Pipeline firms collaborate on leak detection

Companies funding research on aircraft-mounted technology

C-FER Technologies of Edmonton will conduct lab and field testing of instruments that can be flown over buried pipelines to detect small leaks of crude oil and other hydrocarbon liquids.

The testing is on behalf of Enbridge Pipelines, TransCanada Corporation and Kinder Morgan Canada.

The pipeline operators announced this week they are collaborating on the safety initiative, with each contributing $200,000. The companies are already jointly funding other leak-detection research at C-FER.

The goal of the new project is to identify aircraft-mounted technologies that are best suited to detecting small leaks from liquid petroleum pipelines.

“The whole intent is to detect the leaks before they reach the surface,” Brian Wagg, C-FER’s director of business development and planning, said Thursday.

“It’s not so much can you see an oil leak, but how small of a leak can you actually see — how fast can we catch these things.”

Infrared camera-based systems, laser-based spectroscopy systems and flame ionization detection systems are among the technologies to be tested.

An initial aim is to detect leaks as small as 10 barrels at a flow rate of one litre per minute. Ultimately, the researchers hope to detect leaks as small as a single barrel. The best solution may prove to be a combination of airborne technologies, Wagg said.

Lab research and field trials to evaluate commercially available systems will likely begin this fall. A testing facility will be built allowing instruments mounted on a tower to monitor leaks in a simulated pipeline. Later tests would see instruments mounted on aircraft.

Data collected by C-FER will be analyzed by its parent, Alberta Innovates — Technology Futures, and shared with the pipeline operators and the companies that supply the technology being tested.

Research engineer Corey Drake, who is managing the project for C-FER, said 14 or 15 companies have expressed interest in having their technologies evaluated.

Adrian Banica, president of Edmonton-based Synodon, Inc. hopes his company’s technology will be considered. Most of Synodon’s aerial detection work has been on natural gas pipelines, but the company is moving into detection of leaks in oil pipelines.

“We hope not only that we participate in these trials, but also that we can provide some of our expertise on how these trials can be conducted to make them representative of real-life situations,” Banica said.

This week, Synodon announced it has signed a three-year deal with an existing customer to monitor oil pipeline infrastructure and a smaller natural gas network. The value of the contract could exceed $750,000, Banica said. dhowell@edmontonjournal.com Twitter: HowellEJ