A new pipeline repair technology has proven capable of preventing gas leaks and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by an impressive 95% compared to the standard practice of releasing pipeline contents into the atmosphere. This achievement is equivalent to shutting down 1,760 gas boilers for a year or removing 1,000 vehicles from the roads.
National Gas UK, owner and operator of more than 7,600 km of subway pipelines, has successfully implemented STATS Group’ s Remote Tecno Plug® (RTP) technology on a recent project near St Cyrus, Scotland.
RTP: pipeline repair technology
The RTP was tested in order to reduce emissions produced during pipeline isolation, an essential process to prevent leaks while upgrading and maintenance work is being carried out. Traditionally, this required reducing the amount of gas in the pipeline through recompression and then releasing the remaining gas to the atmosphere.
The application of Remote Tecno Plug® technology has not only made it possible to carry out the work faster and without leaks, improving safety, but has also achieved a significant reduction in the total emission of greenhouse gases.
It was estimated that conventional ventilation techniques would have emitted 233 tons of gas. However, the use of this technology reduced emissions to just 9.5 tons, saving not only the release of gas into the atmosphere, but also offering significant economic savings of more than £100,000 in un-wasted gas.
National Gas policy update
It is worth noting that this success has motivated the company to National Gas to adopt a policy that encourages the use of RTP technology in future insulation projects across the UK, with the potential for these tools to be adopted by individual gas distribution networks in the future.
As the UK moves towards meeting its legal obligation to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 in response to climate change, gas remains an essential component of the country’s energy security, making it resilient to peaks in demand or pressures on the system.
Kirsty McDermott, senior engineer at National Gas, highlighted that the use of plugs such as the RTP can drastically reduce emissions for temporary pipeline isolations, with this project achieving reductions of up to 24 times compared to traditional recompression methods.
Neil Mackay, senior business development manager for the STATS Group, noted that this was the first use of its innovative pipeline insulation technology in the National Transmission System. Following the success of the project, National Gas will update its policies to make the use of isolation tools standard practice, which will reduce barriers, increase efficiency and allow more critical maintenance work to be completed.
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Source: worldpipelines.com
Photo: shutterstock
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