During MITO project - Magnetic Inspection TOols for pipelines – an innovative technique for pipeline integrity inspection has been developed.
In the last decades many accidents occurred due to not detected pipelines defect; detecting the integrity of pipelines is thus an important task for the Oil & Gas industry. One of the most important inspection and cleaning techniques is the so called “pigging”. “Pigs” are devices that are inserted into and travel throughout the length of a pipeline. Modern Intelligent Pigs (I-PIGS) are highly sophisticated instruments composed of sensors, data collecting systems and power supply units. The I-PIGS have thus large dimensions and weight (up to 3 meters length and 3000 kg weight).
In this project we performed a modeling and experimental feasibility study of a light PIG that can detect defects in the pipeline keeping low the operative risk, i.e. it does not obstruct hydrocarbons flow in case of PIG stuck in the pipe. Detection technique is based on magnetic induction.
For this scope we studied:
- materials that can dissolve in the hydrocarbons after a certain period of time;
- power generation through electromagnet instead of permanent magnet;
- high sensitive magnetic flux sensor;
- innovative sensing architecture.
Further technical details can not be disclosed in this context because we are protecting the IP (patent pending).
