new TECHNOLOGIES FOR NATURAL GAS OPERATIONS

Pipeline & Gas Journal, Oct, 2000

From investigating satellite imagery to improving leak detection and drilling, GRI and the Institute of Gas Technology have been the leaders in developing technologies for natural gas operations. In April 2000, the companies combined to form GAs Technology Institute (GTI). Here are some of GTI's most significant operations developments, taken from the pages of GTI's journal, GRID.

* Guided Mole Provides Simple, `Trenchless' Pipe Installations

GTI-sponsored research to reduce the need for trenching has resulted in the introduction of the Guided Mole, a low-cast, steerable, horizontal ground-piercing device used for new pipe installations.

Early in 2000, TT Technologies, Inc. (Aurora, Ill.)--a major manufacturer of ground-boring equipment--introduced commercial units under the Grundosteer[TM] tradename to join its line of Grundomat piercing tools. Digital Control Inc. (Renton, Wash.), a leader in location and tracking technology, produces the tool's guidance system.

The tool was developed as part of GTI's program to introduce "trenchless" technologies for natural gas distribution operations. With the Guided Mole, utility crews create precise underground pathways for pipe installations, thus avoiding major ground-breaking, trenching, excavation, and restoration activities required with more traditional installation methods. (The cost of restoring landscapes and pavements alone can account for up to 75 percent of the cost of a typical open-trench installation.)

The Guided Mole is priced competitively with the typical guided drilling machine. GTI estimates that even if the product has a market impact of only one percent in the year 2000, it could provide savings to the utility industry of up to $1 million.

"Obviously, considerable savings result from only having to dig a few holes, rather than trenching," explains Renny Norman, GTI Principal Product Development Manager. "However, underground boring is a much more sophisticated procedure than simple trenching. With the advanced technologies developed specifically for the Guided Mole, researchers were able to make the tool both steerable and simple to operate."

In operation, entrance and exit pits are usually created for the launch and retrieval of the pneumatically powered impact tool. (However, the tool has added flexibility in that surface launch and retrieval can also be used.) Onboard sensors providing pitch and roll information, and a handheld, aboveground locating device tracks the position and movement of the tool. Operators, noting when the tool begins to move off the planned course, correct its path by rotating the pneumatic hose tethered to the tool to provide the proper alignment of the tool body with the device's specially designed off-center steering head.

The three-inch-diameter tool was developed under GTI sponsorship by Foster-Miller, Inc., to address the need to improve operations related to installing residential service lines and small distribution mains (less than four inches in diameter), which account for the majority of most utilities' pipe installations.

Depending on soil conditions and borehole size, the Guided Mole has demonstrated the ability to bore on-course up to 150 feet.

"For our company, this tool is an absolute necessity," says George Ragula, Distribution Technology Manager for Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G) in New Jersey. "No one tool can be used for every pipe installation situation; we need a variety of tools and technologies. However, in PSE&G's highly urban service area, the Guided Mole serves us well due to its simplicity and ease of operation."

PSE&G was one of several utilities to test the Guided Mole for GTI. However, since receiving a prototype in 1997, use of the tool has become part of the company's common practice. PSE&G has used the Guided Mole for more than 5,000 feet of pipe in more than 50 installations under streets and highways, parking lots, stream crossings, and landscaped areas. In 10 jobs alone, the company saved more than $32,000 in labor and restoration costs.

Adds Ragula: "The use of this tool has proven to be effective in safely and reliably reducing costs while enhancing customer satisfaction."

* Companies Finding Leaks Faster with OMD

In Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Toronto, and other areas of North America, crews are speeding up the process of natural gas leak detection with the advanced technology built into the Optical Methane Detector[TM] (OMD), a product from the GTI program that entered the market in 1908.

With the (OMD) mounted on the front of utility vehicles, crews are accurately detecting methane leaks while traveling at normal traffic speeds. Field demonstrations--and, now, studies of real-life practice--show that mobile leak surveys using the OMD can be conducted up to four times faster than surveys using traditional methods (e.g., flame ionization detection, which limits speeds to 3 to 7 mph). The results are overall productivity improvements of 20 to 50 percent or more. Even at higher speeds, the OMD has shown the ability to respond to one-part-per-million (ppm) of methane or less.