PIPELINE – THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE

INTRODUCTION

Over time, man has been improving the pipeline technology with new materials, construction technologies and integrity management procedures. The ancient pipelines were constructed with pottery, bamboo, and lead. Today, 156 years after the first wooden pipeline construction in Pennsylvania and 76 year after the first Brazilian pipeline come into operation, we are seeing an exponential growth of technology! With the advent of Industry 4.0 it is expected a significative change in the pipeline industry!

NEW CONCEPTS AND MATERIALS

China, thousands of years after the first ancient pipelines made of bamboo, is developing a new Bamboo Winding Pipelines that use bamboo as reinforced materials for water transportation that owns the advantage of high compression strength, anti-corrosion, outstanding electricity & thermal insulation performance, low cost, and, even better, using renewable material (bamboo) /1/.
QuakeWrap developed the InfinitPipe and StifPipe™. InfinitPipe® is a FRP-honeycomb pipe that can be made on-site, with no joints, with the at whatever length is needed. The manufacturer states that it is a high-pressure, corrosion- resistant pipe that eliminates pipe joints. It can also be used as an internal liner for pipeline repair. The StifPipe™ was developed for repair of deteriorated pipes and culverts. It was created using a specially-designed honeycomb core and bond the carbon fabric to the outer surfaces as skin reinforcement. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has selected StifPipe® as the winner of its Innovation Award for "Best Value - Green Engineering." This achievement recognizes StifPipe® as the world's first green and sustainable pipe technology.

 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120817093046.htm

In Brazil, LTS/COPPE/UFRJ /6/ team developed the sandwich pipe that is an effective solution for transporting oil and gas in deep waters. The sandwich pipe is composed of a steel pipe inside another steel pipe (pipe in pipe) with the annular space is filled with a coating of polymeric material or with a special cement whose function is to serve as a thermal insulation. The three layers are designed to withstand combined loads.

Sandwich Pipe, http://www.lts.coppe.ufrj.br

The industry is also developing Thermoplastic composite pipes (TCP), for offshore application. Airborne Oil & Gas, for instance, has commenced a qualification programme of a TCP Riser for deep-water and dynamic applications for a major operator in South America in collaboration with Subsea7 /7/.

INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT & IoT

In addition to the development of new materials, the main change in the future pipelines is the way operators will conduct their pipeline integrity management. The way the industry does today will change drastically motivated mainly by more rigorous regulators requirements as well as by more engaged and connected citizens!

In the near future, pipelines will be fully monitored during its operational life, with respect to its structural integrity as well as flow conditions.
The SmartPipe was one of the first smart pipe concepts developed. It considers an on-line real-time reporting of the technical condition of the pipeline and the flow inside, through a combination of sensors, degradation models, and analysis tools /3/. More recently, with the IoT technologies, the concept Digital Twin concept gained strength and it is applied in many industries.

Digital Twin refers to a digital replica of a physical assets, processes and systems. The system integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning and software analytics with data to create living digital simulation models that update and change as their physical corresponding asset item changes. The digital twin will allow the operators have a complete digital track of their pipeline from the design to the end of design life.

Enbridge, Microsoft, Finger Food Studios create ‘digital twin’ to quickly and effectively visualize all of the data that’s collected and reported by in-line inspection (ILI) tools, strain gauge sensors, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) remote sensing systems.

Enbridge pipeline digital-twin, https://www.enbridge.com

As per the article information, the system augmented/mixed reality setting provides a 3D rendering of pipeline sections, processing a vast quantity of data, and present the information in three dimensions. As a result, users can better identify potential hazards in the pipe such as small dents, cracks, areas of corrosion, and pipeline strain caused by incremental ground movement.

CONCLUSION

Industry 4.0, IoT, Digital Twins and with the computer processing power doubling every two years (Moore’s Law), the industry will suffer exponential changes! Besides that, there is a growing concern with environment and the society is pushing for an energy transition. Pipeline will continue to play an important role in this scenario. But how our pipeline community is getting prepared for this scenario? What are the competences and skills our pipeline engineers will need? This is a discussion that we need to immediately as the future is now!

REFERENCES

/1/ Bamboo winding pipelines, WWF, Climate Solver, http://www.climatesolver.org/innovations/manufacturing/bamboo-winding-pipelines, accessed 14.09/2018.
/2/ Aerospace materials used to build 'endless' pipeline, accessed 14.09/2018.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120817093046.htm , accessed 14.09/2018.
/3/ SmartPipe, https://www.sintef.no/projectweb/smartpipe/objectives/ accessed 15.09/2018.
/4/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_twin, accessed 15.09/2018.
/5/ https://www.enbridge.com/stories/2018/march/virtual-reality-3d-holographic-pipeline-digital-twin, accessed 15.09/2018.
/6/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/laborat%C3%B3rio-de-tecnologia-submarina/ , accessed 15.09/2018.
/7/ https://airborneoilandgas.com/home , accessed 15.09/2018.