EDMONTON - Edmonton-based Synodon Inc., which has used its helicopter-mounted detection system to check natural gas pipelines for 15 companies over the past three years, is starting to add oil pipelines to its repertoire.
The realSens device was built to detect vapour plumes, which are tiny emissions of gases. Earlier this year, the firm completed field trials in Alberta and Arizona to perfect the detection of pentanes, gasoline and condensates used in bitumen. And Synodon just signed a contract with Suncor Energy to survey the oilsands pipeline that was built in 1966 to carry synthetic oil from Fort McMurray to Edmonton.
“This is a whole new parallel business to our natural gas pipeline business, and there is no competition for us on the oil side with realSens,” said chief executive Adrian Banica.
Natural gas firms are content with annual line inspections, but Banica said oil firms are now very sensitive about any spill.
“No spill is acceptable, so there is the impetus for oil pipeline firms to buy our service more frequently, to fly over their line once a month or perhaps once every three months at the most,” he said, adding that this will change the business outlook for his firm.
Synodon has one $800,000 detector, and has the material to construct a second. Its helicopter will fly between 500 and 600 kilometres per day, at 100 km/h and an altitude of 300 metres. Their helicopter is inspecting pipelines all over Canada and the U.S.
“We are getting really good traction in the U.S. with this technology, and that is a big market. They also have an older network, have a bit more aggressive regulations on pipelines, and they do seem to have more issues than we do.”
Banica said realSens can detect a spill of just 10 barrels per day, even underground, as the vapours disperse to the surface. That is more than 100 times more sensitive than the current detection practices.
“Companies now do mass balancing, measuring pressure (and) flow past a point and temperature. And from that they calculate the volume,” he said.
The points may be 100 kilometres apart, so they will know they have a significant leak somewhere in that stretch, but that is really rupture detection because the changes have to be large enough — at least one per cent of change — to be measured.
“They also fly over their lines looking for big black spots, but only five per cent of leaks are detected this way,” said Banica.
The vast majority of spills are reported by landowners or residents, which is “the worst kind of situation for the company,” he added.
The realSens system works by measuring 55,000 wavelengths of light reflected from the ground. Methane, for example, absorbs invisible long-wave red light, and the system measures that.
Other firms offer a system using laser beams to accomplish a similar end, but targeting the narrow beams which cover only a few metres is more difficult than the realSens method, which relies on sunlight and covers a 64-metre width, said Banica.
The science behind the realSens gas detection system is found in NASA’s terra satellite, which is a key piece of the Earth Observation System. Canada’s Space Agency spent $40 million on it, and Synodon spent a further $10 million.
The sensor carried under the helicopter is kept chilled to -200 C with liquid nitrogen, which must be added before each flight. The cold prevents heat from the sensor altering the readings.
Banica and his firm have been working on this technology for more than a decade, and have managed to raise several million dollars from “angel” investors in Edmonton.
“We got very little from Calgary, where they are centred on their own deals. But surprisingly there is a ton of money in this city available for local stories, and we have been very successful attracting local angel investors,” he said.