Automated Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) To Benefit From $103 Billion Shale Oil & Gas Investments

The shale oil and gas boom is being touted as the “bridge” to a sustainable energy future in the US. To get the US close to 100% renewable energy will take at least until 2030 and burning coal in the interim, of which there is a vast supply in the US, would wreak havoc on the environment.

Cleaner burning natural gas from shale formations is now considered our best hope for getting to 2030 in the best shape possible. However, in order for this to occur, a huge infrastructure build-out is essential.

$23 Billion Investment Underway In Louisiana

South Africa’s former state energy and chemicals company, Sasol, is gearing up to build a 3,034 acre energy complex at the Lake Charles Chemical Complex in Westlake Louisiana. The project will be the largest industrial development project ever undertaken in the US.

Sasol’s aim is to process cheap “fracked” oil and natural gas and build up pipeline and shipping infrastructure along the Gulf Coast with an estimated $21 billion investment with an additional $2 billion chipped in by the state of Louisiana.

Sasol will “crack” natural gas into liquid ethylene which is used in plastics, paints and food packaging. The company will also convert natural gas into diesel and other fuels. Over the next decade some 66 industrial projects including fertilizer plants, boron manufacturing facilities, methanol terminals, polymer plants, ammonia factories and paper making facilities will be built in Louisiana alone.

An Additional $80 Billion In Projects In The Pipeline

The well-publicized shale oil and gas boom in the United States is expected to be so big that the current nationwide infrastructure of pipelines and processing facilities is not large enough to accommodate the expected increase in volume, calling for an additional $80 billion in projects, all of which are currently on the drawing board.

Aging Infrastructure Could Derail Shale Oil & Gas Boom

Currently, the US oil and gas pipeline infrastructure includes large sections that are decades old, with some infrastructure more than a century old. This has led to recent explosions in California and New York. This aging infrastructure is counterproductive in two ways: first, resources are lost into the environment with the expense passed on to consumers and, second, contribute to the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere.

Now companies that have been developing automated Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHM), a combination of sensors, hardware and software, are being called on to help identify the most vulnerable infrastructure and monitor new infrastructure through strain gauges, transducers, amplifiers, measurement technology and more.

Automated SHM remotely and automatically measures vibration and wave propagation and uses a variety of methods to assess damage and structural health using sensors. Infrastructure is validated on a regular basis and the health of metallic, composite and new and aging infrastructure, at the micro and nano levels, are monitored.

Thus far most of the automated SHM methods have been applied to civil engineering infrastructure such as bridges, but it is now being increasingly applied to aerospace, energy, automobile, personal defense armor and now the shale oil and gas boom.

The $103 billion investment noted in this article is likely just a drop in the bucket when all is said and done, according to energy industry observers.

Tags: gas pipeline, Louisiana, structural health monitoring

This entry was posted on June 16th, 2014 and is filed under Automation, Technology, Uncategorized. Both comments and pings are currently closed.