining the presence and corrosivity of water is an important component of internal corrosion direct assessment of pipelines. The currently available inspection techniques are limited because some cannot be applied to all pipelines and others require prior knowledge of where to locate the sensors and require costly pipeline excavation to emplace the sensors. Recently a mobile corrosion sensor technology integrated to a wireless network platform, called motes, has been developed and tested. The technology represents a paradigm shift in monitoring the oil and gas infrastructure with respect to internal corrosion. The goasl of this project is to build upon previous efforts that have led to the development and testing of functional prototype sensor systems by conducting additional validation trials on operating pipeline systems. By conducting additional field trials, industry and regulator acceptance of this methodology for assessing the risk of internal corrosion will be enhanced and possible improvements to the eventual commercialized system will be identified. The project will be conducted by a team consisting of DNV and Aginova (commercialization partner). The project will be co-funded by Southern Union (Panhandle). Other pipeline companies, such as Dominion, have also expressed interest in participating.

Quarterly Status Reports

1st Quarterly Status Report - Public Page

DTPH56-09-T-000001Q1PublicPage.doc (33,792 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

2nd Quarterly Status Report - Public Page

DTPH56-09-T-000001Q2PublicPage.doc (33,792 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]